The Problem of Punctuation in Modern English

The problem of punctuation in
Modern English
Performed by
Nina Tsubera
Gr. ЛA-73
Definition of the punctuation
 “A code, used in writing, that is often necessary for meaning and

emphasis. The code originated in attempts to capture, in text, the
various stops, pauses, and inflections of speech. Today it is logical
in application. Lauchman’s first definition probably sums up the
situation quite well” Richard Lauchman
 “The usage of symbols such as full stops, periods,commas,question
marks to devide written words into sentences and clauses” Collins
dictionary
Classification of punctuation
The punctuation has been interpreted in two parallel ways
rhetorical grammatical
is used to show the emphasis or show the grammatical structure of
tone we want to give to a word or the sentence, illustrate the
word-group. boundary-marking role.
e.g. You must go to the school e.g. Private. No swimming allowed.
Private? No. Swimming allowed.
The punctuation mark specifies a grammatical, semantic, or
pragmatic function, sometimes in addition to the marking of separation.
They are useful in organising writing, indicating sentence structure and
in making readers understand what writers are trying to say.
Punctuation marks that have the biggest influence on
the linguistic features in the writing are:
 Comma  Brackets
 Semicolon  Apostrophe
 Colon  Slash
 Full stop  Capitals
 Question  Bold
 Exclamation  Underline
 Hyphen  Italics
 Dash  Ellipsis
 Parenthesis  Space
Capital letters
Used to indicate the first word of a E.g. I called Elizabeth, who is

sentence. Capitalization is almost always
Queen of England, on Monday
used after a full stop.
for names, titles, days of the week,

months of the year, cities, counties,
countries.
Full stop
 E.g. The weather was too cold.

to help end a sentence.
 Ms C. Brown, A. M. Clarke;
after initials and abbreviations  Dr. Filler, Prof. Cook
 etc. – etcetera
after titles
 She asked me where her bag was.
after shortenings of words and
Latin shortenings
after an indirect question

Exclamation mark Question mark
to add emphasis, especially in to indicate a question. We use

informal writing. For example: a question mark only after a direct
Stop! question
Wait! E.g. Will you marry me?

Don’t touch me! Is it sunny?
What a beautiful day!
Did you take your umbrella?
Comma
are used in a sentence to offer a shorter pause than a full stop  E.g. She buys chocolate, banana, milk);
to avoid confusion to separate words and word groups with a  She felt a happy, excited and slightly
series of three or more scared;
a to separate two adjectives when the word and can be inserted  Mary Felix was a lonely, young girl;
between them  Will you, Margaret, marry me?
when an -ly adjective is used with other adjectives  He, as you know, broke up with Marina;
before or surrounding the name or title of a person directly
 If it rains, I won't go anywhere
addressed
 Alex, who broke his leg, was dancing
with that girl);
to set off expressions that interrupt the flow of the sentence
 She actually begged me, ‘‘Help me,
after sentence with a weak clause; please”);
after phrases of more than three words that begin a sentence
Colon Semi-colon
 to introduce lists  to separate two main clauses
 to indicate a subtitle of a book,  before introductory words
film
such as namely, however,
 to introduce direct speech
therefore, that is, i.e., for
 between two strong clauses
(sentences) when the second
example, e.g., or for
clause explains or illustrates the instance when they
first clause and no coordinating introduce a complete
conjunction is being used to sentence
connect the clauses.
Quotation mark
If a quotation occurs within another quotation, we

 to set off a direct can use single quotation marks.
Single quotation marks can be used

quotation only
 around titles of books.
e.g. Sam said: “Please  to emphasis a word and to imply there might be
some ambiguity about the word’s meaning. [7]
buy some bananas when For example:
 She said to my dad, “Rachel said, ‘Buy the
you go the market” flowers’”
 Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber’.
Apostrophe
 marks the possessive case

 e.g. Anna’s bag, Nina’s car, the
sisters’ jobs.
 marks the omission of a letter in  aren’t, haven’t,
various instances, including  B’ham for Birmingham
contractions, common shortenings,  rock ‘n’ roll
in informal words and phrases  the a’s or the x’s).
 when pluralising single letters
 ’70s
 when shortening decades

Hyphen Dash
 between two or more adjectives when
en-dash em-dash
they come before a noun and act as a single
idea. For example: friendly-looking man En-dash is used for periods of time when you might
 Compound verbs are either hyphenated otherwise use to. Examples:
or appear as one word. We should look up in The years 2001–2003
the dictionary to know what to do with them.
January–June
 When adverbs that have not ending -ly
are used as compound words in front of a
Em-dash may replace commas, colons, and
noun, we use hyphens. parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an

 numbers from twenty-one through interruption,. Examples:
ninety-nine and all spelled-out fractions. I have never met such a smart person—before you.
Parentheses and Brackets
Parentheses are used to Square brackets are used for an aside

enclose words or figures that by the author and are often used
clarify or are used as an aside. in formal academic writing or

newspaper reports to cut out
For example:
unnecessary words from a quotation or
I gave her some money ($200). to clarify an omission. For example:
The meal included meat, […] bread and
wine
Ellipsis Points Slash
To show an ellipsis at the end of a  to express genuine alternatives,

sentence, indicating that a statement was e.g.Your homework is to write essay/thesis
not finished, we simply use three ellipsis and present them the examiner.
points. For example:
 to show when a unit for a physical
The keyboard’s main uses, for local quantity is divided by a unit for another
operation and for programming, ... [11] physical quantity.
e.g. m/s = metre(s) per second; rev/min =

revolutions per minute
 Underlining
The most common use for underlining is to emphasise a word in a manuscript or in a typescript that
has just one typeface (e.g.. showed after the significance test that the true value was ... ).
Bold
Bold can be used effectively to emphasise a word or wordgroup in continuous text, and can be
especially useful for drawing attention to difficulties.
Italic
Italic type can also be used to give emphasis to a word or word-group. Italic type is used
conventionally by publishing houses to show up the titles of books and journals
Conclusion
Punctuation is an essential part of English language and has influence on comprehension of text.
Punctuation marks are integral parts of writing. It was defined that punctuation serves two main
purposes: separation and specification. The punctuation mark specifies a grammatical, semantic, or
pragmatic function, sometimes in addition to the marking of separation.
Punctuation marks have no independent meaning of their own, but have big influence on
understanding of text. Punctuation is helpful in making readers understand what writers are trying to
say.

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The problem of punctuation in

 “A code, used in writing, that is often necessary for meaning and

 Full stop  Capitals

Used to indicate the first word of a E.g. I called Elizabeth, who is

for names, titles, days of the week,

 E.g. The weather was too cold.

after an indirect question

to add emphasis, especially in to indicate a question. We use

Wait! E.g. Will you marry me?

If a quotation occurs within another quotation, we

Single quotation marks can be used

 marks the possessive case

 when shortening decades

noun, we use hyphens. parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an

Parentheses are used to Square brackets are used for an aside

clarify or are used as an aside. in formal academic writing or

To show an ellipsis at the end of a  to express genuine alternatives,

e.g. m/s = metre(s) per second; rev/min =

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