punctuation

No, the comma isn't necessary.

but it doesn't hurt.

Thanks, Jack.

I think it is either needed or not? I stand corrected.

-Lynn Truss

Lynn, Truss, can, stuff, it, up, her, truss; I, like, commas, and, I, will, put, them, in, wherever, I, damned, well, please,,,,,,,,,.

Just for the fun of it:

1. THE FATAL COMMA
Czarina Maria Fyodorovna once saved the life of a man by transposing a single comma in a warrant signed by her husband, Alexander III, which exiled a criminal to imprisonment and death in Siberia. On the bottom of the warrant the czar had written: `Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.' The czarina changed the punctuation so that her husband's instructions read: `Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.' The man was set free.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. THE BLASPHEMOUS COMMA
In several editions of the King James Bible, Luke 23:32 is changed entirely by the absence of a comma. In the passage that describes the other men crucified with Christ, the erroneous editions read: `And there were also two other malefactors.' Instead of counting Christ as a malefactor, the passage should read: `And there were also two other, malefactors.'


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. THE MILLION-DOLLAR COMMA
The US government lost at least a million dollars through the slip of a comma. In the tariff act passed on June 6, 1872, a list of duty-free items included: `Fruit plants, tropical and semitropical'. A government clerk accidentally altered the line to read: `Fruit, plants tropical and semitropical'. Importers successfully contended that the passage, as written, exempted all tropical and semitropical plants from duty fees. This cost the US a fortune until May 9, 1874, when the passage was amended to plug the hole.

Lynn Truss has, with this one sentence, pretty much defined herself as untrustworthy source.

Clearly a comma there is a possibility, Ms Tan. I wouldn't use one, [and this is important, vitally so] in the situation my mind envisions but I have to allow that there are other situations.

In the event that I've seen this correctly;
"I stand corrected" means that I've already received the correction and I acknowledge it.

You might mean, "I'm not sure what I've stated is accurate so I'm willing to be corrected".

In the event that I haven't, my apologies, Ms Tan.

It changes the meaning a bit, to my way of thinking.

1. The daughter lived in a place where there was a very big courtyard, in which there were many different species of plants and flowers.

This emphasises the existence of the courtyard

2. The daughter lived in a place where there was a very big courtyard in which there were many different species of plants and flowers.

This emphasises the plants and flowers.

To me the first sentence emphasises that the plants and flowers (along with a courtyard) were in the place where the daughter lived, whereas the second one says that the plants and flowers were in the courtyard. (Aren't flowers plants, by the way?)