What, if anything, is the difference between the following:

• He is getting a second professional opinion.
  
• He is getting a second, professional opinion.

I would read those differently. The first I would take as meaning that the first opinion he got was professional and the second as meaning that it wasn’t.
By the way shu did you see the poems I sent to you in a pm?

That’s how I read them also. (Sometimes I fret over putting a comma after “professional” in the second one.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: haberdasher,

I agree with Bob and Haberdasher.

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
That’s how I read them also. (Sometimes I fret over putting a comma after “professional” in the second one.)

I agree. If I wrote it with the second meaning I'd put another comma after professional too. They also have notably different stress patterns when I say them.

I agree with Bob, Geoff and Hab. It is interesting that commas can make such a difference.