Dear teacher,
Robert Bigelow, who heads an aerospace company in Nevada, has announced a $50 million "Bigelow Prize" for launching a vehicle into orbit by the end of the decade. And NASA announced last June that it had created a "Centennial Challenges" office to sponsor competitions to solve some of the persistent problems of space exploration, with prizes in the millions of dollars, although the details are still sketchy.
Q : Why is the comma used before "with.."? I think it doesn't need to be used because the phrase "with prizes...dollars" modifies "solve" as an adverbial phrase. What do you think?
All the best, :)
Why is a comma used there?
Moderator: Alan
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No, the comma is there because 'with...dollars' refers back to the earlier phrase 'has created...office'. Of course the adverbial in this case is not instrumental but a more loosely related phrase specifying the concomitant conditions/circumstances of the act (i.e. similar to saying 'with regard to which which there will be prizes...').