Terminal punctuation refers to the punctuation marks used to identify the end of a portion of text. Terminal punctuation marks are also referred to as end marks and
stops.
In languages using the
ISO basic Latin alphabet
The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard (beginning with ISO/IEC 646) for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets (uppercase and lowercase) of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and u ...
, terminal punctuation marks are defined as the
period, the
question mark
The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.
History
The history of the question mark is ...
, and the
exclamation mark
The exclamation mark (also known as exclamation point in American English) is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show wikt:emphasis, emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks ...
. These punctuation marks may bring sentences to a close. In their widest sense, terminal punctuation marks bring any element of written text to a close, including other conventions, such as abbreviations.
[ Loberger and Shoup 2009. p. 158.]
See also
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Sentence spacing
Sentence spacing concerns how Space (punctuation), spaces are inserted between sentences in typeset Written language, text and is a matter of typographical convention (norm), convention. Since the introduction of movable type, movable-type printin ...
Notes
References
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{{navbox punctuation
Punctuation
Typographical symbols