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An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word abbreviation itself can be abbreviated as abbr., abbrv., or abbrev.. It may also consist of initials only, a mixture of initials and words, or words or letters representing words in another language. Some types of abbreviations are acronyms or grammatical contractions or crasis.
Punctuation marks are marks indicating how a piece of written text should be read and, consequently, understood. The oldest known examples of punctuation marks were found in the Mesha Stele from the 9th century BC, consisting of points between the words and horizontal strokes between sections. The alphabet-based writing began with no spaces, no capitalization, no vowels, and with only a few punctuation marks, as it was mostly aimed at recording business transactions. Only with the Greek playwrights did the ends of sentences begin to be marked to help actors know when to make a pause during performances. Punctuation includes space between words and the other, historically or currently used, signs.
The comma, is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline of the text. Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight, but inclined from the vertical. Other fonts give it the appearance of a miniature filled-in figure 9 on the baseline.
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for three basic purposes:
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their names, that vary between British and American English. "Brackets", without further qualification, are in British English the (…) marks and in American English the […] marks.
In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes, talking marks, speech marks, quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. Quotation marks may be used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from that typically associated with it, and are often used in this way to express irony. They are also sometimes used to emphasise a word or phrase, although this is usually considered incorrect.
The slash is the oblique slanting line punctuation mark /. It is also known as a stroke, a solidus, a forward slash and several other historical or technical names. Once used to mark periods and commas, the slash is now used to represent division and fractions, exclusive 'or' and inclusive 'or', and as a date separator.
In rhetoric, a parenthesis or parenthetical phrase is an explanatory or qualifying word, phrase, clause, or sentence inserted into a passage. The parenthesis could be left out and still form grammatically correct text. Parenthetical expressions are usually delimited by round brackets, square brackets, dashes, or commas. English-language style and usage guides originating in the news industry of the twentieth century, such as the AP Stylebook, recommend against the use of square brackets for parenthesis and other purposes, because "They cannot be transmitted over news wires." Usage of parentheses goes back to the 15th century in English legal documents.
In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjunctions. That definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, and so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each language. In English, a given word may have several senses, and be either a preposition or a conjunction depending on the syntax of the sentence. For example, after is a preposition in "he left after the fight" but is a conjunction in "he left after they fought". In general, a conjunction is an invariable (non-inflected) grammatical particle that may or may not stand between the items conjoined.
In the English language, there are grammatical constructions that many native speakers use unquestioningly yet certain writers call incorrect. Differences of usage or opinion may stem from differences between formal and informal speech and other matters of register, differences among dialects, and so forth. Disputes may arise when style guides disagree with each other, or when a guideline or judgement is confronted by large amounts of conflicting evidence or has its rationale challenged.
In English-language punctuation, a serial comma is a comma placed immediately after the penultimate term in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of three countries might be punctuated as either "France, Italy and Spain" or "France, Italy, and Spain".
In written English usage, a comma splice or comma fault is the use of a comma to join two independent clauses. For example:
It is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.
A language-for-specific-purposes dictionary is a reference work which defines the specialised vocabulary used by experts within a particular field, for example, architecture. The discipline that deals with these dictionaries is specialised lexicography. Medical dictionaries are well-known examples of the type.
Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American spelling. Many of the differences between American and British/Commonwealth English date back to a time before spelling standards were developed. For instance, some spellings seen as "American" today were once commonly used in Britain, and some spellings seen as "British" were once commonly used in the United States.
The Latin adverb sic inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous, archaic, or otherwise nonstandard spelling, punctuation, or grammar. It also applies to any surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other matter that might be interpreted as an error of transcription.
Garner's Modern English Usage (GMEU), written by Bryan A. Garner and published by Oxford University Press, is a usage dictionary and style guide for contemporary Modern English. It was first published in 1998 as A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, with a focus on American English, which it retained for the next two editions as Garner's Modern American Usage (GMAU). It was expanded to cover English more broadly in the 2016 fourth edition, under the present title. The work covers issues of usage, pronunciation, and style, from distinctions among commonly confused words and phrases to notes on how to prevent verbosity and obscurity. In addition, it contains essays about the English language. An abridged version of the first edition was also published as The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style in 2000 and a similar version was published in The Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition in 2017. The latter includes three sections titled "Grammar", "Syntax" and "Word Usage", each with several subcategories.
The full stop, period, or full point. is a punctuation mark used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence.
The word data is most often used as a singular mass noun in educated everyday usage. However, due to the history and etymology of the word, considerable controversy has existed on whether it should be considered a mass noun used with verbs conjugated in the singular, or should be treated as the plural of the now-rarely-used datum.
References
Notes
- ↑ Assertions, such as those by Bryan A. Garner in Garner's Modern English Usage , [11] that "eg" and "ie" style versus "e.g." and "i.e." style are two poles of British versus American usage are not borne out by major style guides and usage dictionaries, which demonstrate wide variation. To the extent anything approaching a consistent general conflict can be identified, it is between American and British news companies' different approaches to the balance between clarity and expediency, without complete agreement on either side of the Atlantic, and with little evidence of effects outside journalism circles, e.g. in book publishing or academic journals.
There is no consistent British style. For example, The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors has "e.g." and "i.e." with points (periods); [12] Fowler's Modern English Usage takes the same approach, [13] and its newest edition is especially emphatic about the points being retained. [14] The Oxford Guide to Style (also republished in Oxford Style Manual and separately as New Hart's Rules) also has "e.g." and "i.e."; [15] the examples it provides are of the short and simple variety that often see the comma dropped in American usage as well. None of those works prescribe specifically for or against a comma following these abbreviations, leaving it to writers' own judgment.
Some specific publishers, primarily in news journalism, drop one or both forms of punctuation as a matter of house style. They seem more frequently to be British than American (perhaps owing to the AP Stylebook being treated as a de facto standard across most American newspapers, without a UK counterpart). For example, The Guardian uses "eg" and "ie" with no punctuation, [16] while The Economist uses "eg," and "ie," with commas and without points, [17] as does The Times of London. [18] A 2014 revision to New Hart's Rules states that it is now "Oxford style" to not use a comma after e.g. and i.e. (which retain the points), "to avoid double punctuation". [19] This is a rationale it does not apply to anything else, and Oxford University Press has not consistently imposed this style on its publications that post-date 2014, including Garner's Modern English Usage.
By way of US comparison, The New York Times uses "e.g." and "i.e.", without a rule about a following comma – like Oxford usage in actual practice. [20] The Chicago Manual of Style requires "e.g.," and "i.e.,". [21] The AP Stylebook preserves both types of punctuation for these abbreviations. [22]
"British" and "American" are not accurate as stand-ins for Commonwealth and North American English more broadly; actual practice varies even among national publishers. The Australian government's Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers preserves the points in the abbreviations, but eschews the comma after them (it similarly drops the title's serial comma before "and", which most UK and many US publishers would retain). [23] Editing Canadian English by the Editors' Association of Canada uses the periods and the comma; [24] so does A Canadian Writer's Reference. [25] The government publication The Canadian Style uses the periods but not the comma. [26]
Style guides are generally in agreement that both abbreviations are preceded by a comma or used inside a parenthetical construction, and are best confined to the latter and to footnotes and tables, rather than used in running prose.
References
- ↑ "Ecce Agnus dei".
- ↑ Richard Rutherford (2003). Introduction. Medea and Other Plays. By Euripides. Translated by John Davie. London: Penguin Group. p. 153. ISBN 0-14-044929-9.
- ↑ Caillau, Armand Benjamin (1838). "Sermones de Scripturis" [Conversations about the Scriptures]. Sancti Aurelii Augustini Opera [St. Augustine works] (in Latin). Vol. 4. Paris: Parent-Desbarres. p. 412.
Humanum fuit errare, diabolicum est per animositatem in errore manere.
- ↑ "University of Minnesota Style Manual: Correct Usage". .umn.edu. 2010-11-22. Archived from the original on 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ↑ "Traditional Latin Mass - MISSAL" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-02-08.
- ↑ Gray, John (2006), "Lawyer's Latin (a vade-mecum)", Hale, London, ISBN 9780709082774.
- ↑ "Pliny the Elder: the Natural History, Liber VIII". Penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
- ↑ Law, Jonathan; Martin, Elizabeth A. (2009). "Ex proprio motu". A Dictionary of Law. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Entry for "expressly" in: Meltzer, Peter E. The Thinker's Thesaurus: Sophisticated Alternatives to Common Words. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015 (3rd edition). ISBN 0393338975, ISBN 9780393338973.
- ↑ "Word Fact: What's the Difference Between i.e. and e.g.?". blog.Dictionary.com. IAC Publishing. August 19, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ↑ Garner, Bryan A. (2016). "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.). pp. 322–323, 480. This is an internationalized expansion of what was previously published as Garner's Modern American Usage.
- ↑ Ritter, Robert M., ed. (2003). "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. pp. 704, 768.. Material previously published separately as The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.
- ↑ Burchfield, R. W.; Fowler, H. W., eds. (2004). "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 240, 376.
- ↑ Butterfield, Jeremy; Fowler, H. W., eds. (2015). "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 248, 393.
Both should always be printed lower case roman with two points and no spaces.
- ↑ Ritter, Robert M., ed. (2003). "3.8: e.g., i.e., etc.". Oxford Style Manual. Oxford University Press. pp. 69–70.
- ↑ "abbreviations and acronyms". The Guardian and Observer style guide. Guardian Media Group/Scott Trust. 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ↑ "Abbreviations". The Economist Style Guide. Economist Group. 2017. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ↑ "'eg,' and ', ie'". The Times Online Style Guide. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ↑ Waddingham, Anne, ed. (2014). "4.3.8: Other uses [of the comma]". New Hart's Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 79.
- ↑ Siegal, Allan M.; Connolly, William G.; Corbett, Philip B.; et al., eds. (2015). "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". The New York Times Manual of Style (2015 ed.). The New York Times Company/Three Rivers Press. E-book edition v3.1, ISBN 978-1-101-90322-3.
- ↑ "5.250: i.e; e.g.". The Chicago Manual of Style (17th ed.). University of Chicago Press. 2017.
- ↑ "'e.g.' and 'i.e.'". Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (2009 ed.). Associated Press/Basic Books. pp. 95, 136.
- ↑ "6.73". Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (5th ed.). Australian Government Publishing Service. 1996. p. 84.
- ↑ "4.22: Latin Abbreviations". Editing Canadian English: The Essential Canadian Guide (Revised and Updated (2nd) ed.). McClelland & Stewart/Editors' Association of Canada. 2000. pp. 52–53.. States no rule about the comma, but illustrates use with it in §4.23 on the same page.
- ↑ Hacker, Diana; et al. (2008). "M4-d: Be sparing in your use of Latin abbreviations". A Canadian Writer's Reference (4th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's. pp. 308–309. This is a Canadian revision of an originally American publication.
- ↑ "12.03: Words commonly misused or confused". The Canadian Style (revised and expanded 2nd ed.). Dundurn Press/Public Works and Government Services Canada Translation Bureau. 1997. pp. 233–234.
- ↑ Rapini, Ronald P. (2005). Practical dermatopathology. Elsevier Mosby. ISBN 0-323-01198-5.
- ↑ Webb-Johnson AE (May 1950). "Experientia docet". Rev Gastroenterol. 17 (5): 337–43. PMID 15424403.
