Why We Punctuate; or, Reason Versus Rule in the Use of Marks

by William Livingston Klein

With this understanding of the relation between groups separated by the colon, our next illustrative sentence is particularly interesting, not only because of its character, but because of its source. As punctuated, it fails to show a nice meaning in language which is quite easily overlooked in the absence of the proper distinguishing mark; and it is from a letter by Thomas Bailey Aldrich in reply to one, from a friend, which he could not decipher. It appears in the foremost printers’ magazine in the country, a magazine that often discusses the subject of punctuation:

26. There is a singular and a perpetual charm in a letter of yours; it never grows old; it never loses its novelty.

The use of two semicolons, dividing this sentence into three clauses, signifies that these clauses are in like relation to each other,—that is, that they are coördinate in sense. If the and or the or relation exists between the first and second clauses, it must exist between the second and third, just as it exists between the three items named in the second part of No. 25.

A very slight examination of the meaning of the language of this sentence shows that the clauses are not coördinate in sense, although such coördination is indicated by the use of the same mark between them.

The relation between the second and third clauses is exhibited in the following:

26-1. It never grows old; and it never loses its novelty.

We cannot unite the first and second clauses in this way, and retain the real meaning of the language; nor have we, thus far in our study, found a meaning of the semicolon that would give the reader notice of the relation between the first clause of No. 26 and what follows. The second and third clauses of this sentence are as plainly explanatory of the first clause as are the items that follow the colon in No. 25 explanatory of “articles.” A change in the wording of the sentence will show that it is exactly similar in its relation to No. 25:

26-2. Your letter possesses the following singular and perpetual charms: youthfulness and novelty.

If this relation exists between the principal thought and the detailed items, then we may indicate it by the colon, thus dividing the sentence into two groups with the relation of apposition between them:

26-3. There is a singular and a perpetual charm in a letter of yours: it never grows old; it never loses its novelty.