CHAPTER I—PUNCTUATION.
Punctuation is the art of dividing literary composition, by points, or stops, for the purpose of showing more clearly the sense and relation of the words; and of noting the different pauses and inflections required in reading.
The following are the principal points, or marks; namely, the Comma [,],
the Semicolon [;], the Colon [:], the Period [.], the Dash [—], the
Eroteme, or Note of Interrogation [?], the Ecphoneme, or Note of
Exclamation [!], and the Curves, or Marks of Parenthesis, [()].
The Comma denotes the shortest pause; the Semicolon, a pause double that of the comma; the Colon, a pause double that of the semicolon; and the Period, or Full Stop, a pause double that of the colon. The pauses required by the other four, vary according to the structure of the sentence, and their place in it. They may be equal to any of the foregoing.