Learn English – Parenthetical sentence (double commas) followed by definition in parenthesis – where to put commas

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I am working with legal texts a lot and I was wondering about the following phrase that will show up in most US related prospectuses:

"according to the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, the Securities…."

However, if we define this as "the Act", where do we put the definition in parenthesis? In the parenthetical sentence with "as amended" (Version 1) or after the comma after "as amended" (Version 2):

Version 1: "according to the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Act"), the Securities…."

Version 2: "according to the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "Act") the Securities…."

Can you please tell me which one you think is correct?

I can tell you now that Version 1 is the one I see everywhere, but to me Version 2 makes more sense.

For example, if I write "My house, which is adjacent to another house, is nice," then if I put the definition after the last comma, I define my house. If I put the definition between the commas, I define the adjacent house. ("My house, which is adjacent to another house, (the 'House') is nice" vs. "My house, which is adjacent to another house (the 'House'), is nice."). Please assume that these two options are the only options available to me.

The same would be in the case of "XYZ Inc., a company organized under the laws of India and with registration number 123456 in the local trade registry, (the 'Entity') is …." If I place the definition on the wrong side of the comma, I am defining the registry instead of XYZ Inc.

Thanks for your help!

Best Answer

Because your legal example is a sentence fragment, it's hard to be sure. More clear is the example about your house. To me,

"My house, which is adjacent to another house, (the 'House') is nice" is wrong because, as you say, "(the 'House')" goes with "another house".

I would either write

"My house, which is adjacent to another house (the 'House'), is nice"

as in your other example, or I would have commas on both sides to match the natural pauses you would include when speaking the sentence aloud:

"My house, which is adjacent to another house, (the 'House'), is nice"

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