Punctuation in Arabic as Compared with English
Abstract
This paper argues that the punctuation in Arabic has been taken from English, but has not been fully adopted. There are many differences between the two languages with respect to the punctuation. Consequently, Arabs make mistakes in English and English speakers make mistakes in Arabic with respect to the punctuation. The article points out differences between the punctuation systems of both the languages. For example, generally written English use comma for coordinating the words in Arabic (‘aṭf) whether they are qualified by adjectives or not. However, the correct usage is to use commas only when the coordinated words are qualified, resulting in prolongation of the structure. If this condition is not fulfilled, the use of commas is not correct. Such kinds of differences between the two languages have been discussed in the article in detail.
Keywords
Arabic, English, Punctuation, Comparative Linguistics.
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