function

attributed-speech marks and paragraphs

the raised commas as marks of reference

attributed speech
 

punctuating the attributed-speech marked sentence

the raised commas as marks of irony
 

Function

  The function of raised commas is to mark:

• attributed speech;

• quotation;

• ironic use;

• reference.

The raised commas are always a set of two marks: the opening mark has a bottom curl rather like the figure six [ ‘ ] and the closing mark has a top curl rather like the figure nine [ ’ ] .

Attributed speech

  Attributed-speech marks are noteworthy for being the one convention of English punctuation that is not completely logical, and for being the presentation on which publishing houses vary the most. There is not perfect agreement even on the simple matter of when raised commas should be single and when they should be double, nor on how the texts they enclose should be punctuated. In view of this, there is not much sense in pretending that this Chapter can `give the low-down' on speech marks. The best it can do is to describe the most common aspects of the British (which includes Australian!) convention.

The British convention

  Attributed-speech marks show that the writer is reporting what someone said by quoting that person:

`The English pub is not the special place it is cracked up to be', John said.
`The English pub is not the special place it is cracked up to be', I told them.

A report of what someone said can be made without quoting. In such a report there is no role for attributed-speech marks because no speech is attributed:

John said that the English pub is not the special place it is cracked up to be.

Punctuating the attributed-speech marked sentence

  Only the words that quote a person are enclosed by attributed-speech marks, and only the markers that punctuates the quoted words are contained in that enclosure. In this sentence, the exclamation mark punctuates the words quoted to mark that they are the words `he' shouted. The exclamation mark is part of the quotation:

‘Will you all be quiet for a moment!’ he shouted.

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Quotation within a quotation

  When three sequences conjoin and two of them are quotations, both quoted sequences are contained between single attributed-speech-marks:

 ‘Did you hear him shout “will you all be quiet for a moment”?’ she asked her friend,

 or between double attributed-speech marks:

 ‘‘Did you hear him shout ‘will you all be quiet for a moment’?’’ she asked her friend.

When the single attributed-speech mark is the dominant marker (the one that contains both quotations) the second quotation, which is the quotation within a quotation, is contained between double attributed-speech marks:

 ‘Did you hear him shout “will you all be quiet for a moment”?’ she asked her friend.

When the double attributed-speech mark is the dominant marker, the second quotation is contained between single attributed-speech marks:

 ‘‘Did you hear him shout ‘will you all be quiet for a moment’?’’she asked her friend.

Either way, the quotation within a quotation loses its punctuation mark. And the attributing sentence that follows the quoted sequences is begun with a lower case letter.

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Quoting a text

Attributed-speech marks are not used when the sequence quoted is an extract from an extended text. Instead, the quoted text is displayed as an indented paragraph. (The font is usually dropped to a size smaller than the text in which it features as a quotation. Too much reduction of print size can be rather hard on the reader):

It is no longer fashionable to engage in work-a-day efforts to determine what a novel is. These days one is expected to master critical theory and the jiggery-pokery of its terms, subscribe to one or another of its political correctnesses, and talk in terms of them. But critical theorists' tools give me neither pleasure nor insight. I benefit more from reading, say, D..H. Lawrence, who speaks in human terms:

Attributed-speech marks and the comma

  The guiding principle is that only those punctuation marks that punctuate the quoted sequence may be enclosed by attributed-speech marks:

‘Papa, do you think I can be a proper actress when I grow up?’ she asked innocently.

This principle holds good even when an attributing sentence interrupts a quoted-speech sequence. In this sentence the comma after `Papa'  belongs to the speech sequence and is therefore naturally enclosed by attributed-speech marks:

‘Papa,’ she asked innocently, ‘do you think I can be a proper actress when I grow up?’

The fiction- convention comma

  There is an irritatingly prevalent convention in fiction that insists on slapping in a comma before the enclosing attributed-speech mark even when that comma does not belong to the quoted speech sequence. It is a convention that very few publishers ignore:

‘They seem to think,’ he observed, ‘that we are prisoners here.’

The comma after `think' is not a part of the quoted-speech sequence. Without the interrupting attributive sentence `he observed' it would look like this:

‘They seem to think we are prisoners here.'

Confining the fiction-convention comma

  The fiction-convention comma is so insidious that some publications use it even when they are reporting actual, not fictional, speech:

misused fiction-convention comma
"Life demands that the earth should produce and that livestock units should produce because that produce is greatly needed by our society," the visiting statesman told the meeting.

If we must respect the fiction-convention comma, then we should at least confine it to fiction. The comma in the foregoing sentence should have demarcated the attributing sentence `the visiting statesman told the meeting', but it should not have been enclosed by speech marks:

"Life demands that the earth should produce and that livestock units should produce because that produce is greatly needed by our society", the visiting statesman told the meeting.

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Attributed-speech marks and paragraphs in fiction convention

The following text is an extract from a short story. (Its paragraphs are numbered only for easy reference.)

1.	‘He's too conventional to be evil.’
2.	‘Peter?’ she almost protested. ‘You described him differently, once.’
3.	‘That was before I'd met him. When I did he took away all scope for  fantasy.’ Pretending a need to still her fidgeting fingers, he clasped her hands in his. ‘This is the seamy side of me, darling.’ Fixing the inert gaze of one who intends confession then baulks at the ice-water of it, he maintained an irresolute silence before plunging. ‘I thought at one time, when you went to him, that he was going to cut you about. In fact, I hoped he would. So that I could get to be the one who rescues you.
4.	‘I lied when I told you I'd hoped to find you happy. So read from this that I would have found the rogue in him if I could have. And I would have worked on making you see it. But I didn't. So I haven't,’ he economised droll afterthought with a smile, hoping his affability might head off her brewing storm.’

  That a character is speaking is indicated by the `open' attributed-speech mark [ ‘ ]. That he has finished speaking is indicated by the `close' attributed-speech mark [ ’ ]. When another character begins to speak, a new paragraph is opened and the same process with the attributed-speech mark is repeated. Only one character speaks in one paragraph. A paragraph is never shared by speakers. As speakers change, new paragraphs are opened. This procedure is evident in the paragraphs numbered `1', `2', `3' in the extract above.

  If a character's speech extends over several paragraphs, the beginning of each paragraph is marked with the `open' attributed-speech mark, but only the paragraph in which he finishes speaking is marked by the `close' attributed-speech mark. `Open' attributed-speech marks head paragraphs 3 and 4 but the speaker has not changed. The `close' attributed-speech mark appears only when the character has finished speaking at the end of paragraph 4.

EXERCISE 19 of Exercise and Answer Notes is appropriate here.

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The raised commas as marks of reference

  Careful writers use raised commas to distinguish words to which they refer from words they use. The following sentences illustrate the difference between using a word and referring to it:

using the word `culture':
Western European culture has long admired the habits of Third World cultures without adapting any of them.

referring to the word `culture':
Every time I hear the word `culture' I reach for my revolver.

The raised commas as marks of irony and sarcasm

  Raised commas around a word or an expression can indicate that the writer is using them tongue-in-cheek to modify their literal or commonly-accepted meaning:

Police sources have said that car theft is now an `industry' that has attracted organised crime to its huge profits.

`Industry' is the name normally given to legitimate business enterprise. The raised commas call attention to the irony in using it to name a lucrative criminal activity.

  This writer alerts the reader to the irony with which he is using the expression `the satisfaction that my work gives me'. His raised commas point out the disjunction between what he says about his attitude to the firm that employs him and what that attitude really is.

I talked at length about `the satisfaction my work gives me', knowing meanwhile that I am doing the giving and that the only satisfaction in my employment is my employer's.

EXERCISE 20 of Exercise and Answer Notes is appropriate here.

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