I agree with Parla (in #4) and I have a question for you about my context:
Yesterday I read a sentence and it goes like:
The hot pot in Chongqing is very hot, spicy and peppery, but it attracts many more people than the milder style in Guangdong.
I read many threads about this serial comma, and I found that AE speakers tend to use it to avoid misunderstanding even if the meaning is clear. While BE speakers don't do that quite often. Of course, a native speaker also said "BE speakers do that more frequently because they are influenced by AE speakers currently." Anyway, my question is: do I need to add a comma after "spicy"?
Thoughts:
I don't think it's needed for two reasons:
1)If I don't add a comma, when I am saying this to someone, they might understand in this way "....is very hot: spicy and peppery", if they have never tried this kind of food, they will consider hot pot is hot and hot means "spicy and peppery". But hot means "high temperature" and "spicy" and "spicy", "peppery" means something else, so if I include "hot", the meaning is clearly not "spicy" but "high temperature". So when I say this to my listeners, they'll understand the hot pot has high temperature, spicy and peppery.
2)If I write this, I'll choose a "dash" or ":" if I want to say "hot" means "spicy" and "peppery". I am a fan of Scienticfic America and I see the editors there use dash to explain what they are about to say rather than a comma.
May I have your opinion?
Thanks a lot