Punctuation
Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks (listed at right), inter-word spaces, capitalization, and indentation.[1]
Punctuation marks are symbols that correspond to neither phonemes (sounds) of a language nor to lexemes (words and phrases), but which serve to indicate the structure and organization of writing, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading it aloud. See orthography.
In English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "Woman, without her man, is nothing." and "Woman: without her, man is nothing." have greatly different meanings, as do "Eats shoots and leaves" and "Eats, shoots and leaves".[2]
The rules of punctuation vary with language, location, register, and time, and are constantly evolving. Certain aspects of punctuation are stylistic, and thus the author's (or editor's) choice. Tachygraphic language forms, such as those used in online chat and text messages, may have wildly different rules.
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History of punctuation
The earliest writing had no capitalization, no spaces, and no punctuation marks. So long as it was restricted to a limited range of topics (initially, recording business transactions), this worked. Expanding the use of writing to more abstract concepts required some way to disambiguate meanings. Until the eighteenth century, punctuation was principally an aid to reading aloud; after that time its development was as a mechanism for ensuring that the text made sense when read silently.[1]
The oldest document that uses punctuation is the Mesha Stele (9th century BC) with points between the words and horizontal strokes between the sense section.
The Greeks (circa 5th century BC) were using punctuation marks consisting of vertically arranged dots, usually two (c.f. the modern colon) or three. Greek playwrights (e.g. Euripides and Aristophanes) used symbols to distinguish the ends of phrases in written drama: essentially helping the play's cast to know when to pause. In particular, they used three different symbols to divide speeches into three lengths, known as commas (indicated by a centred dot), colons (indicated by a dot on the base line), and periods (indicated by a raised dot).
The Romans (circa 1st century BC) also adopted symbols to indicate pauses.
Punctuation developed dramatically when large numbers of copies of the Christian Bible started to be produced. These were designed to be read aloud and the copyists began to introduce a range of marks to aid the reader, including indentation, various punctuation marks, and an early version of initial capitals. St Jerome and his colleagues, who produced the Vulgate translation of the Bible into Latin, developed an early system (circa 400 AD); this was considerably improved on by Alcuin. The marks included the virgule (forward slash) and a dots in different locations: centred in the line, raised, or in groups.
The use of punctuation was not standardized until after the invention of printing. Credit for introducing a standard system is generally given to Aldus Manutius and his grandson. They popularized the practice of ending sentences with the colon or full stop, invented the semicolon, made occasional use of parentheses, and created the modern comma by lowering the virgule.[2]
Other languages
Other European languages use much the same punctuation as English. The similarity is so strong that the few variations confuse a naïve English reader. Quotation marks are particularly variable across European languages. For example, in French, quotes would appear as: «Je suis fatigué.» In Greek, the question mark is written as a sign resembling the English semi-colon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (·), known as the ano teleia (άνω τελεία).
Arabic — written from right to left — uses a reversed question mark: ؟.
Originally Sanskrit had no punctuation. In the 1600s, Sanskrit and Marathi, both written in the Devanagari script, started using the vertical bar (|) to end a line of a prose and double vertical bars (||) to end the verse.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean did not use punctuation before the modern era. The grammatical structure of sentences in classical writing is inferred from context. Most punctuation marks in modern Chinese, Japanese, and Korean have similar functions to their English counterparts; however, they often look different and have different customary rules.
- Further information: East Asian Punctuation
Ethiopian languages, including Amharic, Tigrinya, Ge'ez, and Afaan Oromo, make use of these punctuation marks: space (፡), comma (፣), sentence end (።), semicolon (፤), colon (፥), preface colon (፦), question mark (፧), paragraph separator (፨).
Novel punctuation marks
A European patent application was filed, and published in 1992 under WO number WO9219458,[3] for two new punctuation marks: the "question comma" and the "exclamation comma". As of 2006 no patent has been issued for them, though.
Unicode
Apart from the ASCII punctuation marks in its Basic Latin range
- !"'()*,-./:;<>?[\]`{|}~
Unicode has the General Punctuation (U+2000–206F) and Supplemental Punctuation (U+E000–E0FF) ranges.
General Punctuation Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
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U+ | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
2000 | | | | | | |||||||||||
2010 | ‐ | ‑ | ‒ | – | — | ― | ‖ | ‗ | ‘ | ’ | ‚ | ‛ | “ | ” | „ | ‟ |
2020 | † | ‡ | • | ‣ | ․ | ‥ | … | ‧ | | | | | | |||
2030 | ‰ | ‱ | ′ | ″ | ‴ | ‵ | ‶ | ‷ | ‸ | ‹ | › | ※ | ‼ | ‽ | ‾ | ‿ |
2040 | ⁀ | ⁁ | ⁂ | ⁃ | ⁄ | ⁅ | ⁆ | ⁇ | ⁈ | ⁉ | ⁊ | ⁋ | ⁌ | ⁍ | ⁎ | ⁏ |
2050 | ⁐ | ⁑ | ⁒ | ⁓ | ⁔ | ⁕ | ⁖ | ⁗ | ⁘ | ⁙ | ⁚ | ⁛ | ⁜ | ⁝ | ⁞ | |
2060 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Supplemental Punctuation Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
||||||||||||||||
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U+ | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
E000 | ⸀ | ⸁ | ⸂ | ⸃ | ⸄ | ⸅ | ⸆ | ⸇ | ⸈ | ⸉ | ⸊ | ⸋ | ⸌ | ⸍ | ⸎ | ⸏ |
E010 | ⸐ | ⸑ | ⸒ | ⸓ | ⸔ | ⸕ | ⸖ | ⸗ | ⸘ | ⸙ | ⸚ | ⸛ | ⸜ | ⸝ | ⸞ | ⸟ |
E020 | ⸠ | ⸡ | ⸢ | ⸣ | ⸤ | ⸥ | ⸦ | ⸧ | ⸨ | ⸩ | ⸪ | ⸫ | ⸬ | ⸭ | ⸮ | ⸯ |
References
- ^ a b Todd, Loreto (2000). The Cassell Guide to Punctuation. Cassell, ISBN 978-0304349616.
- ^ a b Truss, Lynne (2003). Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-612-7.
- ^ European Patent Office publication
- Allen, Robert (2002-07-25). Punctuation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860439-4.
- Amis, Kingsley (1998-03-02). The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-638746-2.
- Fowler, Henry Watson; Francis George Fowler [1906] (June 2002). The King's English. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860507-2.
- Gowers, Ernest (1948). Plain Words: a guide to the use of English. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- (1993). . University of California Press. 0-520-07941-8.
See also
External links
- Larry Trask: Guide to Punctuation A helpful online resource
- Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization – a comprehensive online guide by NASA
- Unicode reference tables:
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Aa | Bb | Cc | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Ww | Xx | Yy | Zz | |
history • palaeography • derivations • diacritics • punctuation • numerals • Unicode • list of letters
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