Paul Allardyce

“ The semicolon is used in enumerations, as in the last example, in order to keep the parts more distinctly separate. [44]
XXII. When a sentence consists of two or more independent clauses not joined by conjunctions, the clauses are separated by semicolons.
To command a crime is to commit one; he who commands an assassination, is by every one regarded as an assassin.
His knowledge was too multifarious to be always exact; his pursuits were too eager to be always cautious.
If the conjunction "and" were inserted in the last sentence, the comma would be used instead of the semicolon. ”

“ XXXIX. When a sentence contains more than one exclamation, sometimes the mark of exclamation is placed only after the last, sometimes it is placed after each of them, the test being whether or not they are in reality, as well as in form, several exclamations. (Compare Rule XXXI.)
Though all are thus satisfied with the dispensations of Nature, how few listen to her voice! ”

“ Do you imagine that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue, that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which gives you your army, or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? ”

“ When the last noun sums up all the others, or marks the highest point of a climax, no comma is placed after it.
Freedom, honour, religion was at stake.
[21]
If "religion" be regarded as marking the highest point of a climax, the predicate is read with "religion," and with it alone. When so great a thing as religion is said to be at stake, everything else is dropped out of sight, or is held to be included. ”

“ He never convinces the reason, or fills the imagination, or touches the heart.
To understand what is written, the reader must group the words together in the way intended by the writer; and in doing this he can receive assistance in various ways. Partly by the [8] inflection of the words; partly by their arrangement; partly also by punctuation. As to inflection, we see in Latin an adjective and a substantive standing together, yet differing in gender, in number, or in case; and we know that the adjective does not qualify the substantive. But English has not the numerous inflections of Latin. ”

“ The phrase "of supreme importance at such a moment" is to be taken along with "question"; the comma shows that it is not to be taken along with "assembly." There is here a further reason for the point, inasmuch as the phrase acquires from its position almost the importance of an independent statement. But, where the connexion between the adjective phrase and the [29] substantive is very close, and where there is no risk of ambiguity, no point is to be used. "The morning was come of a mighty day"—such a sentence needs no point. ”

“ How much should be put into a sentence is rather a matter of style than of punctuation. The tendency of modern literature is in favour of the short sentence. In the prose of Milton and of Jeremy Taylor, the full stop does not come to release the thought till all the circumstances have been grouped around it, and the necessary qualifications made. ”

“ It may be doubted whether the mark of exclamation is in such cases of any great service; for the impressiveness of a sentence ought to appear in the sentence itself, or to be given to it by the context. There is a real danger, as the style of many people shows, in thinking that punctuation is intended to save the trouble of careful composition. ”

“ There is the same reason for inserting the comma in such cases as there is for inserting [27] it after a long subject. Moreover, there is often need of some device to remove the ambiguities that are caused by inversion. In English, the meaning of words is so greatly determined by their position that, in altering the usual arrangement of a sentence, there is risk of being misunderstood. The danger of inserting the point in this case is that the object may be read with the words going before, and not with its own verb. ”

“ But write the three names as if they were of equal importance; the comma should then be inserted:
Freedom, honour, and religion, were at stake.
But it is not necessary to use a point in such a sentence as this: "Time and tide wait for no man." For we see without the aid of a point that the predicate is to be read with the two nouns equally.
The principle might be applied also in cases like the following, though few writers carry it so far:
It was the act of a high-spirited, generous, just nation. ”

“ The first example contains two clauses that are connected in such a way as to justify us in putting them into one sentence; that it is God's will, is a reason for submitting. The proper point therefore should be something less than the full stop. But there is a striking difference between the clauses; for we pass from an affirmation to a command. Therefore something more than the semicolon is needed. Had the clauses [47] been similar in construction, the pause would have been sufficiently indicated by the semicolon: "God has willed it; man has resisted." ”

“ That we should not insert a mark of exclamation immediately after an interjection, unless we should make a distinct pause after it in speaking; and [57] (2) that no mark of exclamation is to be used at all, unless the exclamatory nature of the sentence is more or less strongly marked. It is useful to notice the difference between "O" and "Oh." The former is used only before the vocative case, and never has a mark of exclamation, or indeed any point, placed immediately after it.
Alas! all our hopes are blasted. ”

“ Though it is difficult, or almost impossible, to reclaim a savage, bred from his youth to war and the chase, to the restraints and the duties of civilized life, nothing is more easy or common than to find men who have been educated in all the habits and comforts of improved society, willing to exchange them for the wild labours of the hunter and the fisher. ”

“ The reader's task is more difficult where two or more ways of grouping the words not only are grammatically possible, but lead each to a more or less intelligible meaning. As a rule he can find out from the context which way the writer meant him to take. One politician writes to another: "I ask you as the recognized leader of our party what you think of this measure;" and nobody accuses the writer of presumption. We might even pass over the following startling sentence without observing [10] the reflection which it casts on a respectable body of men ”

“ The Use of Punctuation.—Punctuation is a device for marking out the arrangement of a writer's ideas. Reading is thereby made easier than it otherwise would be.
A writer's ideas are expressed by a number of words arranged in groups, the words in one group being more closely connected with one another than they are with those in the next group. ”

“ If, in speaking, a slight pause would be made, the comma, not the mark of exclamation, is the proper point.
XX. If a word be repeated in order to give it intensive force, a comma follows it each time that it occurs; but, in the case of an adjective repeated before a noun, not after the last expression of it.
It was work, work, work, from morning till night.
He travelled a long, long way.
Dean Alford, in "The Queen's English," says that this mode of pointing such expressions as "the wide wide world," "the deep deep sea," [42] makes them absolute nonsense. ”

“ To works, however, of which the excellence is not absolute and definite, but gradual and comparative; to works, not raised upon principles demonstrative and scientific, but appealing wholly to observation and experience, no other test can be applied than LENGTH of duration and continuance of esteem. ”

“ This rule of high pointing should be applied very sparingly, and might really be restricted to cases like the "I think" of the second example. Nowadays the tendency is against [25] the pointing of such words as "therefore" and "indeed."
Where the words thrown in make a very distinct break in the sentence, they should be pointed off by means of the dash or of brackets.
XI. Where two parts of a sentence have some words in common, which are not expressed for each of them, but are given only when the words in which they differ have been separately stated, the second part is marked off by commas. ”

“ A dash follows the subject when thus abandoned.
Physical Science, including Chemistry, Geology, Geography, Astronomy; Metaphysics, Philology, Theology; Economics, including Taxation and [63] Finance; Politics and General Literature—all occupied by turn, and almost simultaneously, his incessantly active mind.
The colon is sometimes used in such cases; but the dash seems preferable, as it is the point that marks a change in the structure of a sentence.
XLIV. The dash is sometimes used instead of brackets before and after a parenthesis. ”

“ The great contention of criticism is to find the faults of the moderns and the beauties of the ancients. While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performances; and when he is dead, we rate them by his best. ”

“ Marks when lines or words are not straight.
When corrected, the passage given above would read as follows—
ANTIQUITY, like every other quality that attracts the notice of mankind, has undoubtedly votaries that reverence it, not from reason, but from prejudice. Some seem to admire indiscriminately whatever has been long preserved, without considering that time has sometimes co-operated with chance: all perhaps are more willing to honour past than present excellence; and the mind contemplates genius through the shades of age, as the eye surveys the sun through artificial opacity. ”

“ In longer and more involved sentences the risk of ambiguity is obviously much greater. Now by the judicious use of points ambiguous language can occasionally be made clear. "The mothers-of-young-children employed in factories" is no doubt a bold form, but it leaves us in no doubt as to the meaning. ”

“ And all this long story was about—what do you think?
"We cannot hope to succeed, unless——" "But we must succeed."
Note that it is the long dash that is used at the end of a sentence.
The full stop is not added where the dash marks an unfinished sentence. But it is common to add the point of interrogation or the mark of exclamation. ”

“ The syllable according to etymological derivation, and the syllable according to pronunciation, are not always the same. In case of conflict the pronunciation is to be the guide.
(b) The part in the next line should, if possible, begin with a consonant. An examination of a number of words will show that this is only another way of saying that we should be guided by pronunciation.
(c) Double letters are divided; as "at-tract," "profes-sion," "dif-ficulty."
The following examples are given consecutively from a book taken at random. This seems the best way of illustrating the rule:
Con-fidently ”

“ LX. If an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation which is itself interrogatory, the point of interrogation is placed outside the inverted commas.
Hast thou never cried, "What must I do to be saved"?
The reason is, that the question to be answered is not the quoted question, but "hast thou never cried?" No writer has been bold enough to insert two points of interrogation. ”

“ Thus: "The 'Religio Laici' borrows its title from the 'Religio Medici' of Browne. It is almost the only work," &c.; or, "The 'Religio Laici' (it borrows its title from the 'Religio Medici' of Browne) is almost the only work," &c. We cannot in the same way destroy the close connexion of the second clause with "the only work of Dryden." [31]
(b) The first clause may be omitted and still leave a complete and intelligent sentence; if we were to omit the second clause, the sentence would cease to have any meaning. ”

“ XIII. Words placed out of their natural position in the sentence are often followed by a comma.
(1) The object is usually placed after the verb; when placed at the beginning of the sentence, it should be separated from the subject by a comma, unless the meaning would otherwise be perfectly clear and be readily seized.
The proportions of belief and of unbelief in the human mind in such cases, no human judgment can determine. ”

“ If the nominative singular of the noun ends in "s," another "s" is not added if the repetition of hissing sounds would be displeasing to the ear. The apostrophe is then placed at the end of the word.
Hercules' club. Augustus' dignity.
Words of one syllable follow the first rule: "James's share." Some words of two syllables follow the first rule, some the second: "the princess's birthday"; "Francis' style."
This distinction is sanctioned by usage. But it may judiciously be disregarded. In speaking we almost entirely ignore it. Why should we trouble ourselves with it in writing? ”

“ II. As a rule the full stop is not to be inserted till the sentence be grammatically complete. But some parts of the sentence necessary to make it grammatically complete may be left for the reader to supply.
It is well said, in every sense, that a man's religion is the chief fact with regard to him. ”

“ There is seldom any reason for the use of double points. In the last example they cannot be said to be of any real service. But the dash may sometimes be rightly employed in addition to the full stop, in order to mark a division of discourse midway between the sentence and the paragraph. Even Cobbett, who abhors the dash, permits it to be used for this purpose. ”

“ It will be noticed that we do not take the points exactly in their order of strength. It seemed better to deal with the full stop before passing to the punctuation of the parts of a sentence. Again, it may be said that, strictly speaking, italics do not form part of the subject. ”

“ For instance, if, unless, though, for, because, since, and the like, will be pointed in accordance with Rule IX. It will be well, however, to lay down separate rules for the pointing of the common conjunctions, and and or.
1. AND.— (a) Where "and" joins two single words, as a rule no point is used.
No work has been so much studied and discussed.
Compare this with the following sentence, where groups of words are joined.
The work has been much studied, and has been much discussed.
In the following sentence the insertion of a comma would change the meaning. ”