... still means stop!. The English language is complex. And what's right in one English-speaking country is amusing, confusing, or downright wrong in another.
In American English a period is a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence that indicates a full stop. For most of us Americans, a full stop is what people are supposed to do at a stop sign. Too often they don't.
But, as Mr UK points out so emphatically in a recent comment on my article Use One Space Between Sentences, that little punctuation mark has another name too.
It’s one space and it’s also called a full-stop not a period.
Stop destroying the English language!
Can't please everyone. Period, "Also Known As: (1) full stop(chiefly British), full point"
“For most of us Americans, a full stop is what people are supposed to do at a stop sign. Too often they don’t.”
For most of us British, a period is something that women complain about during their menstrual cycle. Too often they do.
Well, the original name (quoting wikipedia) “derives from Aristophanes of Byzantium who invented the system of punctuation…the ‘periodos’ indicated a finished thought or sentence.” If that’s not reason enough to call it a period, I don’t know what is. Besides, “Stop” or “Full Stop” is an action while the dot at the end of a sentence is an object. It’s just better to describe this simple object as it’s original word. Since New World Order is in the fledgling stages, we’ll definitely need to come to an agreement on this and I’d be willing to bet that the bastardized way to discuss the end of a sentence (aka, the “Full Stop”) will fall to the wayside.
Question for an Englishman: Is the word “Full” really necessary? “Full Stop”…as opposed to what other kind of “stop”? Is there a “Part Stop” or “Half Stop”? I know that “Stop” and “Full Stop” were used in the days of telegraphs, but that won’t answer my question…is there really any reason to have two words of action to describe this simple object?
“is there really any reason to have two words of action to describe this simple object?”
Is there any reason to use three syllables when two would do?
As far as I know, Aristophanes of Byzantium didn’t speak English, so, Gabe, your argument isn’t really valid, unless you’d have us all speaking Latin, Greek or even Arabic. I, however, do speak English and I call it a full-stop.
Besides, standard English used in Britain (or, if we want to be even more precise, England), can never accurately be described as “bastardised”, as English is English. Other Anglophone countries may be “borrowing” our language, which is fine, that is the beauty of it, but true English will, by definition, only exist here.
Also, I can imagine that commas were perhaps considered “half stops” in earlier days, which would explain the issue you brought up concerning why the longer “full stop” is used. However, similarly, why would you come to a “full stop” at a stop sign, when a half stop would surely just be “slowing down”. One could argue that simply “stop” would suffice in this circumstance as well.
You call it “period” by all means, but just allow those of us who speak English to call it a “full-stop”.
I wonder if Rohin catches the elevator or the lift? After all, why use three syllables when one will do.
I heartily agreed (as an Englishwoman) with Matt and Mr UK! Most of my compatriots would too (that’s what it was called in those far-off days when grammar was actually taught in English schools), especially women; a period is what women experience monthly, which explains our reluctance to use that term … However, I have checked my bible (Fowler’s Modern English Usage, first published in …1926!! and revised extensively). There it states, quite clearly: ‘full stop. See STOPS; and PERIOD IN ABBREVIATIONS.’ Look up STOPS and you get: ’stops, etc. (comma, semicolon, colon, full stop, exclamation, question, inverted commas, apostrophe, hyphen, italics, brackets, dashes)’ followed by 5 x A5 pages, in double-column, explaining their use. You get about half a column on the FULL STOP. Look up PERIOD and you get ‘period (full stop) in abbreviations.’ and it is referred to as a ‘period’. Not sure what to think any more!!! But I’ll still refer to the full stop.
Sort of a dead comment thread, but to be accurate when the punctuation system was invented, the indicator of a complete thought was the ‘periodos.’ So the english ‘full stop’ sounds as colloquial ( in this case) as dot.
I owned a print shop a while back and did not like to see text with two spaces after a period.
It was taught in school that you would use two spaces because the typewriter had monospaced lettering and you needed two spaces to help the eye recognize the end of the line.
But now that everyone uses a computer of other device that uses accurate letter spacing there is no reason to use two spaces after a period.
I find it distracting to see two spaces.