Changes occurring in the punctuation system of the Russian language. Punctuation marks in modern Russian language

1. What is punctuation?!

Punctuation (from Latin point - punctum Middle Eastern Latin - punctuatio) is a system of punctuation marks found in the writing of any language, as well as a set of rules for their placement when writing.

Punctuation contributes to the clarity of the syntactic and intonation structure of speech, highlights both members of sentences and individual sentences, thereby facilitating oral reading.

Punctuation system in Russian

The modern Russian punctuation system has been formed since the 18th century. based on achievements in the theory of grammar, including the theory of syntax. The punctuation system has some flexibility: along with mandatory norms, it contains instructions that are not strict in nature and allow options that are related both to the meaning of the written text and to the features of its style.

Historically, in Russian punctuation, among questions about its purpose and foundations, 3 main directions have stood out: intonational, syntactic and logical.

Intonation direction in the theory of punctuation

Adherents of the intonation theory believe that punctuation marks are needed to indicate the melody and rhythm of a phrase (L.V. Shcherba), which mainly reflects not the grammatical division of speech, but only the declamatory-psychological one (A.M. Peshkovsky).

Although the representatives various directions There is a strong divergence of positions, yet they all recognize punctuation, which is an important means of designing a written language, its communicative function. Using punctuation marks, the division of speech according to meaning is indicated. Thus, a dot indicates the completeness of the sentence, as the writer understands it; the placement of commas between homogeneous members in a sentence indicates the syntactic equality of these sentence elements that express equal concepts, etc.

Logical direction

Theorists of the semantic or logical direction include F.I. Buslaev, who said that “...punctuation marks have a dual meaning: they contribute to clarity in the presentation of thoughts, separating one sentence from another or one part of it from another, and express the feelings of the speaker’s face and his attitude towards the listener. The first requirement is satisfied by: comma (,), semicolon (;), colon (:) and period (.); the second - signs: exclamation (!) and interrogative (?), ellipsis (...) and dash (-).”

In modern writing, the semantic understanding of the basis of Russian punctuation (German punctuation is close to it, but English and French diverge from it) was expressed in the works of S.I. Abakumov. and Shapiro A.B. The first of them notes that the main purpose of punctuation is that it indicates the division of speech into separate parts that play a role in expressing thoughts during writing. Although he goes on to say that for the most part, the use of punctuation marks in Russian writing is governed by grammatical (syntactic) rules. But he believes that “the meaning of the statement still lies at the heart of the rules.”

Shapiro A.B. States that the main role punctuation is a designation of a number of semantic shades and relationships that, due to their importance for understanding a written text, cannot be expressed by syntactic and lexical means.

2. Why is punctuation needed in Russian?

Understanding why punctuation is needed contributes to competent writing and ease of expression. Punctuation is needed to make text easier to read; with its help, sentences and their parts are separated from each other, which allows you to highlight a specific idea.

When considering punctuation marks, one cannot ignore their functions in the Russian language.

Having started a conversation about why punctuation is needed, it is necessary to clarify what punctuation marks exist, since there are many of them and each plays its role. Punctuation can be used in text - both to separate several different sentences, and within one sentence.

Dot - separates sentences and symbolizes neutral intonation: “Tomorrow I will go to the theater.” Used in abbreviations: “i.e. - that is".

Exclamation mark - used to express emotions of admiration, surprise, fear, etc., separates sentences from each other: “Hurry up, you must be in time!” Also, an exclamation mark is used to highlight the address within the sentence itself, emphasizing the intonation: “Guys! Please don’t be late for class.”

Question mark - expresses a question or doubt, separating one sentence from another: “Are you sure you did everything right?”

Within a sentence, punctuation also plays a prominent role. But without understanding why punctuation is needed, we will not be able to clearly express our thoughts and write an essay, since without the correct selection of parts the meaning will be lost.

The following punctuation marks are used within sentences:

A comma divides a sentence into parts, serves to highlight individual thoughts or references, and separates its simple components in a complex sentence from each other. “It doesn’t really matter to me what you think about this” is a complex sentence. “For lunch they served cabbage soup, mashed potatoes with chops, salad and tea with lemon” - homogeneous members in the sentence.

Dash - they indicate pauses, replace missing words, and also indicate direct speech. " Healthy eating- the key to longevity” - here the dash replaces the word “this”. “What time can you come tomorrow? - asked the cashier. “At about three o’clock,” Natalya answered her.” - direct speech.

Colon - used to emphasize what follows; delimits parts of one sentence that explain each other and are interconnected; direct speech is separated from the words of the author or this is how the beginning of the enumeration is indicated. “The buffet sold delicious pies with different fillings: apples, potatoes, cabbage, cheese, boiled condensed milk and jam.” - transfer. Direct speech: “Without looking her in the eyes, he said: “Don’t hope, I will never return to you,” and quickly walked away.”

Semicolon - used in sentences that have a complex composition, in which there is not enough comma to separate parts. “It was a feeling of warmth and light that brought happiness and peace, made the world a better place, filling the soul with joy; These feelings first visited me here many years ago and since then I have always strived back to experience them again and again.”

Understanding why punctuation is needed, you will be able to correctly and clearly express your thoughts when writing, emphasize what needs to be emphasized, and by doing this in accordance with the rules, you will show the readers of your essays that you are a literate person.

Knowledge of punctuation rules is carefully checked when passing the GIA exams (state final certification), because you cannot do without this knowledge. Indeed, only the correct use of punctuation will allow you to be understood correctly in any correspondence

3. Principles of Russian punctuation

The principles of Russian punctuation are the basis of modern punctuation rules that determine the use of punctuation marks. We must remember that the purpose of punctuation marks is to help transfer spoken speech into writing in such a way that it can be understood and reproduced unambiguously. Signs reflect the semantic and structural division of speech, as well as its rhythmic and intonation structure.

It is impossible to build all the rules on one principle - semantic, formal or intonation. For example, the desire to reflect everything structural components intonation would make punctuation very difficult; all pauses would have to be marked with signs: My father // was a poor peasant; The moon rose over the forest; Grandfather asked Vanya // to chop and bring firewood, etc. The absence of signs in such positions does not make it difficult to read texts or reproduce their intonation. The formal structure of the sentence is not reflected by signs with complete consistency; for example, homogeneous compositional series with a single and: Signs are connected with everything: with the color of the sky, with dew and fog, with the cry of birds and the brightness of starlight (Paust.).

Modern punctuation is based on meaning, structure, and rhythmic-intonation division in their interaction.

4. Punctuation marks in Russian

punctuation punctuation Russian writing

Punctuation marks are graphic (written) signs needed to divide text into sentences and convey in writing the structural features of sentences and their intonation.

Russian punctuation marks include: 1) period, question mark, exclamation mark - these are the end of sentence marks; 2) a comma, a dash, a colon, a semicolon - these are signs for separating parts of a sentence; 3) brackets, quotation marks (“double” signs) highlight individual words or parts of a sentence; for this purpose, commas and dashes are used as paired signs; if the construction being highlighted is at the beginning or end of the sentence, one comma or dash is used: I was bored in the village like a locked puppy (T.); In addition to rivers, there are many canals in the Meshchera region (Paust.); - Hey, where are you going, mom? - And there, - home, son (Tv.); 4) a special ellipsis sign, “semantic”; it can be placed at the end of a sentence to indicate the special significance of what was said or in the middle to convey confused, difficult or excited speech: - What is dinner? Prose. Here is the moon, the stars... (Acute); - Father, don't shout. I will also say... well, yes! You're right... But your truth is narrow for us... - Well, yes! You... you! How... you were educated... and I'm a fool! And you... (M.G.).

Combinations of signs convey a special, complex meaning. Thus, the use of question and exclamation marks together forms a rhetorical question (i.e., a strengthened statement or denial) with an emotional connotation: Who among us has not thought about war?! Of course, everyone thought (Sim.); A scoundrel and a thief, in a word. And marry such a person?! Live with him?! I'm surprised! (Ch.). The combination of different meanings can be achieved by combining a comma and a dash as a single sign: A black horseman rode by, swinging in the saddle, - the horseshoes struck two blue sparks from the stone (M.G.); The sky cleared above the forest - the pale sun poured onto the gray bell towers of Beloomut (Paust.) - grammatical uniformity, enumeration is conveyed by a comma, and with the help of a dash the meaning of the consequence-result is emphasized. More often they can be placed side by side, each according to its own rule, for example, a dash in a non-union complex sentence after a comma, conveying isolation: cf.: You, brother, are a battalion (Tv.) - the dash is used according to the rule “a dash between the subject and the predicate (before the linking particle is)”, and the address is highlighted with commas.

Options for using punctuation marks are provided for by punctuation rules. If different signs are allowed, then usually one of them is the main one, i.e. he is given an advantage. Thus, inserted structures are usually distinguished by brackets: After a few days, the four of us (not counting the all-seeing and omnipresent boys) became such friends that the four of us went almost everywhere (Paust.). It is allowed to highlight an insert using two dashes: And in mid-May there was a thunderstorm and such downpour that along the street - it was not flat, but sloping - a whole river of yellow water rolled violently (S.-C.). For brackets this use is the main one, and for a dash it is one of many and secondary.

Options for using signs are provided for by the rules for the design of complex non-union sentences, for example, when explaining or motivating, a dash is used instead of the main colon sign: Separation is illusory - we will be together soon (Ahm.). When isolating definitions and applications, along with commas, dashes can be used: The sea - gray, wintry, inexpressibly gloomy - roared and rushed behind the thin sides, like Niagara (Paust.); Colored autumn - the evening of the year - smiles brightly at me (Marsh.). It is possible to highlight separate definitions and applications with two signs - a comma and a dash - at the same time: A calm, courageous whistle flew in - an oceanic one, in three tones (Paust.). Variations in the placement of signs are also allowed by some other rules (in particular, a comma and a semicolon in a complex non-union sentence, a comma and an exclamation mark when addressing, an exclamation mark and a question mark with an exclamation point when asking a rhetorical question, etc.).

Variation also manifests itself in the possibility of using or not using signs in some other cases, for example, some introductory words are inconsistently highlighted: indeed, in fact, first of all, predominantly; they can be emphasized together with the attached noun.

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1. Introduction.

2. History of modern punctuation.

3. Punctuation marks in modern Russian.

4. Principles of modern punctuation.

Logical

Syntactic

Intonation

Introduction

P Unctuation (from Latin punctum ‘dot’) is a set of punctuation marks and a system of developed and established rules for their use.

Why is punctuation needed? Why are the letters of the alphabet not enough to make what is written clear to the reader? After all, words are made up of letters denoting the sounds of speech, and speech is made up of words. But the fact is that pronouncing individual words one after another does not mean making what is spoken understandable. Words in speech are combined into groups, between groups of words, and sometimes between individual words, intervals of varying lengths are made; in word groups or over individual words, the tone is raised or lowered. And all this is not accidental, but is subject to certain rules: intervals, and rising and falling pitches (the so-called intonation) express certain shades of meaning of speech segments. The writer must firmly know what semantic connotation he wants to give to his statement and its individual parts and what techniques he should use for this.

Punctuation, like spelling, forms part of the graphic system adopted for a given language, and must be as firmly mastered as the letters of the alphabet with their sound meanings, in order for the letter to accurately and completely express the content of the statement. And in order for this content to be equally perceived by all readers, it is necessary that the meaning of punctuation marks be firmly established within the boundaries of one national language. It doesn't matter what appearance punctuation marks in different languages may be the same, but the meaning and, therefore, their use are different. It is important that all those who write and read in a particular language understand in exactly the same way what this or that punctuation mark expresses.

History of modern punctuation

Russian punctuation, in contrast to spelling, developed relatively late - by the beginning of the 19th century and in its main features is similar to the punctuation of other European languages.

In Old Russian writing, the text was not divided into words and sentences. Punctuation marks (dot, cross, wavy line) divided the text mainly into semantic segments or indicated the situation in the scribe’s work. In some 16th century manuscripts they are not widely used. Question marks, parentheses, and colons gradually come into use. Great importance for the development of punctuation was the introduction of printing. The placement of punctuation marks in printed works was primarily the work of typographical craftsmen, who often did not take into account what the author's handwritten text represented in terms of punctuation. But this does not mean that authors, especially writers and poets, did not have any influence on the formation of the Russian punctuation system. On the contrary, their role in this regard has become increasingly stronger over time, and modern Russian punctuation should be considered as the result of a long and complex interaction between the punctuation system that was established in a number of European languages ​​(including Russian) after the introduction of printing, and those techniques for using signs that were developed by the best masters of Russian literary speech over a long period from the 18th century to the present.

The system of punctuation marks, which had formed in its basic outlines by the 18th century, also required the development of certain rules for their use. Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, the first attempts to theoretically understand the placement of punctuation marks that existed at that time were observed (Maxim the Greek, Lavrenty Zizaniy, Melety Smotritsky). However, the general and specific principles of punctuation marks in their main features developed during the 18th century, when the formation of the foundations of the modern Russian literary language ended.

The scientific development of Russian punctuation was started by the brilliant representative of grammatical science of the 18th century, M.V. Lomonosov, in his work “Russian Grammar”, written in 1755. Lomonosov gives an exact list of punctuation marks used by that time in Russian printed literature, sets out in a system the rules for their use, formulating these rules on a semantic and grammatical basis, i.e. For the first time in Russian grammatical literature, he provides a theoretical foundation for practically existing punctuation: all rules for the use of punctuation marks are reduced to a semantic-grammatical principle.

The rules of punctuation were very thoroughly set out by Lomonosov’s student, Moscow University professor A. A. Barsov, in his grammar, which, unfortunately, was not published, but came to us in handwritten form. Barsov's grammar dates back to 1797. The rules of punctuation are placed by Barsov in the section called “Proclamation of Laws”, and are thereby put in connection with the rules of reading. This is explained by the fact that Barsov’s definition of punctuation and its rules cover various aspects of written speech, including methods of oral pronunciation of written and printed words.

The greatest merit in streamlining Russian punctuation in the 19th century belongs to academician J. K. Grot, whose book “Russian Spelling” - the result of many years of research into the history and principles of Russian writing - became the first academic set of rules of spelling and punctuation in Russia and went through 20 editions to 1917. Grotu sets out in detail the history and principles of Russian writing, difficult cases of spelling, and provides a scientifically systematized and theoretically meaningful set of rules for spelling and punctuation. The rules for the use of punctuation marks formulated by him are valuable in that they summarize the searches in the field of punctuation of previous authors. Grotto's ordered punctuation, as well as spelling, rules entered into the practice of schools and publishing houses and, at their core, with minor changes, are still in effect today. The set of “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” in 1956 only clarified some contradictions and ambiguities and formulated rules for previously unregulated cases.

In the first half of the 20th century, A.M. Peshkovsky, L.V. Shcherba and some other linguists paid attention to punctuation issues in their small works in this area; in the middle and second half of the 20th century, basic research according to punctuation by A. B. Shapiro. However, to this day, the theory of punctuation is at a low level of development and does not correspond to the general theoretical level of Russian linguistic science. Until now, linguists working in the field of punctuation do not have a common point of view on the foundations of modern Russian punctuation. Some scientists adhere to the point of view that Russian punctuation is based on a semantic basis, others on a grammatical basis, still others on a semantic-grammatical basis, and still others on an intonation basis. However, despite the theoretical disagreements among scientists, the fundamental principles of Russian punctuation remain unchanged, which contributes to its stability, although individual punctuation rules are periodically clarified and specified in connection with the development of Russian grammatical theory and the Russian literary language in general.

Punctuation marks in modern Russian language

Punctuation marks in the modern Russian language, differing in their functions, purpose, and place of their placement in a sentence, enter into a certain hierarchical dependence. According to the place of placement in a sentence, punctuation marks are distinguished between the end and middle of a sentence - final and internal marks. All separating terminal marks - period, question and exclamation marks, ellipses - have greater force than internal marks.

The so-called internal punctuation marks - semicolon, comma, dash, colon, parentheses - are heterogeneous in their use. The most “strong”, hierarchically senior separating punctuation mark within a sentence is the semicolon. This sign, indicating the boundaries of homogeneous members of a sentence or predicative parts as part of complex sentence, is able to convey a meaningful pause in oral speech. The other four internal punctuation marks (comma, dash, colon, parentheses) differ in their informative load, functional range, and duration of pauses when “reading” them. The hierarchy of their pause values ​​begins with a comma and ends with parentheses.

The difference in content between the four internal punctuation marks under consideration is expressed, on the one hand, in different amounts of information load and, on the other hand, in different degrees of specificity of meanings that they can record in writing. Of these signs, the comma is the most polysemantic, the dash is somewhat narrower in meaning, the colon is noticeably narrower, and the most concrete sign in terms of content is the parentheses. Consequently, the least degree of specificity of meaning is inherent in the comma and the greatest in parentheses. Thus, the hierarchy of increasing the degree of specificity of the meanings of the indicated four punctuation marks corresponds to the noted hierarchy of pausal values ​​and the hierarchy of their functional range.

Based on the hierarchical dependence of punctuation marks, the features of their compatibility when found in a sentence are established. In some cases, punctuation marks are combined when they meet, in others, a sign of lesser strength is absorbed by more strong sign. One of the two elements of a paired, separating sign may occur with a separating sign or with an element of another paired sign. An encounter with a separating sign is usually observed if the construction being distinguished is at the beginning or end of a sentence (the predicative part of a complex sentence) or on the border with homogeneous members. The meeting of elements of distinguishing marks occurs in cases where one distinguished syntactic construction follows another distinguished construction, for example, an isolated member, or a comparative phrase, or a participial part after another isolated member, a subordinate clause after another isolated member, a subordinate clause, an introductory or insertive design, etc.

In the Russian language they perform several functions. They replace intonation pauses and emphasis keywords, lowering/raising the voice, characteristic of Depending on the purpose, they can be divided into several groups.

Marks at the end of a sentence

All punctuation marks have their own specific meaning. So, at the end of a sentence there is either a period, an ellipsis, and an exclamation point.

• A period is needed if the statement contains any message and is of a narrative nature: “Today it snowed heavily all day, from morning until late evening.”
• The ellipsis indicates that the thought expressed in the sentence is not finished and requires continuation: “Please tell me, could you…”.
• Question punctuation marks are used if the sentences contain the question: “Where do you still run?”
• Exclamatory - when the statement contains an incentive to do something or emotional intensity: “Sanya, how glad I am to see you! Come here!”

Signs within a sentence

Inside the sentence, you use your own punctuation comma, semicolon, colon and dash, and parentheses. In addition, there are also quotation marks that can open and close an independent statement, and are also located inside an already created one. We use a comma in the following cases:

• At homogeneous members sentences, separating them from each other: “Snowflakes above the ground are circling softly, smoothly, measuredly.”
• When it serves as the boundary of simple sentences as part of a complex one: “Thunder struck and the rain poured down like a solid wall.”
• Punctuation marks when isolating participles and participial phrases: “Smiling, the boy kept talking and talking without stopping. His interlocutors, who laughed heartily, were very pleased with the boy.”
• If the sentence contains introductory words or “In my opinion, the weather should recover soon.”
• With conjunctions “but, a, yes and” and others, this punctuation mark is required: “At first I decided to go for a walk, but then I changed my mind.”

The list of punctograms, of course, is far from complete. To clarify it, you should refer to syntax textbooks.

The colon is placed according to certain rules:

• It is used with generalizing words: “Everywhere: in the rooms, in the corridor, even in the remote corners of the pantry and kitchen - multi-colored lights of garlands shone.”
• A colon is used to indicate explanatory relations within its parts: “My friend was not mistaken with the forecasts: heavy, low clouds were slowly but surely gathering in the west.”
• When speaking directly, we also must not forget about this punctuation mark: it separates the author’s words: “Coming close, the guy knitted his eyebrows threateningly and muttered: “Maybe we should go out?”

A semicolon is written if the sentence is complex, non-conjunctive, and there is no close connection between its parts or if each part has its own punctuation marks: “Meanwhile it got dark; lights flashed in the houses here and there, streams of smoke came out of the chimneys, the smell of cooking food.” .

A dash is also placed in non-union sentences or if the subject and predicate are expressed by a noun in the presence of the particle “this”, etc.: “Spring is the shine of the sun, the blue of the sky, the joyful awakening of nature.”

Each punctogram has a number of nuances and clarifications, so for competent writing you must regularly work with reference literature.

Punctuation system in Russian it is built from punctuation elements: dots (. ), comma (, ), dash (– ), question mark (? ), exclamation point (! ) and brackets() . At the same time, the first three punctuation elements are also used as independent punctuation marks ( . , – ).

Question mark And exclamation point are used always with a dot under the sign, forming punctuation marks - question mark (?) And Exclamation point (!). All other punctuation marks are constructed from the named elements. This ellipses (… ), colon (: ), semicolon (; ), a rare sign - a comma and a dash (,– ).

Always paired quotes "..." And brackets(…) . These two signs - quotation marks and parentheses - are used in several grammatical variations. The quotation marks have the form “sweethearts” “...” And "Christmas tree" "..." ; “Christmas trees” are recognized as more significant than “paws”. Options for brackets in order of increasing importance are arranged as follows: round (…), square […], curly (…) ; Another version of brackets is rarely used - corner<…> .

In the practice of writing, it often becomes necessary to use several characters at the same time, and then a problem arises. sign combination problem. In such cases the dot is considered the main sign, it “absorbs” both the dash and the comma. When combined comma And dash both punctuation marks are preserved, and if necessary, pass the combination dash followed by comma (–,), for example, if after a separate application, marked on both sides with signs dash, located introductory word, then in such cases the fifth is skipped: It is “absorbed” by the dash sign.

Use if necessary interrogative And exclamation marks at the same time (for example, in an interrogative sentence with exclamatory intonation) is the question mark always put first? - ?!.

Interrogative And exclamation marks may overlap ellipses: ?.. , !.. , ??. , !!. , ?!. . The number of dots in the ellipses remains in always three, since there is already a dot under the question mark and exclamation mark.

Graphic signs footnotes(number, asterisk or letter),single parenthesis after digit to indicate the ordinal position of a rubric (for example, 1), a) and so on.), single quotes when determining the meaning of a word or expression ( house - "residential building"),paragraph sign (§) – in the strict sense punctuation marksNot are. Does not count as punctuation and hyphen, which coincides in shape with the carry sign. That is why, if there is a need to transfer a complex word (or a word with an appendix) and you have to simultaneously use transfer sign And hyphen, then they make do with one hyphen, that is, the hyphen is not carried to the next line.

Punctuation marks, like other phenomena of the Russian language, have their own history.

In ancient texts the words are usually Not separated one from the other, and the boundaries of the sentences were not indicated.

The ancient Greeks, and then the Romans, already introduced beginning of punctuation: the first sign was dot(from Greek stigma – “injection mark”; Latin punctum – “made by injection”: they wrote stylus- with a pointed stick on a board covered with wax). The dot was placed either at the bottom of the line, or in the middle of the line, or at the top of the line, and the role of this sign was very uncertain.

IN XVI century in the written monuments of Ancient Rus' they began to use five punctuation marks; they were all called dots(word dot– from the verb poke ); the points were as follows: dot (. ), comma (, ), term (· ), two-term (: ) and subtable (; ) , the last character served as a question mark.

New stage in the development of punctuation begins with the development of printing. The need to make book text accessible to a wide range of readers led to changes in text formatting. Great merit in this belongs to Italian scientists - humanists Aldu Manutius , his son Pavel and grandson Ald the Younger (they published books from 1494 to 1597). The books they published (they were called " Aldinami ") served for a long time example of typographic technology. The punctuation of these books was rightly considered the fundamental basis of punctuation systems in various languages ​​of our time.

At the same time they introduced question mark(this is a modified letter Q– first letter of the Latin interrogative pronoun Quo) And Exclamation point(Latin letter I– first letter of interjection Io).

To this day, the punctuation systems of different languages ​​are different: in general, the “meaning” of punctuation marks remains the same, but significant differences are seen in the number of punctuation marks, as well as in the peculiarities of their use.

So, in punctuation system in Spain(and in Spanish-speaking Latin America) interrogative And exclamation marks are put twice : at the beginning of an interrogative (exclamation) sentence, but inverted, and at its end, at in the usual form, For example: ¿ Will you come? – ¡ I'll definitely come! By this, already before starting to read the phrase, the reader tunes in to the required intonation.

IN English punctuation, in addition to the hyphen and the usual dash, there is also "elongated" dash.

Punctuation(from lat. punctum - point) is a section of the Russian language that studies punctuation, as well as the punctuation system itself. Punctuation in Russian serves in order to convey as accurately as possible in writing what the author wanted to express. Punctuation rules created in order to regulate the intonation structure of speech, as well as syntactic and semantic relationships in the language.

We all remember the greatness and power of our language. This means not only its lexical richness, but also its flexibility. This also applies to punctuation - there are both strict rules and guidelines that depend on the situation, stylistic features and meaning of the text.

Punctuation in Russian speech achieved through punctuation. Punctuation marks- these are graphic symbols necessary to convey the intonation and meaning of a sentence, as well as to place certain accents in speech.

In Russian there are the following punctuation marks:

1) End of sentence marks: period, question mark and exclamation mark;

2) Sentence separation marks: comma, dash, colon and semicolon;

3) Signs highlighting individual parts of a sentence: quotes and parentheses.

I came home late. Why is the bedroom light still on? That's right, she was waiting for me! “Back at work again?” - she asked tiredly. The apartment smelled of medicine (she probably drank valerian tincture so as not to worry), so I tried to calm her down and go to bed as soon as possible. All the events of that day flashed before my eyes: a scandal at work; a reprimand from the boss who unfairly blamed me for what happened; walking through the city at night in thought.

Punctuation marks can be repeated and combined. For example, the use of a question mark and an exclamation mark at the same time indicates that we have a rhetorical question(a question that does not require an answer or the answer to which everyone already knows):

Who knew that everything would happen exactly like this?!

How long?!

Can also be combined comma and dash. This combination allows you to connect different values:

A cool wind blew, it became dark in the forest, and a summer village evening was approaching.

This combination of punctuation marks can also be explained by the use of different constructions, for example, referring to a sentence with a dash between the subject and the predicate:

You, brother, are the dearest person left on earth.

Despite the fact that in the Russian language there are cases when there are no strict rules for the use of certain punctuation marks, even in such cases there are certain recommendations. For example, are there such cases basic punctuation, that is, one that is given preference. For example, the main punctuation mark when using inserted structures is parentheses:

After yesterday's downpour, all of us (except Anna, who happened to have a raincoat) fell ill with a cold.

In this case, it is possible to highlight the inserted structure using a dash (a minor punctuation mark in this case):

He sat down thoughtfully on the bench - it was wet after the rain - and thought about what happened today.

All punctuation rules and punctuation rules we will look in more detail in subsequent articles.