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

by William Livingston Klein

The context furnishes the object of “beyond,” which is “the crest.”

REAL AND APPARENT MEANINGS

Let us examine somewhat more carefully the meanings of “real” and “apparent,” terms which we have used, and shall continue to use, in our study.

The real meaning of any group of words is the meaning it unquestionably conveys to the intelligent reader after careful examination, if such an examination be required by its complexity. It is also the meaning the writer presumably desires to convey.

The apparent meaning of such group of words is the meaning it conveys when read at sight.

The apparent meaning should always be the real meaning. If it is not, the language needs either recasting or regrouping. Recasting is done by changing the positions of words or by the use of new words. Regrouping is done by the use of marks of punctuation, which thus perform their functions. Each of the three end-marks also determines the character of the group it follows, as we have already seen.

In Sentences 1 and 2 we obtained the apparent, and wrong, meaning at the first reading; and we obtained the real (right) meaning at the second reading. Marks, understood by the writer and the reader, give the reader the real meaning at the first reading, at least when the marks are used properly.

In each of Sentences 1-1 and 2-1 the mark of punctuation was used to disconnect words apparently connected. In Sentence 1-1 the apparent connection was made by a conjunction (and); in Sentence 2-1 it was made by a preposition (beyond). Thus, in each corrected sentence, the comma performed the office of disjunction; and therefore the comma might be called a disjunctive. When the reader thus disconnects words he regroups them, and learns, quite automatically, the proper relation between the new groups.

Let us note carefully that we are not dealing with difficult or obscure processes, but with processes familiar to the ordinary reader, and equally familiar to the speaker, this grouping being done in speaking, as already stated, by inflections of the voice and by pauses, which are understood by very young readers.