Comma before "as well as"

The easiest way to get a handle on things like this is to simplify the sentence. Ex:

"Kite flying on the top of Mount Everest" and "playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil" are phrases acting as nouns. These are the things Jane (subject) enjoys (predicate - verb). So simplify the nouns.

Jane enjoys cake as well as ice cream.

Now you can see that no comma is needed.


Note: this case has nothing to so with restrictive and non-restrictive.

You're welcome, Amy. Keep being artsy.

guttersquid said:

Jane enjoys cake as well as ice cream.

Now you can see that no comma is needed.

Click to expand...

Grammatically, you are correct. But semantically you've introduced the exact ambiguity ArtsyAmy was trying to avoid: this can be read to mean that Jane likes ice cream the same amount that she likes cake. A comma, while not grammatically necessary, disambiguates the meaning:

Jane enjoys cake, as well as ice cream.

But it might be better to find a phrase less ambiguous than "as well as." Is any meaning lost if you simply say "Jane enjoys cake and ice cream"? If you're trying to emphasize the variety of things she enjoys, "everything from cake to ice cream" (some will criticize this construction, but it's a well-understood idiom) or "such disparate things as cake and ice cream" might work; however, even in this case, a simple "and" between two dissimilar things gets the point across. If you just say "Jane enjoys crocheting and mud wrestling," readers will get the point that her interests are pretty diverse without you needing to lead them there with special phrasing.

WWWalt said:

Grammatically, you are correct. But semantically you've introduced the exact ambiguity ArtsyAmy was trying to avoid: this can be read to mean that Jane likes ice cream the same amount that she likes cake. A comma, while not grammatically necessary, disambiguates the meaning:

Jane enjoys cake, as well as ice cream.

Click to expand...

Even if a comma were correct, which it isn't, it would not correct any ambiguity that might exist.

guttersquid said:

Jane enjoys cake as well as ice cream.

.

Click to expand...

Talk about a sentence that is as muddled as a sentence can get. You can read this sentence with at least two completely different meaning, and neither is correct.

I would just avoid "as well as" altogether. Not only is it ambiguous, but I've always thought it sounds clunky, and it doesn't really serve a unique purpose. It can be replaced with other words without losing any real meaning in the sentence.

Jane enjoys kite flying on the top of Mount Everest as well as playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.

could be...

Jane enjoys kite flying on top of Mount Everest and playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.

Jane enjoys a wide variety of things, from flying kites on top of Mount Everest to playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.

Sorry. It's not an answer to the question so much as a way to circumvent the question altogether.

I like cake as much as I do ice cream too.

I like dogs and beer.
I like dogs, and beer.
I like dogs ... and beer.

Jane enjoys kite flying on the top of Mount Everest as well as playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.
Jane enjoys kite flying on the top of Mount Everest, as well as playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.
Jane enjoys kite flying on the top of Mount Everest ... as well as playing Monopoly in the best partying cities of Brazil.

Isn't the comma (just like the elipsis) before the coordinator acting to subtly change the emphasis by introducing a pause? Why wouldn't either be correct? Especially when breaking down a more complex sentence like the OP's?