"Stops", Or How to Punctuate Part 5

Short phrases quoted in the course of the sentence need not have any point before them.

It was a usual saying of his own, that he had "no genius for friends.h.i.+p."

XXVIII. The colon may be placed after such words and phrases as the following, when used in marking a new stage in an argument:--Again, further, to proceed, to sum up, to resume.

To sum up: If you will conform to the conditions I have mentioned, I will sign the agreement.

But to bring this sermon to its proper conclusion: If Astrea, or Justice, never finally took her leave of the world till the day that, &c.

After these words, we have a choice of the comma, the colon, and the full stop. The comma will generally be used if the argument be contained in a single sentence; the full stop, if the argument be of very considerable length.

THE POINT OF INTERROGATION

XXIX. The point of interrogation is placed after a direct question.

Where are you going, my pretty maid?

Whether of them twain did the will of his father?

The question may end in the middle of a sentence:

Is he happy? you ask.

We have sometimes the choice of putting the point of interrogation in the middle or at the end of the sentence.

You would not consent to that, by whomsoever proposed.

You would not consent to that?--by whomsoever proposed.

There is a slight shade of difference in meaning; in the second form, "by whomsoever proposed" is added as an afterthought.

x.x.x. Indirect questions are not strictly questions at all, and therefore should not be followed by a point of interrogation.

He asked me whether I had seen his friend; whether I had spoken to him; and how I liked him.

If we restore these questions to the direct form, the point of interrogation is inserted.

He asked me: "Have you seen my friend? Have you spoken to him? How do you like him?"

x.x.xI. When a sentence contains more than one question, sometimes the point of interrogation is placed after each of them, sometimes it is placed only at the end of the sentence. It is placed after each, if each is in reality a distinct question; it is placed only at the end, if the separate questions so unite as to need but a single answer.

In many cases it will be a matter of individual taste to say whether they do so unite.

Is it better that estates should be held by those who have no duty than by those who have one? by those whose character and destination point to virtues than by those who have no rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own will and appet.i.te?

Do you imagine that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue, that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which gives you your army, or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No!

surely no!

Oh! why should Hymen ever blight The roses Cupid wore?

Or why should it be ever night Where it was day before?

Or why should women have a tongue, Or why should it be cursed, In being, like my Second, long, And louder than my First?

x.x.xII. Exclamations in an interrogative form take a mark of exclamation after them, not a point of interrogation. (See Rule x.x.xV.)

x.x.xIII. A point of interrogation enclosed within brackets is sometimes used to indicate that there is a doubt whether the statement preceding it is true, or whether the expression preceding it is well applied, or that some statement or expression is made or used ironically.

While you are revelling in the delights (?) of the London season, I am leading a hermit life, with no companions save my books.

THE MARK OF EXCLAMATION

x.x.xIV. The mark of exclamation is placed after interjections and words used interjectionally; that is to say, after expressions of an exclamatory nature. The exclamation may be one of surprise or of fear, or the utterance of a wish, a command, or a prayer.

Quick! Begone! Out of my sight!

Heaven preserve us!

Would that better feelings moved them!

O Lord, be merciful unto me, a sinner!

Interjections are not always followed immediately, and are sometimes not allowed at all, by a mark of exclamation. No rule can be given more precise than this: (1) That we should not insert a mark of exclamation immediately after an interjection, unless we should make a distinct pause after it in speaking; and (2) that no mark of exclamation is to be used at all, unless the exclamatory nature of the sentence is more or less strongly marked. It is useful to notice the difference between "O" and "Oh." The former is used only before the vocative case, and never has a mark of exclamation, or indeed any point, placed immediately after it.

Alas! all our hopes are blasted.

Lo, he cometh!

O Dido, Dido, most unhappy Dido!

Unhappy wife, still more unhappy widow!

Oh, do not reckon that old debt to my account to-day!

x.x.xV. The mark of exclamation is placed after sentences which, though interrogatory in form, are really exclamatory.

How could he have been so foolis.h.!.+

And shall he never see an end to this state of things! Shall he never have the due reward of labour! Shall unsparing taxation never cease to make him a miserable dejected being, a creature famis.h.i.+ng in the midst of abundance, fainting, expiring with hunger's feeble moan, surrounded by a carolling creation!

This rule might be put in another way by saying that a mark of exclamation, and not a point of interrogation, is placed after what are called rhetorical questions, or statements made more striking by being put in the form of questions. They are not asked for the sake of receiving a direct answer, and are in reality exclamations. Still all rhetorical questions are not thus punctuated; the point of interrogation is sometimes more effective. The sentences quoted under Rule x.x.xI. would lose much of their force if marks of exclamation were used. In each case we must decide whether the sentence strikes us most as a question or as the expression of emotion.