Punctuations – Usual and Foreign Application

Usual and Foreign Application of Punctuations

• Punctuations are used to clarify the meaning of written or printed language.
• Punctuation marks are used as signals to the reader.
• Punctuations act as the essential streams of writing mechanism; it is of educational importance because it is a part of writing that needs to be dealt with in text construction.
• The most appropriate use of punctuation shows that a person has good knowledge of grammar, and it helps to bring the right kind of expression into writing for which voice, intonation, volume, tone, and pauses are used while speaking.
• The Greeks began using punctuation marks, consisting of vertically arranged dots, around the 5th century B.C.
• The Romans also adopted symbols to indicate pauses.
• The full stop, colon, and comma were the only ones used until the close of the 15th century.
• The semicolon was added, and the marks of interrogation and admiration were introduced later.
• The punctuation now used with English and different Western European languages is derived in the long run from the punctuation used with Greek and Latin all through the classical period.
• At the end of the 17th century, the various marks had received their modern names, and the exclamation mark, quotation marks, and dash had been added to the system.
• The system of punctuation has been used since the 17th century by writers of English.
• The modern punctuation of Western European languages ​​derives from the practices of the French printers and the great Italian printers of the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Various Punctuation Marks Perform Four Functions

• • Separate sentences (a period separates sentences).
  • Group or enclose (parentheses enclose extraneous information).
  • Connect (a hyphen connects a unit modifier).
  • Impart meaning (a question mark may make an otherwise declarative sentence interrogative).

Classification of Punctuation Marks

• • End punctuation marks: The full stop, the question mark, and the exclamation mark.
  • Non-end punctuation marks: The comma, the semicolon, the colon, and the dash.
  • Enclosing punctuation marks: Brackets (square and round), inverted commas, or quotation marks.
  • Punctuation marks used within the word: The apostrophe, the hyphen, and the abbreviation dot.