Colons punctuating dialogue

[Brian G Turner]

I remember a while ago I'd thought semi-colons in dialogue punctuation was normal:
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/538989-dialogue-punctuation-commas-vs-semi-colons.html

I wonder if I mixed up my colons and semi-colons here?

Recently I noticed in Ken Follets World Without End he frequently uses a colon to open a new dialogue tag, ie:

Pa said: 'He saw your face.'

Kindle throws up at least 100 examples.

It's interesting because I'd been talked around to use a comma instead, ie:

Pa said, "He saw your face."

However, I cannot think of another book I've read recently where a colon was used instead of a comma.

If the former a previous accepted use now giving way to the comma?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Both are correct, I think, but the colon is rarely used. So, it'd seem (to me) to be the same as jail and gaol.

 

[chrispenycate]

I use it, occasionally. Sometimes a comma's just not a big enough break. Won't work at the other end of the dialogue, though.

 

[alchemist]

I think the colon was used a lot in older books. I read one from the 50s a couple of years ago and they were all over the place.

 

[HareBrain]

Tolkien uses the colon pretty much every time. Interestingly, he starts with the tag (Then Feanor said: "Blah blah") much more in the more formal, old-fashioned epic mode, i.e. in Silmarillion and the parts of Return of The King set in Minas Tirith. In the more hobbit-focused bits, he almost always puts the tag afterwards ("Blah blah," said Strider.)

I use it when I want a feeling of abruptness.

 

[sallyember]

Grammar teacher, here: Both may be used and could be correct, but some of the posters here rightly recognize the difference in pacing, tone, or intention each mark conveys.

Generally, use a comma when the speaker continues to be quoted after the initial quote begins, interceded by information:
Whining, Sally strained away from her captor, "I don't want to go," pulling her hand out of his. "You can't make me."

Use a colon when the statement being made is complete in itself (a complete sentence or an interjection that has its own end mark within the quotation itself). Remember, in the USA, end marks such as periods and commas are placed before the end quotation marks, whereas semi-colons, colons and entire sentence end marks lay outside the quotation marks unless those are part of the quotation itself.
Sometimes no punctuation mark is needed preceding the beginning of the quote.
She screamed: "I can't believe you hate me that much! I hate you!" Turning, she ran away. "I hate you!" she taunted, again. Turning, she ran further, calling "Do not follow me!" I couldn't believe she was doing this! How could she say "I hate you!" to me? Running away from me, her mother!

Best to you. Hope this helps.

 

[stephen.samuels]

I'd never considered the use of a colon before, interesting.

 

[tinkerdan]

Strunk and White suggests: "A colon may introduce a quotation that supports or contributes to the preceding clause."

I'm not sure how that would look.

 

[nightdreamer]

I can see it in a case like

Alfred had only one thing to say: "Rubbish!"

As part the standard he said/she said, it seems a bit awkward. Probably because I'm not used to seeing it.