Endangered Punctuation
Robert J. Samuelson's submission "The Sad Fate of the Comma" ,(Newsweek, July 23) caught my eye. Not just because of my interest in words, but because, about a month ago, I was involoved in a discussion about saving the comma from extinction.
What's wrong? You're looking at me like you've never discussed endangered punctuation around the dinner table before. Samuelson states "the comma is in retreat, though it is not yet extinct. In text messages and e-mails, commas appear infrequently, and then often by accident (someone hits the wrong key)."
I believe that the overuse of the ellipsis ( ... or dot-dot-dot) in e-mail and text messages is partly to blame for the decline of the comma. The ellipsis gets tossed around indiscriminately. At this rate, we may, one day, face an international shortage of full-stop periods - the key component in an ellipsis.
Samuelson argues that the downturn in the comma market is social commentary:
We should have seen it coming. When writing dates, one comma did the work that it takes 2 slashes to pull off. We require numbers to have 5 digits, instead of 4, before inserting a comma (13,067 : 3067). At some point, separating adjectival clauses with a comma became an elective process; but doesn't a non-restrictive clause beg for a general rule?The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don't have time for that. No pauses allowed.
(When did I begin holding the semi-colon in higher regard than the comma? The comma has 4 times the number of legitimate uses as the semi-colon!)
I, for one, am vowing here, beginning with this post, to preserve commas by using them more. In e-mail, I commit to using ellipses less often. Picture a life without full-stops It would become nearly impossible to identify the end of a complete thought On the other hand, it would make interrupting much easier
Commas used: 26
Tags: [Comma] [Ellipsis] [Semi-Colon]
[Newsweek] [Robert Samuelson]
[National Punctuation Day] (September 24)
2 comments:
Long live the semi-colon! It's truly the most intelligent punctuation mark; one needs to know when and how to use it effectively.
By the way, (comma), are you being ironic since the last sentence of your post is missing the period? Very few are clever enough to pull that off, Christine!
Thanks for noticing the lack of period in the closing paragraph. It's always rewarding to package a post and see the readers 'get it'.
I think you may be short-changing the dash - not to be confused with a hyphen. It's very versatile.
It's cross-trained in mathematics ( - ); suggests hesitation in speaking ( — ); is used to illustrate relationships ( – ); and can be swung ( ~ ) to separate alternatives.
Sadly, the preceding long list required the use of semi-colons to break up the items.
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