A Treatise on English Punctuation Author:John Wilson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 27 Sect. I. — THE COMMA. The Comma [ , ] marks the smallest grammatical division in written or printed language, and commonly represents the shortest pause... more » in reading or delivery. REMARKS. a. Agreeably to the principles contended for in the Introduction, it will be noticed that the comma is here said, not to mark the smallest segment of a composition, but only the least grammatical division; that is, the least portion into which a sentence can be divided, when regard is had to the sense, and not to the delivery. But many sentences do not at all admit of being divided grammatically; as, " The great use of books is to rouse us to thought;" though, when considered in a rhetorical or elocutionary light, IJiey should be separated into parts, or groups of words, as in reading the example just given: " The great use of books | is | to rouse us | to thought." b. It is usual for grammarians to say, that the comma represents the shortest pause, and that that pause is equal to the time required for counting one; but the remark admits of so many exceptions as to be without any practical value. Numerous instances occur in which the comma is so far from indicating the shortest pause, that a cessation of the voice equal to the time of counting one, two, if not three, is demanded both by the nature of the sentiment and the construction of the language; as, for instance, after the words "vice" and "undertake" in the following sentences: "Virtue is always advantageous; vice, never." — "Nations, like men, fail in nothing which they boldly undertake, when sustained by virtuous purpose and firm resolution." In other instances, the comma does not exhibit any pause whatever, but merely the grammatical division, as in the expression," Yes, sir;" where, in common or unemphatic discourse, no...« less