In Russian, a special group of words, called generalizing, adjoins the homogeneous members of a sentence .
What are generalizing words
Generalizing words are words or combinations of words that are generic concepts for words - homogeneous members of a sentence. In the sentence “On the table in a vase lay different fruits: bright red apples, honey-yellow pears, blue-violet large plums and grapes with transparent pink berries” the word “fruits” can be considered as a generic word for the following homogeneous members - the names of the varieties these fruits. Or: "Bags of cement, stacks of bricks, a pile of sand and other building material were neatly stacked along the wall." In this sentence, the phrase "building material" is generic for the listed items of this building material.
The role of generalizing words in homogeneous terms of a sentence is to clarify the latter and specify them. Thanks to their use, the meaning of the whole sentence becomes more accurate and understandable. In a sentence, generalizing words are considered as the same members of a sentence as homogeneous. For example, in the sentence “Far winged travelers come back to us in the spring: swift-winged swallows, power rooks, stately storks” the phrase “winged travelers” is subject, as are the homogeneous members to which it refers.
The generalizing words, examples of which were given above, were expressed by nouns. In addition, such parts of speech as pronouns, adverbs can act in their quality: nobody, nobody, everything, all this, everywhere, nothing, etc.
The main cases of punctuation with generalizing words
Depending on the location of the homogeneous members in a sentence,
punctuation marks such as a dash and a colon are used in it.
- If generalizing words with homogeneous members are in the first place, they are separated by a colon: “Water was everywhere: it poured in tiresome rain from a gray sky, poured by the scruff of the neck under the trees, gurgled from downpipes, gurgled gurgling underfoot.”
- When the generalizing word is in the sentence after homogeneous members, a dash is put in front of it: "Notebooks, books, pencil case, box of paints and a bunch of pencils - the kids gladly laid out all their school wealth on their desks."
- In a language there are constructions of the type: generalizing words - homogeneous members - other words in a sentence. In this case, after the generalizing words, a colon is put, and after homogeneous members - a dash: "At any time of the year: in the winter cold and autumn wet, in the spring thaw and summer land - our holy fool went barefoot."
- It happens that after homogeneous members of a sentence there is an introductory word or phrase (in one word; a word; therefore; in short), and after that a generalizing one. In this case, a dash is placed in front of the prologue, and after it there is a comma: “In the bitter smell of a foliage of leaves, in the thought of bonfires in the yards, in the special freshness of the evening air - in a word, the approach of autumn was clearly felt in everything.”
- When the homogeneous members are located in the middle of the sentence and have a clarifying character meaning, logically highlighting the generalizing word, then two dashes are put in the sentence: “Usually peasants came to the fair from the neighboring villages - Ivanovka, Glushchivka, Verkhnevodye” in advance. ”