The Emotion Of Book Review Jumping Between Punctuation Marks

By Zheng Lei

For a passage, punctuation is both important and not very important. What's important is that without punctuation such as commas, people can't even understand the text in many cases. There is no punctuation in the original Chinese ancient prose. To understand them requires a deeper knowledge of the readers. The so-called unimportance lies in the fact that many people often misuse punctuation and often neglect the importance of punctuation. The same is true of Western characters. However, since they are in pinyin, the writer should pay more attention to the spelling. After years of writing training, I have gradually felt the beauty of punctuation. Seeing the confession of Queen comma written by senior editor of the new Yorker, I feel humorous and enlightening. The book mentions a lot of interesting stories in editing and the use of punctuation marks, which is worthy of reference for English learners.

As far as English is concerned, the use of punctuation should not only take into account the grammatical requirements, but also the mood and rhythm. Sometimes too standard usage will bind the vivid words and destroy the rhythm of reading. Some people think that the pause in classical Chinese is not firm and unchangeable. Because the sound seeks Qi, it has not been used for a long time. But in fact, there are a lot of function words used to express mood in classical Chinese, which are handed down from mouth to mouth. Such a method of pause and turning is called "sentence reading".

Around 1490, the Venetian printer Aldo manuzio invented the comma, which was used to segment sentences and avoid ambiguity, and was later used in western languages. Similarly, the use of commas can be divided into two schools: one advocates improvisation and uses commas to indicate pause, just like the change of strength in music. When reading aloud, commas can indicate when to breathe; Another school uses commas to highlight the deep structure to clarify the meaning of the sentence. For example, in Nicholas Nickleby, he wrote, "but what principle attached the attention of Nicholas, was the old gentleman's eye... Grafted upon the quantness and odd of his appearance, It was something so indescribably engaging... (but it was the old gentleman's eyes that really attracted Nicholas... There was an indescribable charm in his strange and strange appearance...). Dickens likes to write long sentences, but according to this punctuation sentence, it is not only effortless, but also has a pleasant rhythm. This is a unique rhythm that we can not easily feel in Chinese translation.

Herman Melville, another well-known writer, doesn't seem to use commas very well. He wrote, "if I said much longer I would actually freeze to death, would come over me with such overpowering force as to break the policy speech.", There is a very strong force sweeping the whole body, breaking the ice curse). It's rare to add a comma between fact and that. Melville's original intention is to read with cadence. If it is changed to "after I have lain thus, when the fact that if I said much longer I would actually free to death would come over me with such overpowering force as to break the policy speech", I am afraid it will be out of breath and more difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence. This Standard Version filters out Melville's personality, leaving nothing but dry sentences.

The use of commas can not only add vitality to sentences, but also reflect the author's careful consideration. In the book light year written by writer James sott, the comma in "Eve was across the room in a thin, Burgundy dress that showed the dress outline of her stopach" is to highlight the abdomen line under the dress. This is not a thin wine red dress, but a thin dress, the color is wine red. The author specially added a comma to remind readers of the lightness of the skirt. The main grammatical purpose of punctuation is to prevent misreading. However, it is not necessary to be strict in the use of punctuation in case of avoiding confusion of meaning. In some cases, dashes can replace commas and semicolons, even when quotation marks or colons are used, which may be one of the characteristics of English. When Kennedy's widow Jacqueline replied to Nixon's consolation letter, he wrote: "I know how you must feel so long on the path so close missing the greatest prize - and now for you, All the question comes up again - and you must commit all you and your family's and hopes and effects again - just one thing I would say to you - if it does not work out as you have hoped for so long - please be consolidated by what you already have - your life and your family To miss it - now for you, all the problems are coming up again - you have to put all the hope and energy of yourself and your family again - but I just want to say to you - if you don't realize your long cherished wish - please think about what you already have and comfort yourself that you are still alive and have a family. " If the punctuation of Jacqueline's paragraph is modified according to the standard, the writing will become formal, precise and formal. The use of dashes here is more revealing of true feelings, more expressive and personality. Perhaps the charm of the text is one of them, although it is hard to say, it can be understood.

(Editor: Hong Xiaowen)