Practical work on the Russian language: generalizing words and punctuation marks with them

In Russian, a special group of words adjoins the homogeneous members of the sentence , which is called generalizing.

What are generalizing words

Generalizing words are words or combinations of words that are generic concepts for words - homogeneous sentence members. In the sentence "There were different fruits on the table in the vase: bright red apples, honey-yellow pears, blue-violet large plums and grapes with transparent-pink berries" the word "fruit" can be regarded as generic for the following homogeneous members - the names of varieties These fruits. Or: "Sacks of cement, stacks of bricks, a pile of sand and other building materials 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 for homogeneous terms of the sentence is to clarify the latter, to specify them. Thanks to the use of them, the meaning of the entire sentence becomes more precise and understandable. In a sentence, generalizing words are considered as the same sentence terms as homogeneous ones. For example, in the sentence "In the spring, distant winged travelers return to us: winged swallows, power rooks, stately storks", the phrase "winged travelers" is a subject, like the homogeneous members to which it refers.

Generalizing words, examples of which were cited above, were expressed by nouns. In addition, in their quality, such parts of speech as pronouns, adverbs can act: nobody, nobody, everything, all this, everywhere, nothing, etc.

The main cases of placing punctuation marks in generalizing words

Depending on the arrangement of homogeneous terms in the sentence, punctuation marks such as a dash and a colon are used in it.

• If the generalizing words for homogeneous members are in the first place, then they are separated by a colon: "Water was everywhere: it was showered with tedious rain from the gray sky, poured into the scruff of the trees, gurgled from downpipes, gurgled gurgling under your feet."
• When the generalizing word is in the sentence after homogeneous members, a dash is placed before it: "Notebooks, books, a box, a box of paints and a bunch of pencils - all of their school wealth the kids gladly laid out on the desks."
• In the language there are constructions of the type: generalizing words - homogeneous terms - other words in the sentence. In this case, after the generalizing words a colon is put, and after homogeneous terms - a dash: "At any time of the year: in the winter cold and autumn mud, in the spring mud and summer sushi, our holy fool walked barefoot."
• It happens that after homogeneous terms of the sentence there is an introductory word or a word combination (in a word, in a word, hence, in short) and then generalizing. In this case, the dash is placed before the opening part, and after it the comma: "In the bitter smell of fallen leaves, in the dignity of the fires in the courtyards, in the special freshness of the evening air - in a word, the autumn approach was clearly felt in everything."
• When homogeneous terms are located in the middle of the sentence and have a clarifying character meaning, logically highlighting the generalizing word, then in the sentence there are two dashes: "Usually from neighboring villages - Ivanovka, Glushchovki, Verkhovodya - peasants came to the fair in advance."