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Are there Official Rules for Comma Placement?


In this answer, the linguist John Lawler gave the following advice concerning comma placement:



If you would use that intonation in speaking, write a comma. Otherwise don't.



This sounds like as if one could decide for oneself when to use a comma and when not. But I have seen many punctuation guides on the internet that list rules of comma placement (in english). That is why I wonder whether these rules are kind of official rules or just some conventions.




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