a system of punctuation marks in any written language and the rules for their use; the placement of these marks in a text; a basic element of written language, along with graphics and orthography. The punctuation systems of modern languages written in the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Indian, and many other alphabets are based on uniform principles and use approximately the same set of punctuation marks.
The theoretical bases of Russian punctuation were developed by V. K. Trediakovskii, M. V. Lomonosov, and grammarians of the 19th and 20th centuries. Several different trends developed in the interpretation on the bases of Russian punctuation: the logical (F. I. Buslaev, S. I. Abakumov, A. B. Shapiro), the syntactic (la. K. Grot), and the intonational (L. V. Shcherba, L. A. Bulakhovskii, A. M. Peshkovskii). The logical school believed that punctuation aids in setting forth thoughts clearly and expresses the speaker’s feelings and his attitude toward the listener. According to the syntactic school, punctuation indicates a greater or lesser degree of linkage between sentences and sentence parts and aids in the comprehension of written language. The intonational school held that punctuation served to designate the rhythm and melody of a phrase; it regarded punctuation as primarily reflecting not a grammatical but a declamational and psychological segmentation of speech, including pauses, melody, and tempo.
D. E. ROZENTAL’