Many printing-offices do not punctuate a number containing less than five figures. Such a rule would call for 9999 and 10,000. This is purely arbitrary punctuation. Our problem is to find, as far as possible, a reason for the use of every mark, and to point out what seems to us good conventional usage in punctuation for which we can find no reason.
THE NAMES OF MARKS
The names of the principal marks were given to them by the Greek grammarians, the name of each mark being the name of the group of words with which the mark was used. The group of words which we call a sentence, they called a period. They arbitrarily marked its end by a dot, and called the dot also a “period.” We retain the name of the mark. They called one of the largest divisions of a sentence a limb, and set it off with a mark called the “kolon,” which means a limb. We retain the name of the mark in our word colon. The same is true of the mark we still call a comma. The semicolon is a mark of later date; and, as its name implies, it falls between the comma and the colon in its character and use.
THE RELATIVE VALUES OF MARKS
We still recognize, at least in large measure, the values given the marks by the Greek grammarians; and the principle is important in our study. Thus we say, of the four principal marks the comma indicates the slightest degree of separation between groups of words within a sentence; the semicolon indicates the next larger division; and the colon indicates the largest division. The period separates a full sentence from the sentence standing next to it; and it is also used when a sentence stands alone.
We have seen the need of marks in the above illustrative sentences, and have also seen where the marks were needed; but we had to assume that the comma was the proper mark to use. We now know the relative values given the marks by the Greek grammarians. If our knowledge of language, even though it is not based upon technical grammar, teaches us that the degree of separation between the groups of words where we found the need of a mark, was the least degree requiring a mark, then the comma was the proper mark to use. With this relative degree of separation in language and the relative value of the comma intelligently settled, we can assert that we punctuated our illustrative sentences in Chapter I by reason, and not by rule. An apparent exception to the exact truth of this statement is presented in the punctuation of Sentence 1-1, because the degree of separation between its parts cannot be exactly fixed. We discuss this point in Chapters IV and VII.
A sentence exhibiting the relations calling for the use of the four principal marks will serve to show their relative values, and the relative degrees of separation between groups of words which the marks indicate:
6. Athens’ freedom and her power have, for more than twenty centuries, been annihilated; her people have degenerated into timid slaves; her language, into a barbarous jargon; her temples have been given up to the successive depredations of Romans, Turks, and Scotchmen: but her intellectual empire is imperishable.
Reading this sentence with the knowledge of the comma already gained, we reach the end of the first fairly complete group of words, where we meet a semicolon. Let us challenge this mark, or sign-board, for its meaning. In answer, it says that what is to follow is not to be tied in the comma relation to what has preceded, as would be the case if the sentence continued in the following way:
6-1. Athens’ freedom and her power have, for more than twenty centuries, been annihilated, her people having degenerated through luxury.