The Use of Colon (:)

Question

Recently I read the novels "Maurice" (by E.M. Forster) and "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte Bronte), and I noticed that colon, the punctuation mark (:), is frequently used in these novels, sometimes colon after colon (i.e., a colon, a sentence, then another colon). It seems to me that colon (:) is never so prevalent in modern writings.

Are there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Recently I read the novels "Maurice" (by E.M. Forster) and "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte Bronte), and I noticed that colon, ... colon (:) is never so prevalent in modern writings. Are there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?[/nq]
Yes. The colon used to be an ordinary punctuation mark, intermediate in strength between the semicolon & the period. It is almost never used that way these days; its business in modern usage is to indicate that what follows is meant to satisfy the expectation created by what precedes. It implies "and here they are" or "and here's why" or the like.

Joe Fineman joe (Email Removed)

Usenet · Answer

Quito Quito wrote on 19 Oct 2004:
[nq:1]Recently I read the novels "Maurice" (by E.M. Forster) and "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte Bronte), and I noticed that colon, ... colon (:) is never so prevalent in modern writings. Are there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?[/nq]
Earlier writers used the colon, the semi-colon, and the comma much more often than we use it now, so, yes there are differences in the way they were used then and are used now. They were often used then instead of a period (BrE: end stop), and they are rarely used now because most native anglophones either don't know how to use them properly or cannot understand their purpose when they are used.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Are there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?[/nq]
I can't think of more than one way of using it.
P.S. Deepest apologies: this is how far my English sense of humour can go.
Bye, FB

Mrs. Palmer, in her way, was equally angry. 'She was determined to drop his acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been acquainted with him at all'. (Jane Austen)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Recently I read the novels "Maurice" (by E.M. Forster) and "Jane Eyre" (by Charlotte Bronte), and I noticed that colon, ... colon (:) is never so prevalent in modern writings. Are there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?[/nq]
Yes, there are many excellent examples of older uses of the colon in a couple of posts by J. W. Love in the "Comma or..?" thread. In the same thread I have described and given references to the current uses of it.
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Yes, there are many excellent examples of older uses of the colon in a couple of posts by J. W. Love in the "Comma or..?" thread. In the same thread I have described and given references to the current uses of it.[/nq]
In case the following data interest the OP, I've jotted down and sorted some studyworthy instances in the current issue of Scientific American (November
2004):
1. An illustration not involving a complete sentence ("What is it? what arethey?) follows the colon (the boundaries of these sorts are fuzzy; see #2 below):
a. A list of one.
Bush committed the country to the first substantial global initiative: $15 billion over five years. (p. 8)
While attempting to duplicate Laurie's work, Martin Herfurt, a researcher at Salzburg Research in Austria, stumbled onto something even worse: Bluebugging. (p. 27)
The principles of computation can be applied not just to the most compact computers (black holes)(,) but also to the largest: the universe. (p. 60) A parallel processor deprives the programmer of one of the most valuable tools for debugging: repeatability. (p. 100).
Since the 1980s a technical spin-off has also gained prominence: the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). (p. 102) Enter a teenage heartthrob: the budding astrophysicist Carl Sagan. (pp. 104-105)
b. A list of two.
Protection seems to hinge on two crucial factors: inheriting the right version of the TIM-1 gene and succumbing to hepatitis A. (p. 21) In the control group, we saw the typical scenario of heart deterioration: considerable dilation of the left ventricle and significant loss of heart function. (p. 50)
c. A list of three or more.
In recent years, we and other physicists have been applying the same insights to cosmology and fundamental physics: the nature of black holes, the fine-scale structure of spacetime, the behavior of cosmic dark energy, the ultimate laws of nature. (p. 54)
Increasingly, we must join the perspectives of available disciplines: biology, psychology, history, linguistics(,) and many other fields. (p. 14)
2. A illustration involving a complete sentence ("What is it? what are they?")follows:
a. Quotationless.
Peering inside revealed more bad many of the hexagonal wafers, which (had) collected the solar-wind samples, were broken. (p. 25) In contrast, the transplant group all had more or less the same results as they had had immediately after infarction: the size of the left ventricle and thickness of its wall, as well as heart function, were unchanged. (p. 50). It also implies a universal bound for all black hole computers: the number of bits in the memory is proportional to the square of the computation rate. (p. 59)
This transition would occur because of a vulnerability of the grain belts: for precipitation, they rely heavily on rainfall that local plants recycle(,) rather than on new moisture blown in from elsewhere. (pp. 68-69).

b. Involving a (sometimes multisentence) quotation.

That first step is a doozy: "We think we can do everything in silicon except the laser," Paniccia says. (p. 86) But then he pauses to think about that prospect: "Quite frankly, it is going to take the software community a long time to start working on that. Unfortunately, very few people have played in this space." (p. 100)
3. An explanation ("How so? why?") follows:

Lasers can help detect this change: carbon 12 and 13 absorb light at slightly different mid-infrared wavelengths. (p. 22) The ultimate fallacy is theological: if *** is omniscient and omnipotent, he should not need to be reminded or inveigled into healing someone. (p. 34) But it was a time of breakthroughs in both disciplines: biologists were gaining new insights into the way cells interact with materials, whereas engineers were achieving the ability to synthesize new types of polymers. (p.
46)In each animal, it was easy to detect the infarct: the pale scar was clearly visible and not contracting. (p. 50)
The confluence of physics and information theory flows from the central maxim of quantum mechanics: at bottom, nature is discrete. (p. 54) But new evidence indicates that global warming should be more of a worry than ever: it could actually be pushing the earth's climate faster toward sudden shifts. (p. 64)
He noted that the plastic material in printed circuit boards squelches high frequencies: for every 2-GHz increase in electrical signal bandwidth, signal strength falls 10-fold. (p. 81)
These findings show that the pattern of a melody matters: processing in the auditory system is not like the simple relaying of sound in a telephone or stereo system. (p. 92)
The retuning was remarkably durable: it became stronger over time without additional training and lasted for months. (p. 93) Our buzzed bear, who busted into coolers at Baker Lake Resort, northeast of Seattle, drank his dinner discriminatingly: after trying another brand, the bear limited his libations to Rainier Beer. (p. 110)

Finally, a longish example, left as an exercise for the reader:

Thus, the supposition of independent processing appears to be true, although more recent work has yielded a more nuanced understanding, relating to two of the features that music and language share: both are a means of communication, and each has a syntax, a set of rules that govern the proper combination of elements (notes and words, respectively). (p. 92)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Yes, there are many excellent examples of older uses of ... described and given references to the current uses of it.[/nq]
[nq:1]In case the following data interest the OP, I've jotted down and sorted some studyworthy instances in the current issue ... has a syntax, a set of rules that govern the proper combination of elements (notes and words, respectively). (p. 92)[/nq]
Excellent examples again. Totally in line with the usages I and most punctuation guides support.

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]In case the following data interest the OP, I've jotted ... proper combination of elements (notes and words, respectively). (p. 92)[/nq]
[nq:1]Excellent examples again. Totally in line with the usages I and most punctuation guides support.[/nq]
Comments: NOT!

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Recently I read the novels "Maurice" (by E.M. Forster) and ... there any differences between modern and earlier usages of colon?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes. The colon used to be an ordinary punctuation mark, intermediate in strength between the semicolon & the period. It ... satisfy the expectation created by what precedes. It implies "and here they are" or "and here's why" or the like.[/nq]
Which leads to the list following a colon, where the elements of the list may have commas in them, and therefore use semi-colons as list item separators. This is a usage in which the order of increasing strength of separators is comma, semi-colon, colon, in contradiction to your first "used to be" definition above.
On the other hand, making the semi-colon less strong then the colon fits the logic both of its name, and general idea that since the comma is weaker than the stop, that therefore ";" ought to be weaker than ":".
Forty five years ago my Scottish English teacher taught me that the proper use of colons and semi-colons was best understood by considering them as part of a series of separation strength and scope from comma, semi-colon, colon, to stop. A fan of the firmer grip which logic had over the syntax of Scots compared to English, he explained to us that the silly idea that semi-colons were stronger than colons was a perversion of the inferior educational system of the English whose understanding of language was severely afflicted by their ignorance of other languages, and they therefore had no idea what "semi" actually meant.

Chris Malcolm (Email Removed) +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK (http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/)

Usenet · Answer

re: Chris's Scottish English teacher. (That'd be a Scottish teacher, teaching English, rather than a teacher of Scottish English...)
[nq:1]A fan of the firmer grip which logic had over the syntax of Scots compared to English, he explained to ... language was severely afflicted by their ignorance of other languages, and they therefore had no idea what "semi" actually meant.[/nq]
Of course we don't: depending on where you're from, "semi" is either a house or a truck.

Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Of course we don't: depending on where you're from, "semi" is either a house or a truck.[/nq]
But always half-timbered.

Mickwick

The Use of Colon (:)

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions