Part 165 (1/2)
The following are the principal points, or marks; namely, the Comma [,], the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [], the Dash [--], the Eroteation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of Exclamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()]
The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of the comma; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon; and the Period, or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon The pauses required by the other four, vary according to the structure of the sentence, and their place in it They
OBSERVATIONS
OBS 1--The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech, have, in reality, no definite and invariable proportions Children are often told to pause at a coht count _one_; at a semicolon, _one, two_; at a colon, _one, two, three_; at a period, _one, two, three, four_ Thisthem to observe the necessary stops, that they may catch the sense; but the standard itself is variable, and so are the tiives to the points As a final stop, the period is immeasurable; and so may be the pause after a question or an exclamation
OBS 2--The first four points take their names frouished by them The _Period_, or _circuit_, is a co of several clauses orout full sense at the close The _Colon_, or _reatest division or _limb_ of a period, and is the chief constructive part of a compound sentence The _Sereatest division of a colon, and is properly a smaller constructive part of a coment_, is a small part of a clause _cut off_, and is properly the least constructive part of a compound sentence A _simple sentence_ is sometimes a whole period, sometiment, and sometimes perhaps even less Hence it may require the period, the colon, the se to the manner in which it is used A sentence whose relatives and adjuncts are all taken in a restrictive sense, may be considerably complex, and yet require no division by points; as,
”Thank hi 'd”--_Milton_
OBS 3--The systelish, is, in its es It is used in Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Gerues in which books are noritten or printed The Germans, however, make less frequent use of the comma than we; and the Spaniards usuallythe point at the beginning of the sentence In Greek, the difference is greater: the colon, expressed by the upper dot alone, is the only point between the comma and the period; the ecphoneh some printers of the classics have occasionally introduced it; and the erotee its pristine form, which is that of our semicolon In Hebrew, a full stop is denoted by a heavy colon, or so adopted, when the vowel points and the accents are not used
OBS 4--Though the points in use, and the principles on which they ought to be applied, are in general well fixed, and coence of editors, the imperfections of copy, the carelessness of printers, or some other means, it happens, that different editions and different versions of the same work are often found pointed very variously This circumstance, provided the sense is still preserved, is coht to be of little moment But all _writers_ will do well to remember, that they owe it to their readers, to show them at once how they mean to be read; and since the punctuation of the early printers was unquestionably very _defective_, the republishers of ancient books should not be over scrupulous about an exact imitation of it; they may, with proper caution, correct obvious faults
OBS 5--The precise origin of the points, it is not easy to trace in the depth of antiquity It appears probable, from ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, that the period is the oldest of them; and it is said by some, that the first system of punctuation consisted in the different positions of this dot alone But after the adoption of the small letters, which improvement is referred to the ninth century, both the comma and the colon caation In old books, however, the comma is often found, not in its present forht stroke, drawn up and down obliquely between the words
Though the colon is of Greek origin, the practice of writing it with two dots e to the Latin authors, or perhaps to the early printers of Latin books The seland till about the year 1600 Our marks for questions and exclamations were also derived from the same source, probably at a date somewhat earlier The curves of the parenthesis have likewise been in use for several centuries But the clash is a more recent invention: Lowth, Ash, and Ward,--Buchanan, Bicknell, and Burn,--though they name all the rest, make no mention of this mark; but it appears by their books, that they all occasionally _used_ it
OBS 6--Of the _colon_ it may be observed, that it is now much less frequently used than it was for usurped, sometimes by the semicolon, and soraether Thus Felton: ”The COLON is now so seldoood writers, that rules for its use are unnecessary”--_Concise Manual of English Gra: ”It will be noticed, that the _colon_ is omitted in this system; because it is oe; three points, with the dash, being considered sufficient to ths of the pauses”--_Practical Grammar_, p 120 These critics, whenever they have occasion to copy such authors as Milton and Pope, do not scruple tosemicolons or periods for all the colons they find But who cannot perceive, that without the colon, the seer be a _semicolon_, unless the half can re the older point of the two, and once very fashi+onable, is doubtless on record in more instances than the semicolon; and, if now, after both have been in common use for some hundreds of years, it be found out that only one is needed, perhaps it would be more reasonable to prefer the former Should public opinion ever be found to coincide with the suggestions of the two authors last quoted, there will be reason to regret that Caxton, the old English typographer of the fifteenth century, who for a while successfully withstood, in his own country, the introduction of the semicolon, had not the power to prevent it forever In short, to leave no literary extravagance unbroached, the latter point also has not lacked a reatest improvements in punctuation,” says Justin Brenan, ”is the rejection of the eternal semicolons of our ancestors In latter ti, not only from the newspapers, but from books”--_Brenan's ”Composition and Punctuation familiarly Explained”_, p 100; London, 1830 The colon and the semicolon are both useful, and, not unfrequently, necessary; and all correct writers will, I doubt not, continue to use both
OBS 7--Since Dr Blair published his eainst too frequent a use of _parentheses_, there has been, if not an abatement of the kind of error which he intended to censure, at least a din of a parenthesis These, too, soue ”The parenthesis is now generally exploded as a deformity”--_Churchill's Gram_, p 362 ”The Parenthesis, () has become nearly obsolete, except in mere references, and the like; its place, byusually supplied by the use of the co's Practical Gram_, p 126; _Frazee's Improved Grammar_, p 187 More use may have been made of the curves than was necessary, and ood taste; but, the sign being well adapted to the construction, and the construction being soood reasons for wishi+ng to discard either of them; nor is it true, that the former ”has become nearly obsolete”
OBS 8--The na-in-between_, is usually applied both to the _curves_, and to the incidental _clause_ which they enclose This twofold application of the ter to Dr
Johnson, the enclosed ”_sentence_” alone is the _parenthesis_; but Worcester, agreeably to co also ”the _n consists of two distinct parts, two corresponding curves, it seems more natural to use a plural nan only, adopted a plural expression; as, ”_the parenthetical characters_,”--”_the parenthetical marks_” So, in another case, which is similar: ”the _hooks_ in which words are included,”
are coh Bucke, in his Classical Grammar, I know not why, calls the two ”[ ] a _Crotchet_;” (p
23;) and Webster, in his octavo Dictionary, defines a ”_Bracket_, in printing,” as Johnson does a ”_Crotchet_” by a plural noun: ”_hooks_; thus, [ ]” Again, in his grammars, Dr Webster rather confusedly says: ”The parenthesis () and hooks [] include a remark or clause, not essential to the sentence in construction”--_Philosophical Gram_, p 219; _Iets both the hooks and the parenthesis that are here spoken of; and, with still worse confusion or inaccuracy, says: ”The _parenthesis_ is usually included in _hooks_ or curved lines, thus, ()” Here he either iular little curves ”_hooks_,” or erroneously suggests that both the hooks and the curves are usual and appropriate signs of ”_the parenthesis_” In Garner's quarto Dictionary, the French word _Crochet_, as used by printers, is translated, ”_A brace, a crotchet, a parenthesis_;” and the English word _Crotchet_ is defined, ”The _, thus [ ]” But Webster defines _Crotchet_, ”In printing, a _hook_ including words, a _sentence_ or a _passage_ distinguished frouous and otherwise inaccurate It conveys no clear idea of what a crotchet is _One_ hook _includes_ nothing Therefore Johnson said: ”_Hooks_ in which words are included [thus]” But if each of the hooks is a crotchet, as Webster suggests, and al in notthe whole expression plural: thus, ”_Crotchets_, in printing, are angular _hooks_ usually including some explanatory words” But is this all that Websteralso, that a _Crotchet_ is ”_a sentence_ or _a passage_ distinguished from the rest, thus [];” and doubtless it would be much better to call a hint thus marked, a _crotchet_, than to call it _a parenthesis_, as some have done In Parker and Fox's Gralish Coular hooks; and, contrary to all usage of other authors, so far as I know, the naiven to the _Curves_ And then, as if this application of the ere general, and its propriety indisputable, the pupil is simply told: ”The _curved lines_ bethich a parenthesis is enclosed are called _Crotchets_”--_Gram_, Part III, p 30; _Aids_, p 40 ”Called _Crotchets_” by whom? That not even Mr Parker hi e is a proof: ”The _note_ of adation, as also the _parenthesis_, the _bracket_, and the reference in] in the sarammars, (for example, _Hazen's_ and _Day's_,) the parenthetic curves are called ”_the Parentheses_” From this the student must understand that it always takes _two parentheses_ to make _one parenthesis!_ If then it is objectionable, to call the two marks ”_a parenthesis_,” it is much more so, to call each of them by that name, or both ”_the parentheses_” And since Murray's phrases are both entirely too long for coiven them than this very simple one, _the Curves_?
OBS 9--The words _eroteme_ and _ecphoneme_, which, like _aposteme_ and _philosopheme_, are orderly derivatives froest as fitter names for the two marks to which they are applied as above, than are any of the long catalogue which other gra for himself have presented These ation_ and the _exclamation_;” which nara to Dr Blair, as well as L Murray and others, interrogation and exclaures_” of rhetoric, and oftentiured” expressions The former however are frequently and more fitly called by their Greek names _erotesis_ and _ecphonesis_, terms to which those above have a happy correspondence By Dr Webster and some others, all _interjections_ are called ”_exclamations_;” and, as each of these is usually followed by the mark of emotion, it cannot but be inconvenient to call both by the sas so co, it is desirable to have simple and appropriate _names_, or at least some settled mode of denomination; but, it is re these characters six times, uses six different modes of expression, and all of theation and Exclaation,?”--”The point of Exclaatory Point”--”The Exclaation,”--”The note of exclaation and exclaation and Exclaersoll, Alden, Pond_ With much better taste, some writers denote theation,”--”The Note of Exclamation”--_Churchill, Hiley_ In addition to these na, there h none that are unobjectionable: (8) ”The Interrogative sign,”--”The Exclaation,”--”The Mark of Exclaative point,”--”The Exclaation point,”--”The exclamation point”--_Webster, St Quentin, S Putnaation,”--”A Note of Adative point,”--”The Note of Adation (?),”--”Admiration (!) or Exclaation,”--”A Point of Adation Point (?),”--”The Adation (?),”--”An exclaator?”--”The exclai of ”_exclai of _quoters_ to ”_quotors_,” as a nanorance] (19) ”Question point,”--”Exclamation point”--_Sanborn_, p 272
SECTION I--THE COMMA
The Comma is used to separate those parts of a sentence, which are so nearly connected in sense, as to be only one degree removed from that close connexion which admits no point
RULE I--SIMPLE SENTENCES
A sieneral, admit the comma; as, ”The weakest reasoners are the y has not hesitated to make or support a doctrine by the position of a comma”--_Tract on Tone_, p 4
”Then pain compels the impatient soul to seize On promis'd hopes of instantaneous ease”--_Crabbe_
EXCEPTION--LONG SIMPLE SENTENCES
When the no simple sentence is accoether are used in stead of a nominative, a comma should be placed immediately before the verb; as, ”Confession of sin without amendment, obtains no pardon”--_Dillwyn's Reflections_, p 6 ”To be totally indifferent to praise or censure, is a real defect in character”--_Murray's Gram_, p 268