[英中] In Praise of the Humble Comma
原文：
Yet punctuation is something more than a culture's birthmark; it scores the
music in our minds, gets our thoughts moving to the rhythm of our hearts.
Punctuation is the notation in the sheet music of our words, telling us when
to rest, or when to raise our voices; it acknowledges that the meaning of our
discourse, as of any symphonic composition, lies not in the units but in the
pauses, the pacing and the phrasing. Punctuation is the way one bats one's
eyes, lowers one's voice or blushes demurely. Punctuation adjusts the tone
and color and volume till the feeling comes into perfect focus: not disgust
exactly, but distaste; not lust, or like, but love.
Punctuation, in short, gives us the human voice, and all the meanings that
lie between the words. "You aren't young, are you?" loses its innocence when
it loses the question mark. Every child knows the menace of a dropped
apostrophe (the parent's "Don't do that" shifting into the more slowly
enunciated "Do not do that"), and every believer, the ignominy of having his
faith reduced to "faith." Add an exclamation point to "To be or not to be . .
. " and the gloomy Dane has all the resolve he needs; add a comma, and the
noble sobriety of "God save the Queen" becomes a cry of desperation bordering
on double sacrilege.
（全文：http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/panaminst/article?mid=1095）
譯文：
但，標點不僅僅是文化的胎記。它將我們腦海中的樂音寫成譜，使我們的思想移轉
，合上內心的旋律。標點，是言語這張樂譜上的標記，告訴我們何時該休止、何時該升
調。如同一篇樂章，它賦予對話意義，不在於單位，而在於頓點、速度和分節。標點是眨
眼的方式，是降低音量的方式，是忸怩羞赧的方式。標點調校聲調、色彩、音量，直到文
字帶給人的感受毫釐不差：並非確實討厭，而是厭惡；並非慾望或喜歡，而是愛。
一言以蔽之，標點在字裡行間，給予了人類的聲音與意涵。「你不小了，是嗎？」這
句話，若缺少問號，將缺少那種單純的疑惑之感。孩子能辨識出少了縮略符號後，語帶威
脅的感覺（當父母的「別這麼做」轉變成緩緩吐出的「不要這樣做」時）；當「他的信仰
」省略成「信仰」後，每個信教者亦能察覺出其中羞辱的語氣。「要生，或者死...」這
句話若加上驚嘆號，憂鬱的丹麥王子哈姆雷特便有了他所需要的決心；加上逗號，「上帝
拯救王后」這尊貴之語，就成了幾近於雙重褻瀆的絕望哭喊。
--
這個世界的美麗與哀愁。
--
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