Читать книгу Collins Improve Your Punctuation - Graham King - Страница 6

Space is a basic form of punctuation. It separates words, sentences, paragraphs and larger units such as chapters.

Historically, in mediaeval manuscripts and early books, sentences were separated by a variety of decorative devices. But with the advent of printing this labour-intensive practice was dropped in favour of plain spaces: small spaces between words, larger spaces between sentences, and fresh lines – sometimes indented – for paragraphs, as in this book.

Early capital letters were typically highly ornamented to draw attention to the start of a sentence. Today, although we have dropped the ornamentation, the capital still conventionally serves as a marker for the beginning of sentences and proper names and is also used for several other functions.

The sentence is about the most common of all grammatical units. We speak in sentences. The most untutored letter-writers among us will use them while ignoring every other form of punctuation. So the sentence seems to be a good place to begin a discussion about punctuation.