最近在讀牛津的寫作手冊,翻譯整理了其中部分關於引號的用法:
1.引號裡的句子首字母大寫
She said, "We are not going."
但下面這種情況,第二部分不用大寫,除非是引起一個新句子
"We," she said, "are not going."
2.引號前一般用逗號,更正式的文章中可以用冒號
He writes: "They require careful interpretation."
除了用標點,還經常用that,這樣行文會更流暢,但需要注意的是,that之後直接用引號即可,不需要其他標點,同時引號內首字母無需大寫
He writes that "they require careful interpretation."
關於結尾的問題會更複雜一點:
3.美國寫作規範是不論什麼情況均把逗號和句點放在引號內部;因為這本寫作手冊偏美式,只提到了美國的用法,所以關於英國的用法我又查了一些其他資料,Economist style guide中表示The British convention is to place such punctuation according to sense,例子如下:
』You’re eating too much,』 she told him. 『You』ll soon look like your father.』
She particularly enjoyed the article 『Looking for the 「New Man」』.(和美式相反,英式英語先用單引號,然後再用雙引號)
而Guardian的寫作手冊則要更詳細一些,Place full points and commas inside the quotes for a complete quoted sentence; otherwise the point comes outside -
"Anna said: 'Your style guide needs updating,' and I said: 'I agree.' "
but: "Anna said updating the guide was 'a difficult and time-consuming task'."
4.而感嘆號和問號則都需要視情況而定
如果引號內部是疑問句,整句是陳述句,那麼放在引號內
She asked, "Are we going?"
如果引號內部是陳述句,整句是問句,那麼放在引號外
Did she say, "We are going"?
如果都是,那麼放在引號內
Did she ask, "Are we going?"