"Stops", Or How to Punctuate Part 8

The "Emily St Pierre" (or _Emily St Pierre_), a British ship, was captured on the 18th March, 1862.

It appeared in the "London Gazette" (or _London Gazette_).

The names of periodicals and of ships are more often written in italics than enclosed within inverted commas.

LVIII. If a quotation contains a question, the point of interrogation stands within the inverted commas.

In a voice which was fascination itself, the being addressed me, saying, "Wilt thou come with me? Wilt thou be mine?"

LIX. If an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation, the point of interrogation stands outside the inverted commas.

What does this honourable person mean by "a tempest that outrides the wind"?

Observe how in the example given under Rule LV. the point of interrogation stands within the double inverted commas, but outside the single inverted commas.

LX. If an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation which is itself interrogatory, the point of interrogation is placed outside the inverted commas.

Hast thou never cried, "What must I do to be saved"?

The reason is, that the question to be answered is not the quoted question, but "hast thou never cried?" No writer has been bold enough to insert two points of interrogation.

LXI. The last three rules apply also to exclamatory sentences.

(1) But I boldly cried out, "Woe unto this city!"

(2) Alas, how few of them can say, "I have striven to the very utmost"!

(3) How fearful was the cry: "Help, or we perish"!

LXII. Where an interrogative sentence ends with a quotation of an exclamatory nature, or an exclamatory sentence ends with a quotation of an interrogative nature, it seems better to place at the end both the point of interrogation and the mark of exclamation, the one inside, the other outside, the inverted commas.

Do you remember who it was that wrote

"Whatever England's fields display, The fairest scenes are thine, Torbay!"?

How much better to cease asking the question, "What would he have done in different circ.u.mstances?"!

Where inverted commas are not used, it seems sufficient to have only one point, which must be the one required by the whole sentence, not by the quotation.

Do you remember the pa.s.sage where Burke alludes to the old warning of the Church--_Sursum corda_?

ITALICS

LXIII. Words to be specially emphasized may be put in italics. In writing, the subst.i.tute for italics is underlining.

What, it may well be asked, can the interests of the community be those of--I do not say _an_ individual, but--_the_ individual?

The voice can unmistakably indicate what are the emphatic words; but italics, only a feeble subst.i.tute, ought not to be used unless every other means of emphasizing fail. Many writers of authority have strongly, and very justly, condemned the too frequent use of them.

Double underlining in letter-writing need not be here adverted to. If the person to whom one writes a letter is likely to read it without appreciation or care, one is ent.i.tled to adopt any means that will ensure attention. But if double underlining is allowable only on this ground, general rules are obviously of no use.

LXIV. Words from a foreign language which have not become cla.s.sical English words, are written in italics.

The slightest _double entendre_ made him blush to the eyes.

Knowledge of French is a _sine qua non_.

When foreign words become English, they are no longer italicized.

Among such words are: rationale, aide-de-camp, quartette, nave, libretto. It is often a matter of discretion to say whether a word is so far naturalized that it should be written in the ordinary way.

LXV. Names of newspapers and magazines, and names of ships, are generally written in italics; as the _Times_, the _Fort-nightly Review_, the _Great Eastern_.

THE HYPHEN

LXVI. The hyphen is used between the component parts of some compound words.

Paper-knife; book-keeping; coal-pit; water-carrier; printing-press; sea-water; man-of-war; now-a-days; high-art decoration; good-looking.

There is no rule to distinguish the compound words that take a hyphen from those that do not. If one be in doubt about a particular word, the best thing to do is to refer to a dictionary.

LXVII. When one syllable of a word ends with a vowel, and the next syllable begins with the same vowel, the hyphen is placed between the syllables to indicate that the two vowels do not form a diphthong, that is, that they should not be p.r.o.nounced together.

Co-operative; co-ordinate; pre-eminently; re-establish; re-echo.

In the same way the hyphen sometimes ensures that two consonants shall be p.r.o.nounced separately; as in "book-keeping," "sh.e.l.l-less,"

"c.o.c.k-crow," "sword-dance."

LXVIII. As a rule, a hyphen should not be placed after a simple prefix: "contravene," "preternatural," "hypercritical," "bilateral."

To this there are some exceptions:

(_a_) "Anti-religious," "ultra-liberal," "semi-lunar," "co-eval." In these words the p.r.o.nunciation is more clearly marked by inserting the hyphen. Compare "antiseptic," "antinomian," "ultramontane,"