CHAPTER VIII

THE INDIVIDUAL STRUCTURAL POINTS, AND POINTS IN COMBINATION

IN previous chapters the punctuation marks have been treated by classes according to their functions. The present chapter, necessarily repeating in a new order much of the matter contained in Chapters IV-VII, deals with the points one by one.

For avoidance of repetition, the combination of period or comma with dash will be included under the dash. And since the colon with dash is a variant of the colon, this combination will be mentioned in the account of the colon; necessarily also in the passage (pp. 231ff.) regarding the dash as a reinforcing point in general.

As an account of quote marks in this chapter would have to be a mere repetition or abbreviation of that in Chapter VII (pp. 139ff.), nothing need be said of quote marks except in relation to the structural points. For a similar reason there will be no sections in this chapter on the apostrophe or the two kinds of hyphens. For the apostrophe, see pages 170ff.; for the division hyphen, see pages 172ff.; for the compounding hyphen, see pages 175ff. For reference indexes, and for their use with structural points, see page 178f.

The purpose of this chapter is to set forth the character, the uses, and the abuses of the structural points-period, suspension periods, question and exclamation marks, colon, semicolon, comma, dash, curves, and brackets.

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Grouping with the Period

I. THE PERIOD

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The period is the most frequent of all punctuation marks except the comma. Logically it outweighs all the other points except those others which are used to mark the end of a sentence; but its frequency and its lack of suspensive quality make it practically a light and rapid mark, however emphatic.

Comparatively speaking, the period is not suspensive. But it is emphatic because with the initial capital it marks a group as a sentence. Suppose the following passage from Mr. G. K. Chesterton's Heretics (p. 267) were written with periods in place of the main-clause points:

There is nothing, for instance, particularly undemocratic about kicking your butler downstairs. It may be wrong, but it is not unfraternal. In a certain sense, the blow or kick may be considered as a confession of equality: you are meeting your butler body to body; you are almost according him the privilege of the duel.

The result will be like this:

There is nothing, for instance, particularly undemocratic about kicking your butler downstairs. It may be wrong. But it is not unfraternal. In a certain sense, the blow or kick may be considered as a confession of equality. You are meeting your butler body to body. You are almost according him the privilege of the duel.

Every group pointed with the period in the altered form could pass muster as a sentence; but the pointing is unfortunate because it hides instead of revealing the relations of the statements to each other and to the context. So far as the points and capitals are concerned, the groups are of equal rank.

The period as a decimal point and the raised period in decorative printing are beyond the field of discussion. In text matter the period has the following uses:

1. As a full stop marking the end of a sentence which is not exclamatory, interrogative, or unfinished. (A sentence, as defined with relation to pointing, is a group either full or elliptical which is given sentence rank by initial capital and by terminal pointing.) But special meaning may suggest the use of the question or exclamation mark in spite of declarative form.

You are ready? I don't believe it!

The period is sometimes reinforced with suspension periods for special effects-often by some writers, never by others.

I looked up a scholar from Yale, Yutaka Minakuchi, friend of old friends, student of philosophy, in which he instructed me much, first lending me a collar. He became my host in Asheville. It needs no words of mine to enhance the fame of Japanese hospitality. . . .-Vachel Lindsay, A Handy Guide for Beggars, p. 84f.

In this sentence the suspension periods hold attention for an instant on the last words of the paragraph. Used within a paragraph they are likely to emphasize both preceding and following matter.

The other sentence points are the question and exclamation marks, the terminal dash, the colon with following capital, and suspension periods. Since a given set of words is not inherently a sentence, periods may be said to compete also with points used for compounding, series grouping, and other uses. See especially pages 52ff. (Points and Paragraph Movement) and 67ff. (the Pointing of Main Clauses).

Suspension Periods

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2. In groups (usually of three), either spaced or close, as suspension periods; so called because they mark preceding matter as unfinished, or left dangling an instant for special attention. Suspension periods may be used within a sentence or as terminal points; in the latter case with or without another sentence point.

"It's begun," he announced incoherently. "The Cossacks are charging the crowds in the streets. . . . Revolution. . . Roger Lewis in the World's Work, April, 1918.

"Come in," he said; and as he spoke the droning voice grew still .-Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, p. 27.

"Live for art! If I had to choose whether I would lose either art or science, I have not the smallest hesitation in saying that I would lose . ."-Samuel Butler, Erewhon Revisited, p. 98.

Theoretically suspension periods are used in addition to the sentence point if the sentence is complete, by themselves if the sentence they terminate is unfinished. Actually there is no uniformity of practice.

Being at once vague and emotional, suspension periods are held objectionable by some writers. But since they are used more or less freely by many authors of recognized ability among them Mrs. Wharton, H. G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, Robert Herrick, Galsworthy, and Samuel Butlera prohibition of suspension periods addressed to the world at large would be a waste of legislation.

The point nearest suspension periods in effect is the dash.

3. Periods in groups, usually of three, are commonly used to indicate ellipsis from a quotation. Instead of periods, asterisks are sometimes used, more often in newspapers than in books. According to a rule sometimes specified, omissions of less than a paragraph are marked with ellipsis periods, long ellipses being marked with asterisks; but

this distinction is not always made or always convenient. A common practice when a paragraph or more has been omitted is to use a full line of ellipsis periods or asterisks. The kind, number, and spacing of ellipsis points vary considerably from office to office.

4. Period leaders may be used to guide the eye across a page, as in tabulated lists. Hyphens and dashes are also used as leaders.

5. A single period with or without following dash may be used to point a side-head which is not a part of the first sentence of its paragraph. The following example uses the period without a dash.

10. Attitude towards Slang. Since slang is not an abnormal or diseased growth in language, but arises in the language just as other words arise, there is no reason why such words in themselves should be condemned. Intrinsically they are not bad, but rather good, in so far as they show activity of mind and a desire to be vigorously expressive. .-George Philip Krapp, Modern English: Its Growth and Present Use, p. 209.

Where the side-head is an integral part of the first sentence the period is not used.

6. The period may be used after a section number or letter, as at the beginning of this paragraph, but some printers rule that white space may make the point unnecessary. Section numbers may be enclosed in curves, especially those which show divisions within a paragraph.

7. The period is often used as an abbreviation point. Decision whether a given expression is to be called an abbreviation is partly arbitrary. So far as decision is logical, it depends mainly upon whether the form is felt as representing a longer expression or not. For the nature of abbreviations, and for the use of the period and the apostrophe, see pages 168-172.