Characters which enhance
written language by denoting pauses, segments of meaning,
intonation, and
tempo.
English punctuation includes:
There are others, but those are the most common. Punctuation such as parentheses and quotation marks have (since the advent of
printing, i guess, but surging in the recent past: see the node on
parentheses for some instances) gained further uses that could not have occurred without written use, and have added layers to language. Proper punctuation is just about as important as spelling, and can make or break a sentence.
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