20100203 パンクチュエーションの用法 (コロン編) #2

コロンはビジネス文書を書く際には大変有用ですが、個人的な文章にはあまり使われなくなってきているという人もいます。それは多くの人にとって「硬く」「形式ばった」表現に響くというのが理由のようです。このこともあり、友人宛の文書など、よりパーソナルな文章ではカンマで代用されることが多くなっています。今回は、この点について詳細に見ていきましょう。

コロンには下記のような機能があります。

・追加情報や説明を導く
There was only one possible explanation: the plane had never arrived.

・具体例を導く
I have three brothers: Bob, Keith, and Randall.

・定義を導く *この場合はセミコロンやダッシュ、ハイフンの例もある
Definition: The Compromise of 1877 was one of a series of compromises reached to hold the United States together peacefully.

・引用句の前に置く
To quote from an interview that he gave to Martin Griffiths on the Kenya process, a year later, he said as follows:

I came with unique skills and attributes and also the ability to pick up the phone and speak to anyone around the world. Even [former U.S. President] George [W.] Bush spoke to me from Tanzania next door. That helped and they also knew that I had the entire international community behind me. It gave me a leverage that other mediators would not have had.

<http://www.j.u-tokyo.ac.jp/gls/AnnanSymposium.html>

・後節がさらなる意味を持つことを意味する
I had much to do before the dinner: I had to confirm the number of guests with the caterer, check that the house had been cleaned before their arrival, and so on.

・要約の内容を続ける
I'll try and describe why the site is broken but the summary is this: I have reason to believe that SBS Transit is rejecting network connections from my app to its servers. In the face of this, there is no way that I can keep NextBus functional.

<http://antrix.net/journal/techtalk/sbsnextbus4.comments>

・前節に構文的にはつながらない語句を追加しそれを強調する
He had only one goal for his Saturday: to get a haircut.

・タイトルとサブタイトルをつなぐ
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

これ以外にも細かい用法 (10:30 など) もありますが、これらについては省略します。上記の使い方をしっかりマスターして商品性の高い訳文を作成してください。