Punctuation
In the previous instalment we discussed spelling and the role of the
spellchecker on your computer. Today the subject is punctuation, including
umlauts, accents and other symbols used in writing. Right at the beginning
I must warn you that no two writers will every agree on the use of every
comma, colon and hyphen.
Why punctuation?
The commonest symbols used in writing are, of course, the letters of
the alphabet. Punctuation is the use of symbols other than letters in writing.
Fewer than 20 of these symbols are used in everyday writing but they are
necessary and even essential for making the written word intelligible and
readable, especially when reading a text aloud for the first time. To make
my point, I shall give you three sentences without any punctuation, and
you will see that they can either be interpreted in different ways or make
little or no sense. Woman without
her man is savage Stop Once she
had the dress off she would go in search of matching shoes Stop Peter
where Jack had had had had had had had had had had had the teachers approval
Stop (no joke!). At the end of this instalment I will show you how these
sentences become unambiguous and clear with the aid of punctuation.
Full stop(.)
This symbol is put at the end of all sentences which are not questions
or exclamations. It is also put after many abbreviations. The NBI (now
SANBI)
Publications
Section follows the usage of not putting full stops after abbreviations
which include the last letter of the word: edn
for edition but ed. for editor and eds for editors, Mr, Prof. In formal
writing full stops are put after initials. Well known acronyms, such as
RSA, CSIR and directions of the compass: NW, SE, need no full stop. The decimal point,
rather than the decimal comma, is used in all our publications: 0.7, not 0,7.
Semicolon (;)
This separates parts of a sentence and is intermediate in strength between
a full stop and a comma: To err is
human; to really foul things up requires a computer. I came; I saw; I conquered.
Comma (,)
This is the least emphatic of the symbols indicating separation. It
is used:
To separate items in a list of two or more items: habit, roots, stems, leaves;
When the sentence without the comma(s) would mean something else than intended;
When, without the comma, the eye or tongue would run on and momentarily
mistake the sense: In the valley below
the villages looked very small, must have a comma after below;
To separate main clauses when the second is not closely identified with
the first: Cars will turn here, and
buses will go straight on.
Colon (:)
The colon is used to introduce a part of a sentence that naturally arises
from the preceding part of the sentence. It is a substitute for words such
as namely or that is. Examples are:
The following species were found:
Acacia erioloba, Themeda tiandra and
Eragrostis lehmanniana.
There is one problem plaguing botanists:
they are underpaid.
Question mark (?)
This is used after direct questions or before a word or item of which
the accuracy or correctness is in doubt. There is no need for one if the
question is really a polite demand: Will
you please send me your annual report by yesterday.
Exclamation mark (!)
The exclamation mark is placed after expressions of surprise, shock
or dismay. Taxonomists put it behind cited type specimens to indicate that
they have seen them.
Hyphen (-)
The hyphen is used:
To join two or more words to form a single expression: lanceloate-ovate, up-to-date
(e.g. an up-to-date journal; but
the journal is up to date), sky-blue, red-brown (but reddish brown
needs no hyphen), tree-like
To join a prefix to a proper noun: pre-Linnaean,
pan-African
To avoid ambiguity or confusion, e.g. compare: a woman hating men needs a gun with a woman-hating man needs a canon; or you recover from an illness, but you
re-cover your old cushions when you give them new covers;
To separate compound numbers: twenty-one,
two-thirds majority (but two thirds of the candidates);
To prevent three identical consonants or two identical vowels from coming
together: grass-seed, shell-like, pre-eminent, co-operation
or co-op (coop is where the chickens do their thing);
To divide a word when it does not fit entirely at the end of a line: oc-cur-ring, Bo-tswa-na (not Bot-swa-na
as my learned Collins has it);
To represent a common second element in all but the last word of a list,
e.g. two-, three- or fourfold.
En
and em dashes (–) (—)
These are placed in the same position as the hyphen but they are longer.
The en dash (–) is as long as
the width of the printed letter n.
It is used instead of the word to
between numerals: 2–5 mm long. The em dash (—),
about as long as the width of the printed letter m, is used variously, e.g. in front of a subspecific epithet instead
of the full species name.
Apostrophe (’)
This symbol, looking like a comma in an elevated position, is used:
To show possession, e.g. the judge’s
wig was eaten by the general’s donkey. If things or people possessing
something already end in s, add
only an apostrophe: several players’
cars were stolen. When the singular form of a word ends in s,
either add ‘s or just an apostrophe.
Both forms are correct: Acocks’ veld
types or Acocks’s veld types.
Words that end in ss also take
‘s in possession: the boss’s plane ticket was lost;
To show that a letter was left out: it’s
cold today (i left out); doesn’t anybody know this plant? (o left out);
To avoid ambiguity, it is recommended to use apostrophes in: mind your p’s and q’s, or a list of do’s and don’ts, or there are three a’s in aardvark;
Do not use an apostrophe in cases such as: in
the early 1960s, or the MPs (Members
of Parliament) wore long hair, unless
a possession is indicated: six MPs’
offices were ransacked.
Note for the discerning computer user: Many keyboards hide apostrophes and
curly quotation marks, but seductively offer instant access to symbols for
feet (‘) and inches (“). Seek out the proper marks; they are usually hidden
under another key.
Quotation marks (”)
Nowadays most books and journals, including those by the NBI, use single
quotes, reserving double quotes for a quotation within a quotation. However,
the reverse is also acceptable. Note that the closing quotation mark looks
like an apostrophe, a comma in an elevated position, or an errant tadpole
coming up for air, whereas the opening one looks like an elevated comma
turned through 180 degrees or like a tadpole diving for cover.
Quotation marks are used to:
Indicate the opening and closing of direct speech: “There is no alternative” said the Deputy Director: Finance, “salaries
will be raised by zero percent this year”.
To cite the exact words of a quotation. Note that if you cite a quotation
within a sentence, then the closing quotation mark precedes the full stop;
To clothe a word in irony or to apologise for some colloquial or clumsy
usage.
Brackets ( )
Brackets (also called round brackets
or parentheses—singular parenthesis) are put around incidental
statements, explanations or additions that are relatively unimportant. If
the bracketed part of the sentence ends the sentence, then the full stop
comes after the closing bracket. But, if a whole separate sentence is in
brackets, the stop is placed inside the last bracket.
Square brackets [ ]
These generally show that the text within them does not belong to the document
or quotation but is inserted for clarity: He
[Burtt Davy] collected the specimen on Tlagatsanekop. They are occasionally
used to avoid having two adjoining round brackets where brackets occur within
brackets.
More or less (±)
Use of this symbol in the sense of more
or less is somewhat controversial as it has a different meaning to the
mathematician. But it is widely used by botanists, and it has a wider application
than circa (c. or ca) as it can be used to modify measurements
as well as descriptive terms.
Special symbols to supplement the alphabet
The 26 letters of the alphabet are not enough to represent the sounds produced
by the speaker of any natural language. Numerous symbols are therefore used
to supplement the ABC. A few common ones are discussed here:
Umlaut ( ¨ )
The umlaut is placed over certain vowels in some languages, such as German
or Swedish, to create a new letter altogether. The u, for example, in German sounds like the u in English bull; once
capped by an umlaut, it becomes a letter sounding somewhat like the u in Afrikaans buffel.
Dieresis (or diaeresis)( ¨ )
This symbol looks exactly like an umlaut. It is placed on the second of
two adjacent vowels to indicate that it is to be pronounced separately,
as in coöperation or naïve.
French accents
In French three accents are commonly employed: the acute accent, as in phanérogamie,
the grave accent as in Drège and accent circumflex as in L’Île-de-France,
another name for Mauritius.
Cedilla
In languages like French and Portuguese the cedilla sits like a comma under
some of the c’s to indicate that they should be pronounced like a sharp
s and not like a k, e.g. Moçambique and,
if I may digress in the interest of wine drinkers and news readers: Graça.
Puzzles in second paragraph solved
To end this venture into the forest of symbols, let’s look at the three
unpunctuated sentences. Woman without
her man is savage is, of course, intelligible and grammatically correct.
Whether you believe the statement, is quite another matter. But, put a comma
after woman, and one after her, and you have a sentence with a totally
different meaning. Once she had her
dress off she would go in search of matching shoes. What are the shoes
supposed to match? But, add a single comma (after dress) and the meaning
of the sentence becomes clear. To understand the third and last sentence,
put yourself in the classroom where Peter and Jack have just written a test
in which Peter used had had, whereas
Jack, used had, which did not have the teacher’s approval:
Peter, where Jack had had ‘had’, had
had ‘had had’; ‘had had’ had had the teacher’s approval.
And now you will say ‘I’ve had it’. So let’s close. When we meet again
we will discuss style.
—by Dr Otto Leistner
SABONET News
3.2: 55
Collins
English Dictionary 1984. Collins, London & Glasgow.
Gutts, Martin. 1995. The plain English guide. Oxford University Press,
Oxford & New York.
Killick, D.J.B. 1981. Guide to science writing. Department of Agriculture
and Fisheries, RSA.
Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. 1986. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
