Intonation and the Comma

Abstract

A special issue of Visible Language (Winter 1978, 12:1) was devoted to the interface between reading and listening. It is significant that, among the six articles in that issue, there is no mention of punctuation or of intonation. These two topics are among the least-studied aspect of visual and auditory language. This article represents an effort to explore one aspect of the relationship between intonation and punctuation. The historical developments of marks of punctuation is outlined, and uses and prescriptions for the comma from the sixteenth century onwards are described. Prescriptive recommendations for the comma in the twentieth century are examined in detail and compared with what is known about the division of connected speech into intonation-groups. It is suggested that, where syntactic prescription and intonational usage conflict, a return to more elocutionary punctuation would in many cases aid intelligibility.