A reminder about punctuation marks. The system of punctuation marks in the Russian language Which punctuation mark does not have a graphic image

General information

In russian language 10 punctuation marks. They play an important role, allow you to correctly understand written speech, provide the writer and reader with an unambiguous understanding of the meaning of the statement and the emotional shades of the sentence. In general, without punctuation, the text would be a collection of words. They have a varied range of uses. At first glance, it is difficult to understand their production, but you can learn this, you just need to know the punctuation rules.

Functions of punctuation marks

1.Meaning-distinctive(help to correctly convey the meaning of a statement; without a punctuation mark, the phrase would remain incomprehensible; it gives an unambiguous meaning to the phrase; without them, the text would be equivalent to an unclear set of symbols; they help us make sure that we are understood unambiguously)

2.Intonation-expressive(punctuation at the end of a sentence indicates the purpose of the statement (message, question or encouragement to action) and the intonation of speech, since Z.P. also place emotional accents: admiration, dissatisfaction, joy, surprise, etc.).

Types of punctuation marks

1.Signs of completion(period, question mark and exclamation point, ellipsis, combination of characters: question mark with exclamation point; question mark with ellipsis; exclamation mark with ellipsis). The meaning of use: a) help to indicate completeness, completeness of a phrase or expression; b) clearly convey the meaning of the statement (a narration about something, a question addressed to someone, an incentive to action), i.e. indicate intonation, place emotional accents: admiration, dissatisfaction, joy, surprise, etc..

2.Division signs(comma, colon, semicolon, dash). Meaning of use: help to place semantic emphasis on a word or phrase in a sentence.

3.Selection marks(comma, quotation marks, parentheses, dash). Meaning of use: help to place semantic emphasis on a word or phrase in a sentence.

Essay sample

Full stop and ellipsis are important punctuation marks in writing.

The period and ellipsis are important signs of written speech. A period is one of the signs of completion; it indicates the intonation of the end of a statement and is placed at the end of a narrative sentence that expresses a complete thought. Without this sign, we would not pause between statements, and therefore would not understand where one thought ends and another begins. The dot indicates the ending intonation. An ellipsis can also complete a phrase, but the function of the punctuation mark is different. When arguing on any topic, talking about something, the author of the speech sometimes does not dare to express his thought in full and is silent about something. The ellipsis is needed to express this understatement and reflection. Moreover, it can be combined with both question marks and exclamation marks. In the first case, the author asks about something, in the second he expresses emotions (surprise, joy, etc.). In addition, it happens that this sign is also used inside a sentence when quoting
someone's statement is incomplete. We put ellipses in place of missing words.
Let's look at an excerpt from the text. When drawing his hero, the author describes his speech (sentence No. 24), paying especially much attention to his voice (sentence No. 25), and his manner of communicating with people. Having spoken, N. Heinze completes his thoughts, which are declarative sentences, so at the end we see periods. Talking about the impression Bersenyev made on those around him, the writer cites as an example the words of some of them: “How can I tell you... I don’t know... but he is charming.” The ellipsis here is no coincidence. With its help, it is emphasized how women think, try to understand what attracted the hero to themselves. And N. Heinze himself, immersed in his thoughts, wonders what Bersenyev’s charm is: “In his mind?.. In his gaze?.. Or in his voice?..” He asks himself these questions, reflecting, but I’m not immediately ready to answer them, and therefore here the ellipsis is combined with a question mark.
So, dots and ellipses are important signs of written speech.

Today we will talk about existing punctuation marks.
Let's find out which ones exist punctuation marks, what they serve and where they came from.
Let's start by forming a certain understanding of the purpose of punctuation marks. Why do we need these very signs?
Our speech is extremely diverse, not only in the content of words, but also in intonation features. We can ask something meaningfully, pause, exclaim, and bring the speech to its logical conclusion. Divide your story into parts. Quote someone, use many other techniques in speech.
To reflect these very intonation and semantic features in writing, punctuation marks come to our aid.
Let's list all existing punctuation marks and give a brief description of each.
« » - Space serves to separate words from each other.

« . » - Dot allows us to divide text into sentences. A sentence is a kind of complete thought within a narrative. The dot is also used to shorten long words (example “kv. 97” - short for apartment 97).

« , » Comma allows us to place accents and separate words from each other within a sentence. A famous example: “Execute cannot be pardoned.” and “You can’t execute, you can have mercy.” shows how important commas are in creating the meaning of a sentence.

« ? » Question mark allows us to make an offer to the “asker.”

« ! » Exclamation mark comes to our aid when we need to give a more pronounced emotional color to a proposal.

« … » Ellipsis(three dots) we use when we want to indicate a pause or understatement in the story. Ellipsis is also used for technical purposes to shorten text, usually in quotes.
Example.
In the lines of Gorky’s poem: “Over the gray plain of the sea... A petrel soars proudly.”, we can find a call for revolution.

« ”” » Quotes. As you may have noticed, they are used quite often in this article. With them we highlight quotes, direct speech, names, words in a figurative meaning. They are a kind of word highlighters in a general context.

« - » Dash or hyphen. The scope of application of this punctuation mark is quite wide. It is used both as an en dash without spaces in words like “ever, someone, somehow”, and as an em dash in sentences. For example: “Teaching is light! " A dash serves as a kind of bridge between words or sentences, indicating their relationship. Let us give a few more examples so that you can grasp the essence and variety of uses of this sign.
The book is with me - my faithful assistant.

In forests, fields, seas and oceans - harmony is everywhere.

– How did you sleep today?
- Sleep is a miracle!

"To me!" – the owner said the command.

I will buy two buckets - one for home, the other for the dacha.

I'm very sorry for the East too.
I will fly from Moscow to Vladivostok.

« : » Colon we indicate that the subsequent part of the sentence belongs to the previous one. For example, when in a sentence we have a generalizing word, and after it comes a list of words related to it. Different animals live in the forest: wolf, fox, bear and others. A colon can separate two parts of a sentence if the second follows in meaning from the first. I am pleased: today the day was not in vain. The colon is also actively used in sentences with direct speech and quotations in cases where the words of the author come first. Eg. Einstein said: “Everything is relative!”

« ; » Semicolon. We usually use this sign for the same purpose as a comma. It is worth saying that if a comma is a kind of intonation pause for the purpose of separation, then a semicolon is an intonation pause, but a little longer and more significant.
It is used in complex sentences, as well as lists.
Let's give a couple of examples.
Need to buy:
1) red apples;
2) pickled cucumbers;
3) tomatoes.
Vitya didn’t catch the fish; but, despite this, he spent the whole evening talking about how interesting the fishing was.

« () » In parentheses we separate out implied text that is inconsistent with other parts in the sentence. Usually the following are written in brackets: clarifications, some details and details. In speech, we usually denote such moments with the words: more precisely, in the sense, I mean, etc.
Examples:
In winter (end of December) I am going to go to Austria.
Punctuation marks are convenient tools for creating clearer and richer text.

« ’ » Apostrophe. This sign, as a rule, separates one part of a word from another in complex surnames (Joan of Arc, D’Artagnan) as well as in words with part of the word in Latin (I sometimes use E-mail and Skype). This is a kind of top comma, letting us know that when pronouncing we need to make a micro-pause at the place of the apostrophe.

« Paragraph" - the punctuation mark indicated by a paragraph is, in fact, a transition to a new line. It is used for the purpose of semantic or intonation division of the text into parts. A new thought usually begins with a new line. Transitions are actively used when writing poems and dialogues.

We have listed and revealed all punctuation marks existing in the Russian language today. In conclusion, I would like to draw attention to several facts from history.
Did you know that until the end of the 15th century in Rus', words were written together without spaces?
The period appeared only in the 1480s, the comma in the 1520s. And the first paired sign (brackets) was in 1619.
Today we successfully use all of the listed signs, both for their intended purpose and by creating fancy emoticons from them.
That's all for now.
Good luck;)

Goltsova Nina Grigorievna, professor

Today it is difficult for us to imagine that books were once printed without the well-known icons called punctuation marks.
They have become so familiar to us that we simply don’t notice them, which means we can’t appreciate them. Meanwhile punctuation marks live their own independent life in the language and have their own interesting history.

In everyday life, we are surrounded by many objects, things, and phenomena that are so familiar that we rarely think about the questions: when and how did these phenomena appear and, accordingly, the words that call them? Who is their creator and creator?
Have the words so familiar to us always meant what they mean today? What is the story of their entry into our lives and language?

Such familiar and even to some extent ordinary (due to the fact that we encounter it every day) can include Russian writing, or more precisely, the graphic system of the Russian language.

The basis of the graphic system of the Russian language, like many other languages, are letters and punctuation marks.

When asked when the Slavic alphabet, which is the basis of the Russian alphabet, arose and who was its creator, many of you will confidently answer: the Slavic alphabet was created by the brothers Cyril and Methodius (863); The Russian alphabet was based on the Cyrillic alphabet; Every year in May we celebrate the Day of Slavic Literature.
And when did they appear punctuation marks? Are everyone famous and so familiar to us? punctuation marks(period, comma, ellipsis, etc.) appeared at the same time? How did the punctuation system of the Russian language develop? What is the history of Russian punctuation?

Let's try to answer some of these questions.

As is known, in the system of modern Russian punctuation 10 punctuation marks: period [.], comma [,], semicolon [;], ellipsis […], colon [:], question mark [?], exclamation mark [!], dash [–], parentheses [()] and quotes [" "].

The oldest sign is dot. It is already found in monuments of ancient Russian writing. However, its use in that period differed from modern use: firstly, it was not regulated; secondly, the dot was placed not at the bottom of the line, but above - in the middle of it; In addition, at that time even individual words were not separated from each other. For example: the holiday is approaching... (Arkhangelsk Gospel, 11th century). This is the explanation of the word dot gives by V.I. Dal:

“POT (poke) f., an icon for an injection, from sticking to something with the point, tip of a pen, pencil; small speck."

The period can rightfully be considered the ancestor of Russian punctuation. It is no coincidence that this word (or its root) was included in the names of such signs as semicolon, colon, ellipsis. And in the Russian language of the 16th–18th centuries, a question mark was called interrogative point, exclamation – point of surprise. In the grammatical works of the 16th century, the doctrine of punctuation marks was called “the doctrine of the power of points” or “of the point mind,” and in the grammar of Lawrence Zizanius (1596) the corresponding section was called “On points.”

The most common punctuation mark in Russian it is considered comma. This word is found in the 15th century. According to P. Ya. Chernykh, the word comma– this is the result of substantivization (transition into a noun) of the passive past participle of the verb comma (xia) – “to catch”, “to touch”, “to stab”. V.I. Dal connects this word with the verbs wrist, comma, stammer - “stop”, “delay”. This explanation, in our opinion, seems legitimate.

Need in punctuation marks began to be acutely felt in connection with the advent and development of printing (XV-XVI centuries). In the mid-15th century, the Italian typographers Manutius invented punctuation for European writing, which was adopted in basic outline by most European countries and still exists today.

In the Russian language, most of the punctuation marks we know today appear in the 16th–18th centuries. So, brackets[()] are found in monuments of the 16th century. Previously, this sign was called “roomy”.

Colon[:] began to be used as a dividing sign from the end of the 16th century. It is mentioned in the grammars of Lavrenty Zizaniy, Melety Smotritsky (1619), as well as in the first Russian grammar of the Dolomonosov period by V. E. Adodurov (1731).

Exclamation mark[!] is noted to express exclamation (surprise) also in the grammars of M. Smotritsky and V. E. Adodurov. The rules for setting up an “amazing sign” are defined in “Russian Grammar” by M. V. Lomonosov (1755).

Question mark[?] has been found in printed books since the 16th century, but to express the question it was fixed much later, only in the 18th century. Initially, [;] was found in the meaning of [?].

Later signs include dash[-] And ellipsis[…]. There is an opinion that the dash was invented by N.M. Karamzin. However, it has been proven that this sign was found in the Russian press already in the 60s of the 18th century, and N. M. Karamzin only contributed to the popularization and consolidation of the functions of this sign. The dash [–] sign called “silent” was first described in 1797 in “Russian Grammar” by A. A. Barsov.

Ellipsis sign[…] under the name “preventive sign” was noted in 1831 in the grammar of A. Kh. Vostokov, although its use was found in writing practice much earlier.

No less interesting is the history of the appearance of the sign, which later received the name quotes[" "]. The word quotation marks in the meaning of a musical note (hook) sign is found in the 16th century, but in the meaning punctuation mark it began to be used only at the end of the 18th century. It is assumed that the initiative to introduce this punctuation mark into the practice of Russian written speech (as well as dash) belongs to N. M. Karamzin. Scientists believe that the origin of this word is not entirely clear. Comparison with the Ukrainian name pawka makes it possible to assume that it is derived from the verb to waddle – “to hobble”, “to limp”. In Russian dialects kavysh – “duckling”, “gosling”; kavka – “frog”. Thus, quotes – „traces of duck or frog legs,” “hook,” “squiggle.”

As you can see, the names of most punctuation marks in the Russian language are originally Russian, and the term punctuation marks itself goes back to the verb punctuate - “stop, detain in motion.” The names of only two signs were borrowed. Hyphen(dash) - from it. Divis(from lat. divisio– separately) and dash (trait) – from French tiret, tїrer.

The beginning of the scientific study of punctuation was laid by M. V. Lomonosov in “Russian Grammar”. Today we use the “Rules of Spelling and Punctuation” adopted in 1956, that is, almost half a century ago.

Source: Website of the Open International Russian Language Olympiad

Punctuation (1913)

I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay
Selected works on general linguistics: In 2 volumes - M.: Publishing house Acad. Sciences USSR, 1963.
Punctuation (pp. 238–239). Printed entirely from the manuscript (Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences, f. 770, op. 3, item 7).

Punctuation marks, elements of writing or written-visual language, associated not with individual elements of the pronunciation-auditory language and their combinations, but only with the division of current speech into separate parts: periods, sentences, individual expressions, words. There are two main categories of punctuation marks.
1) Some of them relate only to morphology of written speech, i.e. to its dismemberment into ever smaller parts. These are: dot(.), separating periods or isolated sentences from one another; in addition, it serves as a sign reductions words (b. h. instead of “for the most part”, because instead of “since”, etc.); colon(:), used mainly before counting individual parts of what was said before a colon or when a quotation is given, i.e. verbatim text before that expressed by another person or the author himself (see “Colon”); semicolon(;) separates combinations of incomplete [? – nrzb.] sentences or countable parts of a dismembered whole; comma(,) serves to separate from each other sentences that are not further separated or isolated, intercalated expressions, such as the vocative case, combinations of words or even individual words that impart a certain connotation to a given sentence, etc. (for example, Thus, however and so on.).
This also includes: dividing the book into departments, on chapters, on paragraphs(§§), articles...; paragraphs(from the red line); dividing lines; short lines, dash(tiret), connecting two parts of a compound word; spaces, both larger ones, between lines, and the smallest ones, between individual written words; brackets(), containing words, expressions and phrases that are introductory, explanatory, etc.; callouts(*, **, 1, 2...), at the bottom of the pages or at the end of the book, with links or with explanations of individual words of the main text.

2) Another category of punctuation marks, also related to the morphology or dismemberment of written speech, emphasizes mainly semasiological side, indicating the mood of the speaker or writer and his attitude to the content of what is being written. By using quotation marks(“”) differs from someone else’s or supposed with the reservation “as if”, “so to speak”, “they say”, “they say” from one’s own without reservations.
This also includes: question mark(cm.), Exclamation point(cm.). A special sign of irony was also supposed, but so far without success. These latter signs are associated with the different tone of speech, that is, they are reflected in the general mental shade of what is spoken. Of course, morphological punctuation marks (dots, spaces...) are reflected to a certain extent in pronunciation, especially at a slow pace: pauses, stops, respites.
Special types of punctuation marks: ellipsis(...) when something is left unfinished or implied; a dash replacing an ellipsis (–), which, especially in fictional works, replaces either a comma or parentheses, or quotation marks; apostrophe(cm.). Quotation marks and parentheses are placed on both sides of the given text - both before and after; An exclamation mark and a question mark are placed only at the end. The Spaniards, however, mark not only the end, but also the beginning of an exclamation (I!) or a question (??). The system of punctuation marks adopted in Europe goes back to the Greek Alexandrian grammarians; it was definitively established from the end of the 15th century especially by the Venetian printing family Manutius. Different nations have different ways of using punctuation, especially the comma. In ancient Indian writing (Sanskrit) there are no punctuation marks at all; there the words are written together, and the signs / and // separate either individual verses or individual phrases. Previously, in European scripts, among other things in Church Slavonic, words were written together and without punctuation.

Interpuncture

Whether interpuncture was known to Aristotle is not clear. In any case, the beginnings of it were among the Greek grammarians. The very concept of interpuncture, however, among the ancient Greek and Roman grammarians differed from the modern one. The interpuncture of the ancients had mainly in mind oratorical requirements (pronouncing a speech, reciting it) and consisted of placing simple periods at the end of sentences or using paragraphs called lines or verses (versus).

The new interpuncture originates not from this ancient one, but from interpuncture. Alexandrian era, invented by the grammarian Aristophanes and developed by later ones. By the end of the 8th century. according to R. Chr. it, however, fell into such oblivion that Warnefried and Alcuin, contemporaries of Charlemagne, had to reintroduce it. At first the Greeks used only one sign - a dot, which was placed either at the top of the line, then in the middle of it, or at the bottom. Other Greek grammarians, like Nicanor (who lived a little later than Quintilian), used other systems of interpunction (Nicanor had eight signs, others had four, etc.), but they all mixed the syntactic side of speech with the logical and did not develop any definite rules (see Steinthal, "Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft bei d. Griechen und Romern", vol. II, Berl. 1891, pp. 348-354).

The same uncertainty prevailed in the Middle Ages, until approximately the 15th century, when the printer brothers Manutius increased the number punctuation marks and subjected their use to certain rules. They, in fact, should be considered the fathers of modern European interpuncture, in which no significant changes have been made since that time. However, the interpuncture of various modern European nations differs in some features from each other. Thus, in English a comma or dash is often placed before and ( And) and is not used at all before relative clauses (as in French). The most complex and most accurate interpuncture is German. Its theory is described in great detail in Becker ("Ausfuhrliche deutsche Grammatik", 2nd ed., Frankfurt, 1842), and its history and characteristics are in Bieling: "Das Prinzip der deutschen Interpunction" (Berlin, 1886).

Russian interpuncture is very close to German interpuncture and has the same advantages. Its presentation can be found in J. Grot: “Russian Spelling”. Old Slavonic interpuncture followed Greek models. In Russian interpuncture the following are used: punctuation marks: comma, semicolon, colon, period, ellipsis, question and exclamation marks, dash, parentheses, quotation marks.

Punctuation system in Russian it is built from punctuation elements: dots ( . ), comma ( , ), dash ( – ), question mark ( ? ), exclamation mark ( ! ) 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, the introductory word is located, 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 ellipsis: ?.. , !.. , ??. , !!. , ?!. . Number of points in multipoints and 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 marks Not 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 I eat in different 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 the end, in its 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.

Still have questions? Don't know about the Russian punctuation system?
To get help from a tutor, register.
The first lesson is free!

website, when copying material in full or in part, a link to the source is required.

Class="clearfix">

K. G. Paustovsky told such a story in his book “Golden Rose”. In his youth he worked for the Odessa newspaper “Sailor”. The writer Andrei Sobol also collaborated with this newspaper at that time. One day he brought his story to the editorial office - “torn, confused, although interesting in topic and, of course, talented.” It was impossible to print it in this form. The newspaper's proofreader, Blagov, stepped in to help. He promised to “go through the manuscript,” but not to change a single word in it. The next morning Paustovsky read the story. “It was transparent, flowing prose. Everything became convex and clear. Not a shadow remained of the former crumpledness and verbal confusion. In fact, not a single word was deleted or added.”

Of course, you guessed what happened? Yes, the proofreader simply placed all the punctuation marks correctly, and especially carefully - points and paragraphs. That's all.

The fact is that punctuation marks have a special function in written speech - semantic. With their help, the writer expresses certain meanings and shades, and the reader perceives and understands these meanings and shades. And since all writers act as readers and vice versa, punctuation marks are the same for all literate speakers of the Russian language. According to linguist A. B. Shapiro, every rule about punctuation marks is, as it were, a point of agreement between the writer and the reader.

Now that Internet users constantly communicate in writing, the need to convey messages accurately and concisely increases, and it is punctuation that helps the author “put” the information in the text in the most understandable way.

What, besides school rules, do you need to know about punctuation marks so that you are adequately understood? Not much really.

In its own way roles in writing all punctuation marks are divided into three groups: signs completions, dividing And excretory. These names are “talking”.

Completion marks ( period, exclamation mark, question mark, ellipsis) are placed at the end of sentences, complete their.

Separators ( comma, semicolon, colon, dash) – separate semantic segments within a sentence from each other (homogeneous members, parts of a complex sentence), they are placed on the border these semantic segments, share their.

And the punctuation marks ( two commas, two dashes, parentheses, quotation marks) allocate one semantic segment inside another or inside a sentence. Participial and adverbial phrases, single adverbial participles, addresses, introductory words and sentences are highlighted on both sides (if they are in the middle of a sentence). By the way, if you know this, you will never put only one comma in the participial phrase: it must highlight commas, which means there should be two of them, on both sides - at the beginning and at the end.

And finally, check yourself. Determine the function of punctuation marks in this sentence. One day (it was, it seems, in 2003) I received a strange letter: it was in a crumpled yellow envelope, without a return address, handwritten, illegible.

Answer. In this sentence completion sign- dot; separators– commas between homogeneous members of a sentence and a colon between parts of a non-union complex sentence; excretory marks– two commas highlighting the introductory word Seems, and two brackets highlighting the inserted sentence.