What does this sign mean in Russian? The history of the emergence of punctuation marks in the Russian language and their modern use in comparison with European punctuation. Question and exclamation marks

Attention! Attention! We are punctuation marks!

Dots, sticks, hooks...
Inconspicuous icons
And while reading
Required reading.

A. Shibaev

Punctuation marks! What is this? These are the periods and commas that we begin to get acquainted with in the first grade and which give us so much trouble in the ninth! But you can’t go anywhere without them! They help to more fully and accurately express the meaning of written speech. “Signs are placed according to the power of reason,” wrote the founder of Russian grammar.

So let's not be like the high school student who, in the old days, wrote an essay without punctuation marks, at the end depicted a lot of commas, dashes and colons, and under them wrote: “March to your places!” Although his method is very original!

Without the ability to use punctuation marks, it is impossible to master written language. And without mastering written language, thanks to which human knowledge and experience are passed on from generation to generation, it is impossible to even imagine life today.

They put a dash if they want to show that there are some words missing in the message. Often a dash marks an omitted verb connective. A dash is used to indicate that one event follows another.

Because of its ambiguity, poets and writers love the dash, turning it into the main means of author's punctuation.

At the time, a hyphen was also considered a “lowercase sign” (as punctuation marks were called).

Ellipsis

Near three

Sisters-dots,

So there's no end

At the line.

The ellipsis sign called “preclusive sign” was noted in 1831 in grammar, although its use is found in writing practice much earlier. In common parlance, an ellipsis is sometimes called an “ellipsis.”

The ellipsis contains two shades - incompleteness and uncertainty.

In addition, ellipses are used to indicate gaps in the text. Vladimir Nabokov: “The ellipses must represent traces on the tiptoes of words that have passed away...”

Quotes

We are quotes, we are sisters,

That's how it is with us

The history of the appearance of this sign is interesting. In the meaning of a punctuation mark, this word began to be used only at the end of the 18th century. It is assumed that the initiative to introduce it into the practice of Russian written speech also belongs to. Scientists believe that the origin of this word is not entirely clear. A comparison with the Ukrainian name for paws makes it possible to assume that it is formed from the verb kavykat - “to hobble”, “to limp”. In Russian dialects kavysh means “duckling”, “gosling”; kavka - “frog”. Thus, quotation marks are “traces of duck or frog legs”, “hook”, “squiggle”.

Quotes are used when the statement contained in them does not belong to the author. Most often they are used to indicate the boundaries of direct speech or quotation. Sometimes words that the writer wants to “disown” are put in quotation marks.

Paragraph

A paragraph is also an indentation; and a part of the text from one paragraph indent to the next paragraph indent, connected by a single thought, theme, idea, plot.

The appearance of paragraph indents is associated with a technical misunderstanding. In the past, text was usually typed without any indentation. Signs of the structural division of the text were written in with paint of a different color after typing the main text, and therefore an empty space was left for them. Probably, one day they forgot to enter the characters, but the resulting text with indents was no worse read, and since then paragraphs have become firmly established in typographic practice.

A paragraph gives a book or manuscript a more aesthetic appearance, makes the reading process easier for the eye, it can be considered as a literary device, it makes clear groupings of emotions, ideas, images, the red line of the paragraph emphasizes the logical connection between ideas, reflects the nature of the connection between emotions in a lyrical work.

The use of a paragraph is not subject to any strictly established rules. The only restriction requires that the beginning and end of the paragraph not fall in the middle of the phrase. In poetic speech, a paragraph coincides with a stanza.

The paragraph, as an artistic device, has not been studied at all. The problem is posed in Mikhail Lopatin’s book “An Experience of Introduction to the Theory of Prose. Pushkin's stories."

For the Internet, a smiley face is probably the same as a wheel for humanity. It has evolved from a cheerful drawing to a set of punctuation marks: a colon and a closing parenthesis. From an etymological point of view, everything is clear: “smile” in English means “smile”.

Emojis have spread around the world like the flu. Go to any chat and you will see that half of the information is conveyed through emoticons. Scientists who like to sort everything out and come up with definitions for everything call emoticons the words “emogramma” or “emoticon” (from the word “emotion”) and write something like “an emoticon is a stylized image of the facial expressions of a human face, implemented in pseudographics, in order to convey to the opponent the emotional mood of the speaker."

It is clear that emoticons are not a new punctuation, as some people think, but independent semantic units. However, emojis most definitely have meaning and the ability to convey information. In other words, emoticons are a non-verbal code adapted for written communication.

Bibliography:

1. Entertaining grammar

2. Border of punctuation, M., “Enlightenment”, 1987

3. Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1990

4. Lopatin M. Experience of introduction to the theory of prose. Pushkin's stories.

5. Russian language. Encyclopedia. - M., 2007

6. Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Young Philologist, M., 1984

Dear readers! We offer a task for scholars: determine who is depicted in the photographs in the text of the article.

The material was prepared by members of the “Dreamers” team as part of the project “Pay attention: We are punctuation marks!”

Period, period, comma...
(From the history of punctuation)

Punctuation marks, which make it possible to say in writing much more than can be written down in letters, helping to express the different meanings of words and the feelings of the one who writes, seem so systematic and familiar that it seems that they have always existed and appeared along with alphabets. But of course this is not true.

The word itself punctuation comes from the Latin punctus - ‘point’. But this word originally had a completely different meaning than we give it now. Until the mid-17th century, punctuation was the use of dots near consonants to indicate vowel sounds in Hebrew text, while writing signs in Latin text was called dotting. And only in the middle of the 17th century. the word punctuation began to be used in its usual meaning.

Development of the punctuation system in Europe

The first evidence of the use of punctuation marks dates back to the 5th century. BC. Thus, the playwright Euripides marked the change in the speaking person with a pointed sign, possibly derived from lambda (<); философ Платон иногда заканчивал разделы своих книг знаком, аналогичным современному двоеточию.

The appearance of the first significant punctuation mark is associated with the name of the philosopher Aristophanes, who lived in the 4th century. BC. It was a paragraphos - a short horizontal line at the bottom at the beginning of the line. It was used to indicate a change in semantic meaning and, therefore, a new, fairly voluminous section of text, which even today we often call a paragraph, although we denote it with a different sign (§).

The use of punctuation marks to divide text into smaller meaningful segments began around the 2nd century BC. The grammarian and lexicographer Aristophanes of Byzantium, as the head of the Library of Alexandria, invented a system of three points: the point below - comma - was placed at the end of the shortest segment; the dot at the top - periodos - divided the text into large segments, and the dot in the center - colon - into medium ones.

There is an assumption that it was Aristophanes who invented many other punctuation marks, for example, the hyphen for writing compound words, the slash, which he placed next to words with an unclear meaning. Of course, these signs were not widely used and were used sporadically and rather haphazardly.

The first attempt to eliminate these inconveniences was made by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Alcuin (735-804), who led the court school in Aachen (now a city in Germany). In reforming Aristophanes' system, Alcuin made several additions. It was he who introduced punktum (.) and puktumversus (;) to indicate pauses and changes in intonation. But, despite these improvements, consistency in the use of signs was never achieved, and only in the 15th century. Venetian printer Aldus Manutius began to introduce signs of pauses, inhalation, and changes in intonation into the books he printed, and the most frequently used were periods, semicolons, and colons.

The first person in England to declare the role of punctuation marks in syntactic terms, that is, their use to determine the structure of a statement, was the English playwright Ben Jonson. He did this in his work “English Grammar” (late 16th century).

By the beginning of the 17th century. Most modern signs have already been put into use. The first edition of W. Shakespeare (1623) already uses a period, comma, semicolon, colon, question mark and exclamation mark. At the end of the century, quotation marks appeared in English punctuation.

History of Russian punctuation

At the beginning of its development, the Russian punctuation system was guided by the Greek, so the main punctuation mark was the dot. Initially, dots were placed arbitrarily, because texts were written for quite a long time without dividing into words and sentences. It could be one point (at the bottom, top or middle of the line) or a combination of them in different versions. Naturally, there were no rules. The meaning of the statement served as a guide, and dots were placed to highlight semantic parts. In addition to dots, in ancient Russian texts there were lines at the bottom of the line (_), serpents (~), as well as various combinations of lines and dots.

The first attempt to streamline the placement of punctuation marks on a semantic basis was made by M. Greek (XVI century). It was he who, in his work “On the literacy of Monk Maximus the Greek of the Holy Mountain declared for subtlety,” showed a desire to indicate the role of such signs as a period, and subdiastole - comma, and subdiastole with a dot - semicolon. The dot was supposed to indicate the end of the statement, the subdiastole was supposed to give the speaker a break when reading, and the sign subdiastole was recommended to indicate a question.

In the same era, articles by anonymous authors appeared in handwritten collections, which either only listed punctuation marks or gave a few tips on their use. Here is a description of such signs as a comma, a sub-column - a comma (how they differed is difficult to establish; in addition, in some works a semi-colon was called a sub-column), kendema (the “sign” at the end of a statement), statiya (~,), etc.

End of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. marked by the publication of printed grammars by Lavrenty Zizaniy (“Grammar of Slovensk...” 1596) and Melety Smotritsky “Grammar of Slovenian correct syntagma” (first edition in 1616, printed in Moscow in 1648), which played a certain role in the development of Russian punctuation system.

Lavrentiy Zizaniy speaks of six punctuation marks - these are the comma (,), the term (е), the two-term (:), the subframe (;), the connective (-), and the period. In determining the functions of punctuation marks by L. Zizan, the semantic principle is based on the completeness or incompleteness of the statement. The point is at the end of a complete whole. It is recommended to use comma, term and double as separators in the middle of a sentence. The under-tables are a sign of expressing interrogative intonation. Connective - a sign of word transfer (by the way, without saying anything about the syllabic division of words, L. Zizaniy in the examples given demonstrates taking into account their morphemic structure).

I.I. Sreznevsky rightly noted that “in the grammar of L. Zizania there is often a confusion of terms, commas and doubles, and in some cases the functions of terms and periods are not differentiated.” And yet, the desire to determine the place of each character in the text is a great merit of L. Zizaniya in the development of the punctuation system.

Meletiy Smotritsky has already identified ten “lowercase punctuations” - this is a bar (/), a comma (,), a colon (:), a dot (.), disjointed, unitary (-), interrogative (;), surprising (!), placeholder, call(). As you can see, the naming of punctuation marks is already somewhat different than that of L. Zizania.

M. Smotritsky’s use of “lowercase punctuation” is based on the intonation principle, taking into account the meaning of the statement. So, a trait is a short rest when reading; a comma allows the speaker to pause longer; a colon is used when not the whole thought is expressed, but only part of it, but the parts of the sentence are more independent than when separated by a comma; A period is placed at the end of a complete statement, a question mark is placed at the end of an interrogative statement; disjointed and united are signs of transference.

M. Smotritsky, for the first time in the history of Russian punctuation, identified three new signs: surprising, turn-down and place-holder, clearly defining their functions. Surprising - at the end of a sentence pronounced with a special (exclamatory) intonation; accommodative - includes a less independent part of the sentence; deferred - one that can be completely removed from the sentence.

Despite some imperfections in the description of the rules for using punctuation marks, M. Smotritsky’s grammar has long been the main textbook for students of grammar, spelling and punctuation of the Russian language of that era. Its significance has been repeatedly emphasized by such famous linguists as V.A. Bogoroditsky, V.V. Vinogradov and others.

The next serious stage in the development of Russian punctuation is associated with the name of V.K. Trediakovsky. In 1748, in St. Petersburg, his rather voluminous (460 sheets) work, known to this day, “A conversation between a foreigner and a Russian about ancient and new orthography and about everything that belongs to this matter,” was published. It is V.K. Trediakovsky who is credited with formulating the rules for using signs from the point of view of syntactic features; he established individual cases of the use of signs, taking into account the structure of a simple or complex sentence, with examples of argumentation for each position. In addition, V.K. Trediakovsky introduced a question mark into his text (although we find a description of its function in M.V. Lomonosov’s “Russian Grammar”) and introduced the use of the semicolon in the modern sense - no longer at the end of interrogative sentences, but to separate parts of a complex sentence and (sometimes) when addressing.

In the middle of the 18th century. “Russian Grammar” by M.V. Lomonosov is published. Chapter V of this work of the great scientist entitled “On Spelling” presents a brief theory of punctuation.

M.V. Lomonosov does not introduce new signs, but defines the basic principle of their use: taking into account not only the meaning of the sentence, but also the arrangement of parts, and the meaning of conjunctions, which serve “to pair and relate concepts.” Thus, in punctuation M.V. Lomonosov affirms two closely interrelated principles: semantic and syntactic. But M.V. Lomonosov failed to present complete and detailed rules for the use of punctuation marks. Thus, he defines the function of the comma only to separate homogeneous (“identical”) members of a sentence, but does not formulate other rules for using this sign.

Quotation marks appeared in the 17th century in the form of a quotation mark - “hook sign”, modern pronunciation and spelling with A appeared as a result of the development of akanya and its consolidation in writing.

The history of such a punctuation mark as a dash is interesting. Introduced into use by N.M. Karamzin, described in “Russian Grammar” by A.A. Barsov, where the silent sign was named, then the line, and later the sign of mental separation (A.Kh. Vostokov). All these are former names of the modern dash.

Further development of the punctuation system is aimed at a more detailed development of its foundations in different directions: logical (semantic), grammatical (syntactic) and intonation. “Despite the differences in views among representatives of different directions, what they have in common is the recognition of the communicative function of punctuation as an important means of formatting written speech.”

Thus, punctuation marks arose from the need to divide written text into independent segments (with a greater or lesser degree of independence) in accordance with the semantic structure of the statement. The first punctuation marks indicated pauses of varying lengths; With the development of writing and the spread of printing, the system of punctuation marks became more complex and deepened until it reached a state that is preserved in its basic features in modern European languages.

In Russian, the etymologically proper Slavic terms are such names as dot- the term is formed using suf. -к- (modern -к-) from exactly<…>, going back to t'ch, which is derived through the theme -ь- from the base t'k-, appearing in t'kati, t'knuti<…>; k front changed to h; comma- origin “from the verb comma - “to prevent, to delay.” Wed. cufflink, puto, obstacle” (please note that the word comma has the same root as the words punctuation mark, stutter, etc.); brackets, quotes(proper Russian) - “kovychka” - formation with the suffix -ьк- (modern -к-) from kovyk; k changed in the past - the word kovyka is still preserved in dialects - ‘interference, hitch’; trait- formed from the same stem as the verbs čersti, čertu - ‘to draw’. Of non-Slavic origin, the modern names of such punctuation marks as dash, hyphen, apostrophe, asterisk. Term dash borrowed in the 19th century from French. First recorded in Dahl's Dictionary. From French tiret - a dash, is derived from tirer - to pull. Word hyphen came into Russian punctuation from the German Divis from the Latin divisio - division, dismemberment. Apostrophe- from the Greek apostrophos - facing to the side or back. Asterisk(*) - from Greek aster - star; We prefer to call this sign the actual Russian word asterisk.

In the development of Russian punctuation, two features attract attention:

Despite the fact that punctuation marks are widely used throughout the world, in quantitative terms the system of punctuation marks has not reached its completeness. The regulatory documents defining the rules for placing punctuation marks in the Russian language contain 10 canonical characters: period, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, question mark, exclamation mark, ellipsis, parentheses, quotation marks, although in fact there are much more of them. As the practice of written speech shows, the hyphen is currently widely used; rarely, but still used are paragraph, slash, and asterisk. In recent years, opinions have been expressed about the adequacy of the names of such signs as two commas - as a single paired sign (in the excretory function), two dashes or a double dash - as a paired excretory sign. These signs serve for internal division of sentence 10

Punctuation marks have been around for a long time. But their number and rules of use gradually changed. There was a time when those writing in Russian made do with just one sign - a dot located in the middle of a line between groups of undivided words. Punctuation is an important means of formatting written speech: punctuation marks indicate its semantic division. At the same time, to a large extent, Russian punctuation is built on a syntactic basis, as the wording of most punctuation rules shows. All this gives the Russian punctuation system greater flexibility: along with mandatory rules, it contains instructions that do not have a strict normative nature and allow punctuation options associated not only with the semantic side of the written text, but also with its stylistic features. J. K. Grot believed that through basic punctuation marks “an indication of the major and minor connections between sentences, and partly between members of sentences” is given, which serves “to facilitate the reader’s understanding of written speech.”

Having analyzed Shapiro’s publication “Punctuation”, we can come to the conclusion that punctuation marks are signs that form a special part of the general graphic system of a given language and serve those aspects of written speech that cannot be expressed by letters and other written symbols (numbers, equal sign, similarity).

This definition of the role of punctuation marks is a modern generalized view. But how did Russian science come to it?

Ancient scribes did not use punctuation marks, and for a long time all words were written together. Punctuation originates in the 4th-5th centuries. when they start using space; the texts are designed so that each major period begins with a red line and a capital letter. Most Latin monuments are punctuated later.

To indicate the end of a sentence or phrase, a combination of dots and dashes was used: “syllable”, “article”, “verse”.

In the most ancient monuments of writing, other signs were common:

A period in the middle of a line (corresponds to a comma)

Quarter dot (imaginary cross, corresponds to a point)

Crosses of various types (placed to divide the sacred text into verses).

It is interesting that part of the text of the Ostromir Gospel (1056 - 1057) also uses a cross and a wavy vertical line - a “serpent”, the function of which is not entirely clearly defined. “Cross” and “serpent” are written in red, the dot is written in black, like the text itself. According to the design, these signs resemble “kryzh” and “serpent” in ancient sheet music, and on the first sheets two more signs are added to the cross, also clearly originating from notes: on top - a sign called in ancient notation “horn”, below - “bench” .

In Old Russian writing, the text was not divided into words and sentences. Punctuation marks (period, cross, wavy line) divided the text mainly into meaningful segments or indicated a stop in the scribe’s work.

The introduction of printing was of great importance for the development of punctuation. The placement of characters in printed works was primarily the work of typographical craftsmen, who often did not take into account what the author's handwritten text represented in terms of punctuation.

The system of punctuation marks, which had formed in its basic outlines by the 18th century, required the development of certain rules for their use. Back in the 16th – 17th centuries, the first attempts to theoretically understand the placement of punctuation marks that existed at that time were observed. However, the general and specific principles of punctuation marks in their main features developed during the 18th century, when the formation of the foundations of the modern Russian literary language ended.

The principles on which the entire system of punctuation rules is based were comprehended gradually.

Most ancient writings knew only “paragraph” or “period” among all punctuation marks. They were expressed graphically in different ways, although, apparently, the dot was the most common form. In ancient Russian writing, the most common sign was the dot, which is used more or less in the sense of our comma and basically divides, apparently, the text into syntagms. Those or other signs of a more complex form, which would more or less correspond in meaning to our point, are less common and are something in between our “paragraph” and “point”.

As far as can be judged from the testimony of monuments, including printed ones, as well as from grammatical and spelling manuals of the 18th century (mainly for the study of foreign languages), the main reason for placing punctuation marks was the presence of pauses in speech of greater or lesser duration. To place a question mark, the basis was the interrogative meaning of the sentence, to place a colon - the transition from the explained part of the sentence to the explanatory one. But these two punctuation marks were not used in all cases. So, there were significantly fewer punctuation marks in the middle of the 18th century than in our time. By the end of the 18th century, new punctuation marks appeared: dashes, quotation marks, ellipses. They were usually introduced into the practice of writing by writers and, accordingly, were reflected in textbooks and teaching aids on grammar and spelling. It is known that Karamzin was the first to use the dash (or “dash”) sign. It is still not possible to indicate exactly who initiated the use of ellipses and quotation marks in Russian writing.

The beginning of the scientific development of Russian punctuation was laid by the brilliant representative of grammatical science of the 18th century M.V. Lomonosov in his work “Russian Grammar”, written in 1755. M.V. Lomonosov gives an exact list of punctuation marks used at that time in Russian printed literature, sets out the rules for their use in a system, formulating these rules on a semantic and grammatical basis.

The greatest merit in streamlining Russian punctuation in the 19th century belongs to academician J. K. Groth, whose book “Russian Spelling” - the result of many years of research into the history and principles of Russian writing - became the first academic set of rules of spelling and punctuation in Russia and went through 20 editions until 1917 . Grot sets out in detail the history and principles of Russian writing, difficult cases of spelling, and provides a scientifically systematized and theoretically meaningful set of rules for spelling and punctuation. The rules for the use of punctuation marks formulated by him are valuable in that they summarize the searches in the field of punctuation of previous authors. Grotto's ordered punctuation, as well as spelling, rules entered into the practice of schools and publishing houses and, at their core, with minor changes, are still in effect today.

Some linguists are of the opinion that Russian punctuation is based on a semantic basis, others on a grammatical basis, and still others on an intonation basis. However, despite the theoretical disagreements among scientists, the fundamental principles of Russian punctuation remain unchanged, which contributes to its stability, although individual punctuation rules are periodically clarified and specified in connection with the development of Russian grammatical theory and the Russian literary language in general.

1. 2. Principles of modern punctuation.

Classification of punctuation marks and their characteristics.

Modern Russian punctuation is built on semantic and structural-grammatical foundations, which are interconnected and determine each other. Punctuation reflects the semantic division of written speech, indicates semantic connections and relationships between individual words and groups of words, and various semantic shades of parts of a written text.

Punctuation marks are divided into:

▪ highlighting signs, which serve to indicate the boundaries of a syntactic structure that is introduced into a sentence to complement, explain its members or the entire sentence, explain its members or the entire sentence as a whole, intonation-semantic highlighting k. - l. part of a sentence, as well as to indicate the boundary of a construction containing the name of a person or object to which speech is addressed, or expressing the writer’s subjective attitude to his statement, or formalizing someone else’s statement: two commas - as a single paired sign, two dashes - as a single paired character , quotes, brackets;

▪ separating signs that serve to distinguish independent sentences, their parts (main and subordinate clauses, subject groups and predicate groups), homogeneous syntactic elements (homogeneous sentence members, subordinate subordinate clauses), as well as to indicate the type of sentence according to the purpose of the statement, on the emotional nature of the sentence, for a break in speech: period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, ellipsis.

Let's consider the modern idea of ​​punctuation marks:

1) A period (.) is a punctuation mark placed at the end of a sentence. The period is one of the most ancient punctuation marks. It was used to separate words or larger sections of text from each other. A cross or a vertical, wavy line was used for the same function. The dot was initially placed at different levels: either at the base of the letter or at the level of its middle. Sometimes the scribe, interrupting his work, could even put a period in the middle of a word. In modern Russian written speech, a period is placed at the end of a narrative or incentive sentence: “It was evening. The sky was darkening. The waters flowed quietly" (Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"). A period is used when writing words in abbreviations (for example: etc., etc.); and there is no period in abbreviations.

2) Question mark is a punctuation mark used to express a question. Initially, a semicolon was used in the meaning of a question mark (this is reflected in the grammars of L. Zizaniya, (1596), and M. Smotrytsky, (1619), although the question mark was already found in books of the first half of the 16th century. Finally, a question mark was fixed to express the question by "Russian Grammar" by M. V. Lomonosov. In modern Russian written speech, an exclamation mark is placed:

▪ at the end of an interrogative sentence, including after incomplete interrogative sentences following one after another: “Who are you? Alive? Dead? (A. Blok, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady”);

▪ in interrogative sentences with homogeneous members after each homogeneous member in order to dissect the question: “What do I care about whom? before them? to the whole universe? (Griboyedov “Woe from Wit”);

3) Exclamation mark (!) – a punctuation mark used to express an exclamation. This sign called “amazing” is mentioned in the grammar of M. Smotritsky (1619). In modern Russian written speech, an exclamation mark is placed:

▪ at the end of an exclamatory sentence: “Long live the revolution, joyful and speedy!” (Mayakovsky, poem “V.I. Lenin”);

▪ in exclamatory sentences with homogeneous members after each homogeneous member to indicate emotional intermittency of speech: “I rejected everything: laws! conscience! faith!” (Griboyedov “Woe from Wit”);

▪ after words pronounced with an exclamatory intonation - sentences, addresses, interjections, standing at the beginning (in poetic speech - and in the middle) of a sentence or used independently: “Old man! I heard many times that you saved me from death” (Lermontov “Mtsyri”);

▪ in parentheses inside or after a quotation to express the author’s attitude (irony, indignation, etc.) to the quoted text.

4) Comma (,) is a punctuation mark used to separate or highlight words, groups of words and simple sentences within a complex sentence. The appearance of the comma in the monuments of Russian writing dates back to the 15th century. In modern Russian written speech, the comma is the most common punctuation mark, acting in a separating function (one comma) or in an exclusive function (paired punctuation mark - two commas). The comma is used:

▪ between homogeneous members of a sentence (connected without conjunctions, repeated or paired conjunctions, non-repeating conjunctions with an adversative or concessive meaning) and between repeated words: “I will put the mind, not the genus, as a governor.” (Pushkin “Boris Godunov”); “Winter was waiting, nature was waiting” (Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”);

▪ between simple sentences that are part of a complex non-union or compound sentence: “The sun set behind the mountains, but it was still light” (Lermontov, poem “Demon”);

▪ between the main and subordinate clauses (or to highlight the subordinate clause on both sides), between subordinate clauses: “Go along the free road, where your free mind takes you” (Pushkin, poem “To the Poet”);

▪ to separate or highlight isolated members of a sentence, with words or groups of words that limit or clarify other words in the sentence: “In the distance, closer to the grove, axes sounded dully” (Turgenev “Notes of a Hunter”);

▪ in comparative phrases: “like a storm, death carries away the groom” (Pushkin “Boris Godunov”);

▪ to separate or highlight words that are grammatically unrelated to the members of the sentence (introductory words, addresses, interjections, affirmative, negative and question words): “With his eyes, it seems he would like to eat everyone.”

(Krylov, fable “The Wolf in the Kennel”).

5) Semicolon (;) is a punctuation mark used in a complex and, less often, in a simple sentence to separate its relatively independent parts. First introduced by the Italian printer Aldus Manutius in 1449, who used it to separate opposite words and independent parts of compound sentences. Shakespeare already used (;) in his sonnets. In Church Slavonic, the semicolon played the role of a question mark.

▪ “And Esau said: Behold, I am going to die, and this is my preeminence.”

▪ “Esau said: Behold, I am dying, what is this birthright to me?”

In modern Russian writing, a semicolon is used:

▪ in complex non-conjunct and compound sentences, if their parts are significantly common and contain commas, for example: “The pale gray sky became lighter, colder, bluer; the stars blinked with faint light and then disappeared; the earth is damp, the leaves are sweating” (Turgenev “Bezhin Meadow”); “Almost every evening later they went somewhere out of town, to Oreanda or to a waterfall; and the walk was a success, the impressions were invariably beautiful and majestic every time” (Chekhov’s “Lady with a Dog”);

▪ in a simple sentence between homogeneous members of the sentence, if they are significantly common and contain commas, for example: “In the darkness, the same unclear objects were vaguely imagined: at some distance a black wall, the same moving spots; next to me is the croup of a horse, which, wagging its tail, spread its legs wide: its back is in a white Circassian coat.”

(L.N. Tolstoy, collected works, story “Raid”).

6) Colon (:) – a punctuation mark in the form of two dots located one below the other, used in a simple sentence and in a non-union complex sentence. Combinations of several points are noted in the monuments of Russian writing from the most ancient period. These signs were originally used to separate words or larger sections of text from each other. In modern Russian writing, a semicolon is used:

▪ before the listing, if it is preceded by a generalizing word or words, for example, somehow, namely, for example: “Large fish fight sharply, such as: pike, catfish, asp, pike perch” (Aksakov, “Notes of a rifle hunter of the Orenburg province ", stories and memories of a hunter about different hunts. "Hunting with a sharp edge");

▪ in a complex non-union sentence, if the second part reveals the content of the first part, complements the first or indicates the reason for what is said in the first part, for example: “Here a rather interesting picture opened up: a wide hut, the roof of which rested on two sooty pillars, was full of people” (Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”);

7) Dash – (French tiret, from tirer – to pull) – a punctuation mark in the form of a horizontal bar (-), used in simple and complex sentences. Introduced into use by the Russian writer and historian N.M. Karamzin. In modern Russian written speech, a dash is placed:

▪ between subject and predicate: “Lgov is a large steppe village” (Turgenev “Notes of a Hunter”);

▪ before the generalizing word that comes after homogeneous members: “Hope and the swimmer - the whole sea swallowed up” (Krylov, works in 2 volumes. “An old man and three young people”);

▪ before a separate application, usually at the end of a sentence: “I had a cast-iron kettle with me - my only joy in traveling around the Caucasus.”

(Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”);

▪ between members of a sentence to express surprise or opposition: “I wanted to travel around the whole world - and did not travel a hundredth part” (Griboyedov “Woe from Wit”);

▪ in a complex non-union sentence to indicate a rapid change of events, to express a sharp contrast, to express temporary, conditionally investigative and other relationships: “Ignat pulled the trigger - the gun misfired” (Chekhov’s “White-fronted”);

▪ between remarks in a dialogue given without a paragraph, or at the beginning of remarks given with a paragraph;

▪ to indicate the breakdown of a simple sentence into verbal groups, which often happens when a member of a sentence is omitted:

“I ask you: do workers need to be paid?” (Chekhov “Ivanov”);

“Everything is obedient to me, but I obey nothing” (Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”);

8) A double dash (a paired punctuation mark serving an emphatic function) is used to highlight:

▪ introductory and inserted sentences and constructions: “There is nothing to do here - friends kissed” (Krylov, fable “Two Doves”);

▪ a common application, standing after the word being defined to emphasize the independent meaning of this application: “In front of the doors of the club - a wide log house - workers with banners were waiting for the guests” (Fedin, novel “An Extraordinary Summer”);

9) Ellipsis - () - a punctuation mark in the form of those adjacent dots, used to indicate the incompleteness or interruption of a statement, as well as omissions in the text. It was first indicated in the grammar of A. Kh. Vostokov (1831) under the name “preventive sign”. Ellipsis is used:

▪ to indicate incompleteness or a break in a statement caused by the speaker’s excitement or an unexpected transition to another thought, as well as to indicate a pause emphasizing the text that follows: “Not receiving an answer, Dunya raised her head and fell on the carpet screaming.”

(Pushkin, prose, “The Station Agent”);

▪ when quoting (before the beginning of the quotation, in the middle or after it) to indicate that frequently quoted text has been omitted. To distinguish an omission in a quotation from an author's ellipsis, some special editions use a special technique: in the case of an omission, not three, but two dots are placed side by side.

2. 1. General comparison of modern Russian and European punctuation

The punctuation mark systems of most modern writing systems are the same.

The differences concern only details. Punctuation marks in English, for example, are used less frequently and differently than in Russian. Punctuation in English is a very problematic part of grammar. Unlike the Russian language, punctuation in English is not given due attention. Many native speakers take such liberties with punctuation marks in writing that they seem unacceptable.

English punctuation is basically similar to Russian, but its use is characterized by great freedom and is not subject to strict, mandatory rules.

The punctuation systems of Russian and English languages, in addition to general similarities, have a number of features. The functions of the same punctuation marks, as well as the ways of representing similar linguistic phenomena in written speech, often do not coincide. In Russian, punctuation depends mainly on the syntactic structure of the sentence, and in English, syntactic boundaries within a sentence are not necessarily formalized punctuationally.

In Russian, a subordinate clause is always separated by a comma from the main clause. In English this happens much less frequently, namely:

▪ The additional clause is not separated by a comma:

We know that at present all roads lead to Communism.

We know that nowadays all roads lead to communism.

▪ A subordinate attributive clause is not separated by a comma if it is not descriptive, but restrictive, that is, when it distinguishes the word being defined from a number of others:

The historic changes that have occurred in Asia are of cardinal significance.

The historical changes that have occurred in Asia are of paramount importance.

If the subordinate attributive clause provides only additional information about the word or sentence being defined and is equivalent to an independent clause, then it is separated by a comma:

Tsiolkovsky studied many branches of knowledge, which enabled him to become a prominent scientist.

Tsiolkovsky studied many branches of knowledge, which helped him become an outstanding scientist.

A subordinate conditional and adverbial clause is separated by a comma only if it precedes an equal clause (or if it is too long):

If you added less acid, the reaction would not be so violent.

If you added less acid, the reaction would not be so violent.

In Russian, quotation marks are placed at the bottom and at the top, in English - only along the top edge of the line:

Don't you like this “You don't like the man?” do you?”

Yes, I don't like it. "No, I don't"

Don't you like this “You don't like the man?” Do you?”

No, I like it. “Yes, I do”

In English, a dash is not used to convey remarks in dialogue between interlocutors or between the words of the author and direct speech, as in Russian; in this case, quotation marks are sufficient.

Single dashes perform several functions in English that do not coincide with the functions of a dash in Russian (here it is used to distinguish the subject from the predicate in a zero connective), for example: “Our neighbor is an engineer.” There is no such function in the English language, since in English there is no connective in a declarative sentence, then there may not be a dash, for example: “Not a coward!” But in the English language, a dash is placed where in the Russian language it is not typical for it to appear, namely, to indicate an interrupted or for some reason unfinished sentence (in Russian, in such cases, an ellipsis is placed). Let's analyze the examples: “Marrying Sibil Vane? " cried Lord Henry, standing up and looking at Dorian. “But, my dear Dorian – Yesterday when I heard that Sibil Vane had killed herself -. “The dash in this case denotes an unfinished statement, the reason for which is the strong excitement of the speaker, weighing his words. Another difference in the use of dashes in English from Russian. In English, it is not customary to place a dash at the beginning of a dialogue to indicate a change in speakers. Thus, we can safely say that the functions and rules for using a dash differ in Russian and English.

Both in English and in Russian, to frame words, phrases of an introductory nature, wedged into the text, to isolate a common application, paired commas or paired parentheses are used to close:

He, Martin Eden, was a better man than that fellow.

The old gentleman, her father, was always dabbing on speculation.

Sometimes commas are used to highlight additions on both sides, which in conversation have an intonation effect.

In the same way in Russian and English, a comma is placed in complex sentences in the presence of conjunctions “and”, “but”, “so”.

(“and”, “but”, “so”).

Use of a comma in a complex sentence. In Russian, a comma is always placed, but in English it is placed only when the subordinate clause ends, which is part of a complex sentence starting with the words “that”, “because”, “as”, “if”, “when”, “after”, “since”-(“this”, “because”, “how”, “if”, “when”, “after”, “since”), etc. But if the main clause comes first, then a comma is not placed before the listed allied words:

When Paul called to see Pearl, she found her still sick.

The day came to an end when they appeared in the distance.

Let's look at the differences in the use of commas in English and Russian sentences. In a sentence with a small text of direct speech, a comma is placed in the English sentence, but in Russian there will be a colon:

She sank down by his side and cried, “Oh, Phil! It’s all so horrid!” But if the text of direct speech is long, then a colon is also placed, for example:

Lincoln said: “Many years ago our fathers had left on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”

In conclusion, it is worth adding that introductory words in English, as in Russian, are necessarily separated by commas:

Namely, it was her natural shyness. (Namely)

Of course, he apologized. (Certainly)

As for the next sign, the colon, in both languages ​​it clarifies, explains, expands or narrows further information.

Sometimes a colon stylistically colors a sentence and indicates its high style and seriousness of information. Of course, there is a slight difference between the use of a comma and a colon, and in English the colon is used more widely, in a slightly different direction, i.e., it can be an independent statement, for example:

Oh, don’t shout Paul: it really isn’t nice.

Mother-in-Law, Sergius: mother-in-law.

The next sign - the semicolon - is also approximately the same in Russian and English, but sometimes the Russian semicolon corresponds to a colon in English. The most important function of a semicolon is to stand at the end of a sentence that expresses an incomplete thought, followed by another simple or complex sentence that completes the sentence, followed by a period. A semicolon can be placed several times in a sentence, using the example of one long complex non-union sentence, which includes several simple sentences that are not closely related to each other, so as not to confuse the reader with a long sentence with various complications.

Moreover, you can notice that mistakes are made much less frequently with this punctuation mark.

It should also be noted that the function of a period as a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence does not differ at all in different languages, which cannot be said about the dash.

Having analyzed the use of punctuation marks in Russian and English, we can come to the conclusion that it is some difference in their use that can cause errors.

Punctuation marks are now largely uniform and serve almost the same function in many European and non-European languages. So, for example, in Russian and most European languages, interrogative and exclamation sentences are fixed, as a rule, with one question mark or exclamation mark at the end of the sentence, and in Spanish - with two question marks and exclamation marks - at the beginning and at the end of the sentence. In this case, an inverted question mark and an exclamation mark are placed first:

-“¿Quién fue el autor de la Ilíada?”

-“¡Que me me acuerde de tí!”

- “¿Qué hace ahí?”

The Spanish language uses all the same symbols as the Russian language, but it also has its own, special ones. What are they called and what role do they play? coma - comma, punto final - period, punto y coma - semicolon, dos puntos - colon, puntos suspensivos () - ellipsis, principio de interrogación (¿) - initial question mark, fin de interrogación (?) - final question mark , principio de admiración (¡) - initial exclamation mark, fin de admiración (!) - final exclamation mark, paréntesis () - parentheses, diéresis o crema (¨) - trema, colon above the letter, comillas (""; "") - quotation marks, guión (-) - hyphen, raya (-) - dash, dos rayas (=) - double dash.

Commas, periods and parentheses indicate pauses of varying lengths, which when reading make it possible to understand the meaning of sentences. These signs are used in Spanish almost the same as in Russian, with the only difference being that complex sentences with many participial and participial phrases are not as frequent in Spanish as in Russian, and they do not stand out in writing.

A period is the end of a sentence or an abbreviation. Comma - enumeration, appeal, clarification, introductory words and connective words (esto es, es decir, o sea, en fin, por último, por consiguiente, sin embargo, no obstante, además, en tal caso, por lo tanto, en cambio, en primer lugar, generalmente, posiblemente, efectivamente, finalmente, en definitiva, por regla general, quizás). In addition, the comma is used in dates, bibliographic data and addresses (Madrid, 25 de enero de 2007. BELLO, Andrés: Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos.)

The semicolon is used to indicate a pause longer than that of a comma but shorter than that of a colon, and is most often used before a subordinate adversative clause.

A colon is used before a listing after a generic word.

Quotation marks indicate quotations, or give figurative meaning to certain words. The hyphen is used to hyphenate words and to connect parts of compound words.

The dash is used in direct speech, and in all other cases in the same way as in Russian (for lists, for clarifications, pauses, etc.). As for the double dash, it is a rarely used obsolete symbol used in copies of documents to indicate paragraphs that are given separately in the original.

Conclusion

Russian punctuation can be considered both in a narrow and in a broad sense. In a narrow sense, it includes basic punctuation marks. These are sentence-ending characters (period, exclamation point, question mark, ellipsis), sentence-middle characters (comma, semicolon, dash, colon), paired characters (double comma, double dash, parentheses, quotation marks). Thus, the main body of punctuation marks in the Russian language includes twelve characters that students should know well. In a broad sense, punctuation marks include signs of the spatial organization of text: space, paragraph indents, asterisks, etc.

Without the ability to put punctuation marks, it is impossible to master written speech as a whole, which is why it is so important to know punctuation - a branch of the science of language that talks about their use. And without mastering written language, thanks to which human knowledge and experience are passed on from generation to generation, it is impossible to even imagine life today.

Punctuation marks arose from the need to divide written text into segments of greater or lesser independence in accordance with the semantic structure of speech. Thus, the first punctuation marks indicated pauses of greater or lesser duration within a written text. It goes without saying that writers could be satisfied with such primitive punctuation only during the initial stages of using writing. And indeed, as writing developed, especially after the introduction and spread of printing, the system of punctuation became more complex and deepened, until in a relatively short period it reached a state that remains in its basic features in modern European languages.

The principles of punctuation are interrelated and in the same punctuation fact we can find a combination of different principles, although the leading one is syntactic (structural). Modern Russian punctuation is based on meaning, structure, and rhythmic-intonation division of the sentence in their interaction. Therefore, Russian punctuation is quite flexible and, along with mandatory rules, contains instructions that allow punctuation options.

Comparing the punctuation of texts that are chronologically distant from each other helped to understand the essence of modern Russian punctuation. Punctuation is a living, mobile, developing, historically established system.

Having analyzed the history of the use of punctuation marks in the Russian language and examined the norms for the use of punctuation marks in European languages, we can come to the conclusion that Russian punctuation is very similar to the punctuation of European languages ​​(Spanish, English).

Summarizing the centuries-old history of writing and printing, it can be noted that it has steadily developed towards an increase in both the number and variety of functions of the signs used - this was facilitated by the improvement of methods of presenting information, and the complication of human activity and the emergence of new forms of it led to the emergence of new categories of written signs that appeared as a response to the need for new types of information:

The invention of printing, the spread of literacy and paper correspondence, the transition of books from the field of highly specialized, mainly religious texts, to the field of sources of various worldly content required the introduction of punctuation marks that help convey intonation and semantic features, dialogues, etc.

The increasing complexity of legal practice and the need to compose structured texts led to the development of chapters, paragraphs, paragraphs, footnotes, explanations and the invention of symbols to highlight them.

The emergence of computer correspondence and conversational communication without direct contact has created a need for written transmission of emotions, gestures and facial expressions, which contributed to the emergence of emoticons.

In order to learn how to use punctuation marks, you need to understand what is the basis for their use. Do you think intonation? Oh no! This is a dangerously shaky approach. Everyone here would have done something like this in their own way! Remember about writing words by ear?

So what lies at the basis of Russian punctuation, what features of a sentence should be used in order to put punctuation marks correctly?

Russian punctuation has a double base. The great Lomonosov pointed out this in his “Russian Grammar”: Lowercase characters are placed according to the strength of the mind and according to its location, and conjunctions.

Remember: To put this or that punctuation mark, you must first determine the semantic side of the sentence and then its structure, that is, act according to the formula:

MEANING+STRUCTURE=PUNCTION MARKS

Here is an example of how a sign affects the meaning of sentences: There were a lot of people that day. They crowded around in the woods, along the shore, and settled on all the benches: some in tracksuits, some in pajamas, with children, dogs, guitars. (Yu. Trifonov). Firstly, thanks to the comma, the little forest was not on the shore; and secondly, the comma made it possible to avoid “pajamas with children and dogs.”

Colon

Ellipsis

Comma

Semicolon

Dash

Question and exclamation marks

Brackets

Quotes

Signs... but not signs

The controversial point is the gap. Due to its task of separating words, it can be classified as punctuation marks, but can emptiness be called a sign? Except technically.

Sources:

• Russian punctuation
• Basics of Russian punctuation

The semicolon is a punctuation mark. The semicolon was first introduced by the Italian printer Aldus Manutius, who used it to separate opposite words as well as independent parts of sentences. Since then, the semicolon (not only for this purpose) has become widely used in the ordinary writing of different nations.

Semicolon in Europe

In Europe, the semicolon was first introduced at the end of the 14th century by the Italian publisher and typographer Aldus Manutius, who lived and worked in Venice.

This man was engaged in publishing the works of ancient (mainly Greek) scientists and philosophers. Before Manutius, Europe wrote texts without any division into semantic parts (without using not only the usual periods or, but often without even putting spaces between words). Therefore, in order to make the books he published easier to read, Aldus Manutius needed to develop a punctuation system (which is still used in most languages ​​of the world).

In particular, the semicolon was also developed. The new sign was intended to separate words of opposite meaning.

After several centuries, the semicolon began to be used throughout Europe, but with its usual meaning - separating complex sentences. The exception here was the Greek (and, accordingly, Church Slavonic) language, in which the semicolon is still used as a question mark.

Semicolon in Russia

In ancient times, the Russian language did not use any punctuation marks, just like in Europe. The letters were written together, but the Russians sometimes used different semantic symbols above or below the letters in order to separate words. An irresistible need for punctuation marks that perform individual functions arose with the development of printing.

Punctuation in Ancient Rus' at the initial stage of its development was guided by Greek.

The first punctuation mark was the period. It appeared in the 1480s. Actually, years later all other signs originated from it, which was particularly reflected in their names.

In 1515, on behalf of Grand Duke Vasily III, Maxim the Greek (in the world his name was Mikhail Trivolis) was sent to Moscow to translate Greek books. This man really was a Greek, he did not understand Russian, but with the help of Russian translators and scribes, he first managed to translate the Psalter into Russian. It was then that the semicolon appeared (Maxim the Greek called it “hypodiastole”). But then the Greek recommended using this sign to indicate a question (the familiar question mark in writing did not yet exist).

A little later, after the question mark was invented, the semicolon began to be used in its usual meaning, as a separating symbol in large

Punctuation system in Russian it is built from punctuation elements: dots ( . ), comma ( , ), dash ( – ), question mark ( ? ), exclamation mark ( ! ) and brackets () . At the same time, the first three punctuation elements are also used as independent punctuation marks ( . , – ).

Question mark And exclamation point are used always with a dot under the sign, forming punctuation marks - question mark (?) And Exclamation point (!). All other punctuation marks are constructed from the named elements. This ellipses ( … ), colon ( : ), semicolon ( ; ), a rare sign - a comma and a dash ( ,– ).

Always paired quotes "..." And brackets(…) . These two signs - quotation marks and parentheses - are used in several grammatical variations. The quotation marks have the form “sweethearts” “...” And "Christmas tree" "..." ; “Christmas trees” are recognized as more significant than “paws”. Options for brackets in order of increasing importance are arranged as follows: round (…), square […], curly (…) ; Another version of brackets is rarely used - corner<…> .

In the practice of writing, it often becomes necessary to use several characters at the same time, and then a problem arises. sign combination problem. In such cases the dot is considered the main sign, it “absorbs” both the dash and the comma. When combined comma And dash both punctuation marks are preserved, and if necessary, pass the combination dash followed by comma (–,), for example, if after a separate application, marked on both sides with signs dash, the introductory word is located, then in such cases the fifth is skipped: It is “absorbed” by the dash sign.

Use if necessary interrogative And exclamation marks at the same time (for example, in an interrogative sentence with exclamatory intonation) is the question mark always put first? - ?!.

Interrogative And exclamation marks may overlap ellipses: ?.. , !.. , ??. , !!. , ?!. . Number of points in multipoints and remains in always three, since there is already a dot under the question mark and exclamation mark.

Graphic signs footnotes(number, asterisk or letter),single parenthesis after digit to indicate the ordinal position of a rubric (for example, 1), a) and so on.), single quotes when determining the meaning of a word or expression ( house - "residential building"),paragraph sign (§) – in the strict sense punctuation marks Not are. Does not count as punctuation and hyphen, which coincides in shape with the carry sign. That is why, if there is a need to transfer a complex word (or a word with an appendix) and you have to simultaneously use transfer sign And hyphen, then they make do with one hyphen, that is, the hyphen is not carried to the next line.

Punctuation marks, like other phenomena of the Russian language, have their own history.

In ancient texts the words are usually Not separated one from the other, and the boundaries of the sentences were not indicated.

The ancient Greeks, and then the Romans, already introduced beginning of punctuation: the first sign was dot(from Greek stigma – “injection mark”; Latin punctum – “made by injection”: they wrote stylus- with a pointed stick on a board covered with wax). The dot was placed either at the bottom of the line, or in the middle of the line, or at the top of the line, and the role of this sign was very uncertain.

IN XVI century in the written monuments of Ancient Rus' they began to use five punctuation marks; they were all called dots(word dot– from the verb poke ); the points were as follows: dot ( . ), comma ( , ), term ( · ), two-term ( : ) and subtable ( ; ) , the last character served as a question mark.

New stage in the development of punctuation begins with the development of printing. The need to make book text accessible to a wide range of readers led to changes in text formatting. Great merit in this belongs to Italian scientists - humanists Aldu Manutius , his son Pavel and grandson Ald the Younger (they published books from 1494 to 1597). The books they published (they were called " Aldinami ") served for a long time example of typographic technology. The punctuation of these books was rightly considered the fundamental basis of punctuation systems I eat in different languages ​​of our time.

At the same time they introduced question mark(this is a modified letter Q– first letter of the Latin interrogative pronoun Quo) And Exclamation point(Latin letter I– first letter of interjection Io).

To this day, the punctuation systems of different languages ​​are different: in general, the “meaning” of punctuation marks remains the same, but significant differences are seen in the number of punctuation marks, as well as in the peculiarities of their use.

So, in punctuation system in Spain(and in Spanish-speaking Latin America) interrogative And exclamation marks are put twice : at the beginning of an interrogative (exclamation) sentence, but inverted, and at the end, in its usual form, for example: ¿ Will you come ? – ¡ I'll definitely come ! By this, already before starting to read the phrase, the reader tunes in to the necessary intonation.

IN English punctuation, in addition to the hyphen and the usual dash, there is also "elongated" dash.

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