Stops

"Stops", by Paul Allardyce

The Project Gutenberg eBook, "Stops", by Paul Allardyce
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: "Stops" Or How to Puctuate. A Practical Handbook for Writers
and Students
Author: Paul Allardyce

Release Date: March 29, 2007 [eBook #20938]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "STOPS"***
E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which
includes the original illustrations. See 20938-h.htm or 20938-h.zip:

(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/0/9/3/20938/20938-h/20938-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/0/9/3/20938/20938-h.zip)
Transcriber's note:
Superscripted letters are indicated by the carat character followed by
the letter(s) within curly brackets. Example: ^{a}

"STOPS"
Or, How to Punctuate
A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students
by
PAUL ALLARDYCE

"For a reader that pointeth ill, A good sentence oft may spill."
--CHAUCER--Romaunt of the Rose

London T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. Adelphi Terrace Eighteenth Impression
1895

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE FULL STOP
THE COMMA

THE SEMICOLON
THE COLON
THE POINT OF INTERROGATION
THE MARK OF EXCLAMATION
THE DASH
BRACKETS (OR THE PARENTHESIS)
INVERTED COMMAS
ITALICS
THE HYPHEN
THE APOSTROPHE
ELLIPSIS
REFERENCES TO NOTES
CORRECTION OF PROOFS

INTRODUCTION
The Use of Punctuation.--Punctuation is a device for marking out the
arrangement of a writer's ideas. Reading is thereby made easier than it
otherwise would be.
A writer's ideas are expressed by a number of words arranged in groups,
the words in one group being more closely connected with one another
than they are with those in the next group. An example will show this
grouping in its simplest form:
He never convinces the reason, or fills the imagination,

----------------------------- --------------------- or touches the heart.
-----------------
To understand what is written, the reader must group the words
together in the way intended by the writer; and in doing this he can
receive assistance in various ways. Partly by the inflection of the words;
partly by their arrangement; partly also by punctuation. As to inflection,
we see in Latin an adjective and a substantive standing together, yet
differing in gender, in number, or in case; and we know that the
adjective does not qualify the substantive. But English has not the
numerous inflections of Latin. More scrupulous care therefore is
needed in the arrangement of words in order to bring together in
position such as are connected in meaning. Yet this is not always
enough. Except in the very simplest sentences there are generally
several arrangements which are grammatically possible; and, though all
save one may be absurd in meaning, the reader may waver for a
moment before the absurdity strikes him. Some artificial aid is thus
needed to prevent him from thinking of any arrangement but the right
one. There is no fault, for instance, to be found with the arrangement of
the following words, yet, printed without points, they form a mere
puzzle:
He had arrived already prepossessed with a strong feeling of the neglect
which he had experienced from the Whigs his old friends however all
of them appeared ravished to see him offered apologies for the mode in
which they had treated him and caught at him as at a twig when they
were drowning the influence of his talents they understood and were
willing to see it thrown into the opposite scale.
Of course, with a little effort the meaning can be discovered; but if such
a little effort had to be put forth in every page of a whole book, reading
would become a serious task. By means of points, or "stops," we are
spared much of this. The groups are presented ready-made to the eye;
and the mind, bent on understanding the thought, is not distracted by
having first to discover the connection of the words.
The reader's task is more difficult where two or more ways of grouping
the words not only are grammatically possible, but lead each to a more

or less intelligible meaning. As a rule he can find out from the context
which way the writer meant him to take. One politician writes to
another: "I ask you as the recognized leader of our party what you think
of this measure;" and nobody accuses the writer of presumption. We
might even pass over the following startling sentence without
observing the reflection which it casts on a respectable body of men:
Hence he considered marriage with a modern political economist as
dangerous.
But when we read that "the State may impose restrictions on the
mothers of young children employed in factories," we may well have