Irregular Punctuation with Parenthetical Words: Dash and Colon

The article analyzes numerous facts of irregular punctuation with parenthetical words observed in Russian written speech. Setting the theoretical framework of the study, the authors claim that, in modern theoretical sources, the concept “parenthetical words” is defined differently, which allows for different punctuation of such units. The authors compared the extreme brevity of the punctuation rules for parenthetical words in modern reference books and the actual practice of modern Russian written speech. Search results from the Russian National Corpus show that parenthetical words and phrases at the beginning of a sentence, as part of a complex sentence, or as a separate construction are often highlighted using characters stronger than commas: dashes or colons. It is suggested that the dash is used in incomplete sentences, and the colon signals about the explanatory relationship that occurs between the parenthetical word and the rest of the sentence. To test their assumption, the authors turn to experimental data. First, the results of a natural linguistic experiment, namely, the Total Dictation of 2017, were analyzed. The second part of the dictation contains a construction with a parenthetical word ambiguous from the point of view of punctuation. Second, a survey was conducted in which respondents were asked to punctuate sentences with parenthetical words and phrases and justify their decision, that is, to activate their metalanguage consciousness. Comments to the punctuation marks in the Total Dictation and statements of the respondents who took part in the survey confirm the authors' assumptions. For example, the survey participants explained the use of the dash by an omission of a word (notional or functional) or by an intention to emphasize the parenthetical word. When arguing for the colon, the respondents referred to punctuation rules in the asyndetic complex sentence with the explanatory relationship. Thus, the writers' choice was influenced by both the word's actualizing position in the sentence and metatext function. The study shows that the use of dashes and colons with parenthetical words that perform a metatext function is quite motivated and should not be considered a deviation from the punctuation standard. It is proposed to supplement the punctuation rules for parenthetical words and phrases.

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