The Penguin Guide To Punctuation

P E N G U I N REFERENCE The Penguin Guide to Punctuation R . L. Trask was b o m in w estern N e w Y o rk State in 1944. F or som e years he pursued a career in chem istry in the U S A and in T urkey. In 1970 he cam e to E ngland and sw itched to linguistics, obtaining his P h.D . from the U niversity o f L o n d o n in 1983. H e taught linguistics at the U niversity o f Liverpool from 1979 to 1988, since w h e n he has taught in the School o f C o g nitiv e and C o m p u tin g Sciences at the U n i­ versity o f Sussex. His special interests are historical linguistics, gram m ar and the Basque language. H e is the au th o r o f a n u m b e r o f books, including A Dictionary o f Grammatical Terms in Linguistics, Language Change, Language: The Basics, A Dic­ tionary of Phonetics and Phonology, Historical Linguistics, The History of Basque, The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar and Mind the Gaffe. H e is tired o f reading poorly punctuated w ork, and he hopes this bo ok will help. R. L. Trask The Penguin Guide to Punctuation © P ENGUIN BOOKS PE N G U IN BOOKS P u b lis h e d b y th e P e n g u in G r o u p P e n g u in B o o k s L td , 80 S tr a n d , L o n d o n W C 2 R O R L , E n g la n d P e n g u in P u tn a m In c ., 375 H u d s o n S tree t, N e w Y o r k , N e w Y o r k 10014, U S A P e n g u in B o o k s A u s tra lia L td , R in g w o o d , V ic to ria , A u s tra lia P e n g u in B o o k s C a n a d a L td , 10 A lc o r n A v e n u e , T o r o n t o , O n ta r io , C a n a d a M 4 V 3 B 2 P e n g u in B o o k s In d ia (P ) L td , 11 C o m m u n ity C e n tre , P a n c h s h e e l P a r k , N e w D e lh i - 110 017, In d ia P e n g u in B o o k s ( N Z ) L td , C n r R o s e d a le a n d A i rb o r n e R o a d s , A lb a n y , A u c k la n d , N e w Z e a la n d P e n g u in B o o k s (S o u th A fric a ) (P ty ) L td , 24 S tu rd e e A venue, R o s e b a n k 2196 S o u th A fric a P e n g u in B o o k s L td , R e g is te re d Offices: 80 S tr a n d , L o n d o n W C 2 R O R L , E n g la n d w w w .penguin.com First published 1997 12 C opyright © R . L. Trask, 1997 All rights reserved T h e moral right o f the a u th o r has been asserted Set in n ! 4 / i 5 !4 p t M o n o ty p e B em bo Typeset by R o w la n d P hototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edm unds, Suffolk P rinted in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic E xcept in the U n ited States o f Am erica, this boo k is sold subject to the condition that it shall n o t, by w ay o f trade o r otherw ise, be lent, re-sold, hired o ut, o r otherw ise circulated w ith o u t the publisher’s p rior consent in any form o f binding o r cover o th e r than that in w hich it is published and w ith o u t a similar condition including this c ondition being im posed o n the subsequent purchaser Table of Contents viii Acknowledgements ix To the Reader C h ap ter i Why Learn to Punctuate? C h ap ter 2 The Full Stop, the Question M ark and the Exclamation Mark 2.1 T h e Full Stop 2.2 T h e Q u e stio n M ark 2.3 T h e E xclam ation M ark 2.4 A Final P o in t 2.5 Fragm ents C h ap ter 3 The Comma i 5 5 8 9 11 12 13 3.1 T h e Listing C o m m a 13 3.2 T h e Jo in in g C o m m a 17 3.3 T h e G apping C o m m a 3.4 B racketing C om m as 3.5 Sum m ary o f C om m as C h ap ter 4 4.1 19 21 33 The Colon and the Semicolon T h e C o lo n 38 38 vi The Penguin Guide to Punctuation 4.2 T h e Sem icolon 4-3 T