limited almost exclusively to the following marks: period (with group of periods), interrogation point, exclamation point, colon, semicolon, comma, dash (of whatever length), curves, brackets, quotation marks, division hyphen, compounding hyphen, and apostrophe.

Attention will be directed to the use of these marks in recent English prose written primarily for silent reading, and to body matter, as opposed to title-pages, headings of all kinds, legends, inscriptions, and display matter in general. Liturgical, oratorical, and of course mathematical pointing are entirely apart from the present purpose.

Paragraphing and the use of capitals and italic are not punctuation in the customary sense; but they serve purposes in large degree similar to those of punctuation marks. The paragraph is a sort of super-punctuation, and capitals, like italic, are an indication of grouping or meaning. They will therefore be included. Italic and capitals are sometimes alternative with quotation marks; and the paragraph will require frequent mention in relation to sentence division and to movement and emphasis. The relation of punctuation to the paragraph has been surprisingly neglected by textbook writers.

THE NATURE OF PUNCTUATION

Punctuation marks are signs which indicate the relation and character of the words which they precede, enclose, or terminate. When properly and not mechanically employed they convey the writer's meaning-so far as it is not given by words and display-as clearly and economically as possible, with the right kind of movement and the proper distribution of emphasis.

In tables, title-pages, or formal invitations, grouping may be effected by the division into lines, with various kinds of

The Uses of Punctuation

21

indention; but display composition is apart from the matter in hand.

Points inaccurately used are likely to obscure the grouping, to falsify emphasis, or at any rate to be stilted and clumsy. What is worse, unsuitable marks may betray incompetence, or ignorance of convention, or even rhetorical vanity.

Punctuation marks when properly used are not intended to be noticed for themselves. Their purpose is to show at a glance the relation, the relative weights, or the nature of the words they set off. If a point attracts attention to itself, this is usually because there is something wrong in punctuation or in structure.

Punctuation marks do not determine thought, or take the place of thought; yet by virtue of certain familiar customs and expectations they enable the writer to effect what would ⚫therwise be difficult. They save transition words, as when they make it unnecessary to say "this is quoted," "this is parenthetical, ""the next clause is coordinate with the one just gone over," "the following words are to receive special notice." Skilfully employed, they often indicate what could not otherwise be managed save at the cost of wordy formality. A pair of curves may say, "Of course you, if not the general run of my readers, know this already." A set of quote marks enclosing a word may be interpreted to mean, "I am too refined to let this pass as my own; it is smoking-room slang." By showing what is interrogative, or logically subordinate, or ironical, or by marking different degrees of emphasis-usually at the same time that they indicate grouping-punctuation marks are a useful aid to clearness. The ordinary uses of the points are so familiar that certain effects and economies are practically conditioned on the use of the customary signals.

Marks rightly used keep the reader from confusing ad

jacent groups, and from the annoyance of having to retrace his steps. When misused they indicate false boundaries; or by their association with certain structural forms they suggest weights of emphasis which are not intended.

Obvious as it would seem that, to man ships, officers and men are necessary, it has been the habit of successive Congresses to ignore this fact.

The reader learns too late that ships, officers and men is not a series. The sentence requires not repointing but reconstruction. The following sentence is bad because the main break, after experiment, is open, and the parenthetical group so pointed as to make it momentarily appear that the main break comes after but.

It is a bold experiment but, taken by and large, it is not a success.-The Dial, Feb. 14, 1918.

John Muir accompanied this searching party and his private journals, letters published at the time in the San Francisco "Bulletin," and his contributions to the government reports of the Corwin's explorations have been skilfully woven by the editor into a connected narrative of the summer's cruise amidst the icefloes, fogs, and storms of these little known seas.-The Dial, Feb. 14, 1918.

The pointing is bad, the structure haphazard; given this wording, heavy punctuation is necessary to clearness. In the following sentence the semicolon suggests the beginning of a new main clause.

Then there was an investigation, some indictments; and an ordinance designed to prevent similar impositions on the public in the future.

As a general though not invariable rule, punctuation marks do not separate sentence-elements which are so

Points and Wording

23

closely related as subject and verb, verb and direct object, or noun and necessary modifier. An apparent exception is the use of marks where matter to be separately grouped intervenes between elements ordinarily phrased together. In the following sentence the points help the reader to bridge the gap between subject and verb by marking the infinitive phrase as parenthetical and thereby letting it be seen that the remaining words are in natural sequence, continuous save for the intervening parenthesis.

A reporter, to tell the plain truth, cannot afford to be above his work or "above his job," as the New York newsgatherers say. John L. Given, Making a Newspaper, p. 185.

WHAT PUNCTUATION IS NOT

Punctuation is far from being a mere mechanical device. It is mechanical as a matter of course, like word-spacing or the use of initial capitals; but punctuation is much more than that. It is an integral part of written composition. The pointing must fit the words. What is equally important, words must often be so economized or managed that grouping marks will not be required too often or at inconvenient places. Often the only way to avoid awkward pointing is to revise the phrasing.

It is a commonplace, but one which requires repeating, that punctuation is not a panacea for bad composition. Points may reveal the meaning of a badly constructed sentence, but in that case they will also reveal the badness of the structure. The remedy for faulty structure is revision.

STRUCTURAL, EDITORIAL, AND WORD POINTING

In general, the name structural pointing may conveniently be given to the use of sentence points, comma, semi

colon, colon, curves, and the dash, except the en dash and ellipsis dashes. Quote marks, brackets, and ellipsis dots and asterisks may be called editorial points. The apostrophe, the abbreviation period, hyphens, the en dash, and the ellipsis dash may be classified as etymological or word points. Non-structural points, especially quotes or brackets, may give the effect of structural grouping, but as a rule the distinctions are clear. The structural points are far less subject to rule than editorial or word points. They are more difficult, and for both meaning and emphasis are usually more important.

"GRAMMATICAL" AND "RHETORICAL" POINTS

The inaccurate and misleading classification of punctuation marks into grammatical and rhetorical points, or into grammatical and grammatical-rhetorical, is still current.

The New Standard Dictionary distinguishes grammatical, rhetorical, and etymological punctuation, and punctuation for reference.

Webster's New International Dictionary says that "Punctuation is chiefly done with four points" (period, colon, semicolon, and comma), and describes the other points (interrogation, exclamation, parentheses, dash, and brackets) as being "partly rhetorical and partly grammatical."

The Century Dictionary distinguishes "the points used for punctuation exclusively" (period, colon, semicolon, comma) from those that "serve also for punctuation in the place of one or another of these, while having a special rhetorical effect of their own" (interrogation and exclamation points). The dash is said to be "also used, either alone or in conjunction with one of the preceding marks, in some cases where the sense or the nature of the pause