The word "punctuation" came to us from the Latin language. Literally punctum - "point". Punctuation is a system that studies punctuation marks and the conditions for their placement in sentences. Is it really necessary to use it? Is it really not enough to know the alphabet and the ability to write to understand and transmit information?
General information
Words are formed from letters that represent sounds. Through them, people communicate. But to understand what you hear, sometimes it is not enough to pronounce words in a certain sequence. When speaking, a person uses different intonations, either raising or lowering the tone. Thus, he focuses the attention of the listener on what was said. Between words or their individual groups, spaces of different lengths can be used. You can’t do without all these moments, because they give the sentence a certain semantic connotation. Speaking with the help of voice, pauses can correctly convey information to the interlocutor. And how to do all this to someone who writes, for example, a message? How to communicate your attitude in writingto what it is about? How to show and express your emotions? This is where punctuation helps. This is exactly the tool that helps to highlight the intonation in the letter.
Meaning
Along with spelling, punctuation is a necessary part of the graphic system of any language. Knowing the correct setting of different punctuation marks is as necessary as correct spelling. Without this, there will be no accuracy and completeness in the content of the text. What is needed for all readers to correctly evaluate and understand the information presented? This requires a set of rules for punctuation established within the national language. In the letter of different nationalities, they may have the same graphic image, but differ in their meaning and, therefore, the condition of use. But the main thing is not this. It is important that representatives of one language equally understand the meaning and designation of a particular punctuation mark.
Characteristic
Russian punctuation can be considered in a narrow and broad sense. In the first case, we are talking about basic punctuation marks. Everyone knows that a period is put at the end of any sentence. To convey interrogative intonation, expressing emotional coloring, you will need question or exclamation marks, ellipsis. These are end-of-sentence signs. Sometimes parts of a syntactic construction are separated from each other with a comma, semicolon, dash, colon. They are called signs of the "middle" of the sentence. Highlightparts of complex syntactic constructions can be done using double elements (commas or dashes), brackets and quotation marks. These are paired markers. There are twelve of them in total. For proper writing and correct understanding, students need to know about the condition for setting each of them.
In a broad sense, punctuation is a way of organizing text spatially. Here you can talk about paragraph divisions, spaces, asterisks and other signs. In the course of the educational process, students also need to be introduced to them. This is necessary for a complete understanding of the rules for the design and construction of the text. Children after the 7th grade get acquainted with the norms of punctuation most fully and in detail. Before that, they received only scattered principles, which includes punctuation. Grade 8 provides for a more in-depth study of the punctuation system. There is an understanding that by means of graphic elements the text is divided into parts, the peculiarity of the structure of the syntactic unit and its intonation is transmitted in writing.
Punctuation test
With the help of special computer tasks, you can check the level of your knowledge in this area. Testing will show the most common errors, indicate their causes. Recommendations that will be offered after the completion and verification of the task will help to avoid shortcomings in the future. This system can be used by high school students, applicants and teachers of the Russian language, as well as people whose occupation is associated with the growth of their own literacy and checking it with others.
From history
The formation of Russian punctuation took place at the beginning of the 19th century. In general terms, it was similar to the rules for punctuation in other European languages. But the punctuation of the past centuries is different from the modern one. In Ancient Russia, words and sentences were not separated from each other. Scribes in their work used such signs as a dot, a cross, a wavy line. After some time, colons, brackets, and a question mark begin to appear in writing. The further development of the system was influenced by the introduction of typography. Only by the beginning of the 19th century, when the modern Russian literary language was formed, did the basic concepts of the correct and uniform use of punctuation marks become stronger. At the same time, the famous representative of grammatical science, M. V. Lomonosov, began his monumental work: he created the "Russian Grammar" (1755). It was this person who in his work gave rise to Russian punctuation as a science.
Proceedings of scientists
Lomonosov's work was continued by his student, professor of Moscow University, A. A. Barsov. He clearly, accurately and clearly outlined the rules of Russian punctuation in his scientific work. But his "Grammar" has come down to us only in handwritten form. The most ordered and systematic information about punctuation was provided by Academician Ya. K. Grot in his book "Russian Spelling". For many years, the history and formation of the language and its individual sections have been studied. This book is the first collection in our countryspelling and punctuation rules. Groth's work is so famous that it went through twenty editions by 1917.
