The Pragmatics of Punctuation and Its Problematic Nature in Translation

This article attempts to describe some of the pragmatic and semantic functions of two important punctuation marks. These are the semicolon (;) and the colon (:). The reason for this description is that no studies have provided a detailed description of the pragmatic and semantic functions of these marks. These marks are mostly used in Arabic for intonational or decorative purposes. It was found that the system of punctuation marks in Arabic is inadequate as it does not specify rules for using them. However, in this study, it was found that the punctuation marks have linguistic implications that are not recognized by linguists nor by translators. The implications discussed here are the emphatic, additive, contrastive, and substantiative functions.This article attempts to describe some of the pragmatic and semantic functions of two important punctuation marks. These are the semicolon (;) and the colon (:). The reason for this description is that no studies have provided a detailed description of the pragmatic and semantic functions of these marks. These marks are mostly used in Arabic for intonational or decorative purposes. It was found that the system of punctuation marks in Arabic is inadequate as it does not specify rules for using them. However, in this study, it was found that the punctuation marks have linguistic implications that are not recognized by linguists nor by translators. The implications discussed here are the emphatic, additive, contrastive, and substantiative functions.