Written translations often show that translators do not differentiate between punctuation systems and their conventions in different languages or communities, regarding punctuation marks only as of formal separators. Unlike them, we consider these para-graphemes as important constituents of the semantic and logical structure of a text following rules that differ from one language to another.

The present article tries to study how translators evaluate their proficiency in punctuation of their both native and foreign languages, and how crucial they think punctuation marks are in terms of written translation. The study subjects are professional translators and those who sometimes provide translation services. We collected their opinions through a Google Forms multiple-choice questionnaire consisting of 15 items on the attention that translators pay to punctuation arrangement; the role of punctuation marks in encoding and decoding the message; the frequency of punctuation challenges in translation; and the awareness of punctuation features of the involved languages.

The results show that misconception of the functional potential of punctuation as a system is caused by lack of the necessary knowledge, which results from wrong assurance in one’s proficiency in punctuation; and this misleading assurance is explained by that misconception of punctuation. Therefore, we need to turn this naïve point of view to a scientific angle by helping them to understand the actual role that punctuation can play in a text.