ABSTRACT
The analysis dealt with both the frequency of the punctuation marks and the weighted value of each one. An elementary correspondence between a system of marks and a conceptual opposition regarding the relatedness of facts is assumed to be the initial framework upon which the development and use of punctuation and connectives is based. Punctuation marks and connectives are segmentation and cohesion markers, both being surface representations of the underlying coherency relations between adjacent states and/or events. Corpus analyses have provided coherent results regarding both the frequency and the form of punctuation marks. The results of these corpus analyses confirm that, even in the writing of younger children, punctuation marks, whether conventional or not, are employed to indicate the strength of the link between the states or events described in adjacent propositions. The theory predicts that this hierarchical structure will be the main determinant of the frequency and types of punctuation used.
