Paul Rössler, Peter Besl & Anna Saller (Hg.). 2021. Vergleichende Interpunktion – Comparative Punctuation (Linguistik – Impulse & Tendenzen 96). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. 454 S. Reviewed by Dimitrios Meletis: Universität Zürich, Deutsches Seminar, Schönberggasse 9, CH-8001 Zürich, E-Mail: dimitrios.meletis@uzh.ch https://doi.org/10.1515/zrs-2022-2088 Establishing comparative punctuation research A common feature of linguistic works focusing on writing is that they bemoan the marginal role it has played in the past when contrasted with the treatment of speech, which is itself often falsely equated with ‘language’. This tradition is con- tinued by the present volume as the editors mention specifically the “long prevail- ing disinterest of linguists in the study of these inconspicuous non-alphabetic characters” (p. VIII), echoing that even within the marginalized research dedi- cated to writing, punctuation is often treated as a side note. Their book, as the result of an international 2019 conference, rectifies this impressively by collecting contributions that cover many relevant aspects of what is labelled here as “com- parative punctuation research” (p. VIII). The introduction (presented in both Ger- man and English, reflecting the volume’s bilingual conception) explains that the 16 papers have more or less roughly been assigned to four thematic categories, with the first two – system and norm – of theoretical and the latter two – use and acquisition – of a more practical nature; they will be discussed in separate sec- tions in this review. A very useful overview table on p. XV additionally lists the language(s) and punctuation mark(s) each paper focuses on as well as whether the perspective adopted is synchronic or diachronic, showing at one glance the breadth of the volume – and the potential of this new field. System In the volume’s first contribution (in German), NEEF EEF focuses on comma placement in the contemporary German writing system. Based on syntactic structural infor- mation, he identifies three positions that – in general – require marking. The “in- violable, unordered conditions” (p. 3) proposed are (i) subordinate order (e.g., elements in enumerations), (ii) subordination of sentences, and (iii) subordina- tion of infinitive constructions (although the latter is subject to further condi- ZRS 2022; aop Open Access. © 2022 Dimitrios Meletis, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.