Diachrony of punctuation in written Cantonese
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21458092 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pun Ho Lui (0009-0008-3347-4356, The Australian National University https://dx.doi.org/2219 Canberra Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-30 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0153-3320 • E-ISSN: 1960-6028 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1163/19606028-bja10060 |
| OpenAlex | W7166847926 |
| Language | EN |
This study examines the historical change of punctuation in written Cantonese (1828–2025). Before 1864, no punctuation is found. From 1864–1936, commas, pause punctuation, and full-stops share a wide range of functions. Some punctuation marks are only found in this period such as the paragraph full-stop. In 1965–1976, the functions of a comma and full-stop are narrowed. In modern Cantonese, non-language signs such as “=” are used as punctuation. Four principles of punctuation in written Cantonese are proposed
Paragraph · Punctuation · Written language · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research
| Highly cited | No |
|---|