Writing systems that use Chinese characters also include various punctuation marks, derived from both Chinese and Western sources. Historically, jùdòu (Template:Zhi) annotations were often used to indicate the boundaries of sentences and clauses in text. The use of punctuation in written Chinese only became mandatory during the 20th century, due to Western influence. Unlike modern punctuation, judou marks were added by scholars for pedagogical purposes and were not viewed as integral to the text. Texts were therefore generally transmitted without judou. In most cases, this practice did not interfere with the interpretation of a text, although it occasionally resulted in ambiguity.Template:Efn-ua
The first book to be printed with modern punctuation was Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy (Script error: No such module "Lang".) by Hu Shih, published in 1919. Traditional poetry and calligraphy maintains the punctuation-free style. However, most editions of classical texts published since the 1930s are punctuated with fully modern punctuation (or at least using the modern equivalents of the traditional judou marks).
Many ancient Chinese books contain thousands of words with no spaces between them; however, when necessary to explicitly denote a pause or break, judou marks such as "。" and "、" were used.
Similar to the development of punctuation in Europe, there were varying types of judou marks. For instance, a Song dynasty print of Chronicles of Huayang used full-width spaces to denote a stop,Script error: No such module "Unsubst".[2] whereas a print of Jingdian Shiwen from the same period simply used "Script error: No such module "Lang"." and "Script error: No such module "Lang"." marks.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".Qu Yuan's Li Sao used the character Template:Wikt-lang and grammatical particles to denote stops, similar to judou marks.[3]
In Written Chinese, each character conforms to a roughly square frame, so the entire text can fit into a grid.
Because of this, East Asian punctuation marks are larger than their European counterparts, as they should occupy a square area that is the same size as the characters around them. These punctuation marks are called fullwidth to contrast them from halfwidth European punctuation marks.
Chinese characters can be written horizontally or vertically. Some punctuation marks adapt to this change in direction: the parentheses, square brackets, square quotation marks, book title marks, ellipsis marks, and dashes all rotate 90° clockwise when used in vertical text.
The three underline-like punctuation marks in Chinese (proper noun mark, wavy book title mark, and emphasis mark) rotate and shift to the left side of the text in vertical script (shifting to the right side of the text is also possible, but this is outmoded and can clash with the placement of other punctuation marks).
Marks similar to European punctuation
Marks imported from Europe are fullwidth instead of halfwidth like their original European counterparts, thus incorporating more space, and no longer need to be followed by an additional space in typesetting:[4][5]
Simplified Chineseofficially prescribes European-style quotation marks for horizontal text and Chinese quotation marks for vertical text. Single quotation marks are used when embedded within double quotation marks: Template:Zhi.
These quotation marks are fullwidth in printed matter but share the same codepoints as the European quotation marks in Unicode, so they require a Chinese-language font to be displayed correctly. In vertical text, corner brackets rotated 90° clockwise (Template:Zhi), are used similar to Traditional Chinese but in reverse clamping order, with double quotation on the outside and single quotation on the inside. However, corner brackets are commonly encountered in situations that normally necessitate European punctuation, including in official contexts and media.[8]
Enumeration comma (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
File:Yeli-Island-Plant-collecting-prohibited-0716.jpgA sign in a Zhuhai park, which, if we reproduce enumeration commas in English, can be rendered nearly word-for-word as: "It is strictly forbidden to pick flowers、 fruit、leaves, [or to] dig out roots、medicinal plants!" The enumeration comma (U+3001 Template:Sc) or "dun comma" (Template:Zh) must be used instead of the regular comma when separating words constituting a list.
Chinese language does not traditionally observe the English custom of a serial comma (the comma before conjunctions in a list), although the issue is of little consequence in Chinese at any rate, as the English "A, B, and C" is more likely to be rendered in Chinese as "Template:Zhi" or more often as "Template:Zhi", without any word for "and", see picture to the right.[5]
Middle dot (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
Chinese uses a middle dot to separate characters in non-Han personal names, such as Tibetan, Uyghur, etc. For example "Nur Bekri" (Script error: No such module "Lang".), the name of a Chinese politician of Uyghur descent is rendered as "Script error: No such module "Lang".". "Leonardo da Vinci" is often transcribed to Mandarin as: Script error: No such module "Lang".. The middle dot is also fullwidth in printed matter, while the halfwidth middle dot [·] is also used in computer input, which is then rendered as fullwidth in Chinese-language fonts.
In Taiwan, the hyphenation point ([‧], U+2027 Template:Sc) is used instead for the same purpose.[9]Script error: No such module "Unsubst". They can also be used to represent decimal points in Chinese. For example "3.5" becomes Script error: No such module "Lang"..[10]
Title marks (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
The latter is used when embedded within the former: Template:Zhi. Although Template:Zhi (wavy underline, U+FE4F Template:Sc) is the officially prescribed title mark by Taiwan's Ministry of Education (especially for handwriting), when typing, square brackets Template:Zhi and double quotation marks Template:Zhi are also de facto used, if not prescribed by dictionaries in a manner akin to Korean and Japanese; Simplified Chinese often does likewise for song titles. In practice, Traditional Chinese, single title marks are also used for articles in or sections of a book, a rule that is also officially prescribed for Simplified Chinese.
Furthermore, unsanctioned and alternate usage of Western or Chinese quotation marks is rather common, especially so for Chinese quotation marks in Traditional Chinese newspapers; this "unsanctioned practice" is also commonly found in Japanese and Korean.[5][6]
Ellipsis (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
In Chinese, the ellipsis is written with six dots (not three) occupying the same space as two characters in the center of a line.[1][12]
Two-em dash (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
Similarly, the two-em dash (Template:Unichar) is written so that it occupies the space of two em dash characters in the center of the line. There should be no breaking in the line.[1] To represent the two-em dash character ([⸺]), one can write two consecutive em dashes ([——], U+2014 U+2014). Chinese Script error: No such module "Lang". is Template:Zh.
En dash (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
When connecting two words to signify a range, Chinese generally uses an en dash occupying the space of one character (e.g. Script error: No such module "Lang". "January to July", which can also be written 1月到7月, with the character 到 in place of the dash). A single em dash character or a tilde may also be used.[15]
Wave dash (Template:Zhi)Script error: No such module "anchor".
The wave dash (Template:Unichar, Template:Zh) is used in the Chinese language to signify a numerical range (e.g. 5～20個字 "5 to 20 words"). Additionally, there is another Unicode character called the fullwidthtilde (Template:Unichar, Template:Zh) which is often used as an alternative form of the wave dash symbol. The wave dash is more commonly but not exclusively used when the numbers are estimates (e.g. circa dates and temperatures in weather forecasts).
For the most part, however, the en dash and wavy dash are interchangeable; usage is largely a matter of personal taste or institutional style. Note that the wave dash ([〜]) and the fullwidth tilde ([～]) should not be confused with the wavy dash character (Template:Unichar, Template:Zh). In Japanese, the wavy dash is used as an emphatic form of the katakana-hiragana prolonged sound mark.
In informal use (such as texting), wavy dashes are also used to indicate a prolonged vowel similar to informal English's repeated letters (e.g. Script error: No such module "Lang". "waaah") or to indicate stress in places where English would employ an emphatic tone marked variously by italics or bolding (e.g. Script error: No such module "Lang". "I want it!").[5]
SpacingScript error: No such module "anchor".
Similar to the spacing between letters (kerning) in European languages, Chinese writing uses a very narrow space between characters, though it does not observe the equivalent to the wider space between words except on rare occasions. ChineseTemplate:Snd particularly classical ChineseTemplate:Snd is thus a form of scriptio continua and it is common for words to be split between lines with no marking in the text equivalent to the English hyphen.
One instance of its usage is as an honorific marker. A modern example in 20th century Taiwan, is found in the reference to Chiang Kai-shek as Script error: No such module "Lang". (Former President, Lord Chiang), in which the preceding space serves as an honorific marker for Script error: No such module "Lang".. This use is also still current in very formal letters or other old-style documents,[5] as well as religious scripture.
When Chinese is romanized, spaces are used to assist in reading. Rules vary between systems but most commonlyTemplate:Snd as in Hanyu PinyinTemplate:Snd the spaces properly occur between semantic divisions (i.e., words) but in practice are often placed between phonetic divisions (i.e., individual characters). In the Wade–Giles system, separate characters within a word were noted by hyphens but this is increasingly uncommon.
Asterisk ( Script error: No such module "Lang". )Script error: No such module "anchor".
Mainland Chinese supply chains often use an asterisk in place of a multiplication sign (×) to specify product dimensions. For example "10×200×350" becomes "10*200*350".
The following are commonly suggested typographical styles; however, they are rarely carried out in practice and often only used when necessary. Proper name marks and title marks are primarily used in textbooks and official documents in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Proper name mark ( Script error: No such module "Lang". )
A proper name mark (an underline) is occasionally used, especially in teaching materials and some moviesubtitles. When the text runs vertically, the appropriate name mark is written as a line to the characters' left (to the right in some older books).
Title mark ( Script error: No such module "Lang". )
A title mark is a wavy underline (Script error: No such module "Lang"., U+FE4F Template:Sc) used instead of the regular book title marks whenever the proper noun mark is used in the same text.
For emphasis, Chinese uses emphasis marks instead of italic type. Each emphasis mark is a single dot placed under each character to be emphasized (for vertical text, the dot is placed to the right-hand side of each character). Although frequent in printed matter, emphasis marks are rare online, as most word processors do not support them. However, support in HTML has been possible by adding the CSS property text-emphasis-style.
Death-indication mark (
Script error: No such module "Lang".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".)
A death-indication mark (Template:Zh) marks a person's recent death. Typographically, it consists of a black border around the person's name. It is supported by most word processors and is supported in CSS through the border property. It is used in lists or bibliographical data, for example. Lin Suifang (Script error: No such module "Lang".) suggests that this practice may have entered the Chinese language in the fifties when it was supposedly adopted from translations from Russian; he does not cite any sources for this statement, however.[16]
Apostrophe
There is no equivalent of the apostrophe in Chinese. Therefore, it is omitted in translated foreign names such as "O'Neill". Likewise, the hyphen is used only when writing translated foreign names with hyphens. Otherwise, it is not used in Chinese and is omitted when translating compound words.
Use of punctuation marks
Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Several punctuation marks have ranges of use that differ from the way they are used in English, though some functions may overlap.
Script error: No such module "Lang". The comma is used to join clauses that deal with a certain topic or line of thinking. As such, what would appear to an English speaker to be a comma splice is very commonly seen in Chinese writing. Often, the entirety of a long paragraph can consist of clauses joined by commas, with the sole period coming only at the end. Unlike in English, a comma is allowed between a subject and its predicate.
Script error: No such module "Lang". The semicolon is frequently used to demarcate parallel structures in a paragraph.
Script error: No such module "Lang". Quotation marks, in addition to being used around quotations, are also commonly used for emphasis and to indicate proper nouns and titles, and also to enclose metaphors that do not explicitly state it is a metaphor. (e.g. 「毛球」跑出來了, i.e. The 'hairball' ran out.)
Script error: No such module "Lang". The use of a second em dash to close a parenthetical thought is rare. Instead, a comma is usually used, or sometimes no punctuation at all.
In Pinyin, the apostrophe (') (Template:Linktext, géyīn fúhào, 'syllable-dividing mark') is before a syllable starting with a vowel (a, o, or e) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word. It is commonly thought that this apostrophe should be used when there could be ambiguity regarding the syllables used (e.g. xian and Xi'an or bing'an and bin'gan).
