The concept of author punctuation often excites the minds of editors and spotters. In what cases does intentionally modified punctuation need to be preserved in this form? Where is that thin line between the author’s intention and the banal illiteracy? What is author punctuation? Let's try to understand this article.
What is punctuation?
The word "punctuation" comes from the Latin punctum, which means 'dot'. This is a system of special graphic characters that serve to separate speech into separate semantic parts, both verbally and in writing. Punctuation marks do not belong to the alphabet, but are one of the types of language tools - they organize individual words and sentences into semantic blocks, and give the written text a certain structure.
There are certain norms and rules for the placement of punctuation marks, which have their own characteristics in each of the languages of the world. The presence of punctuation norms guarantees a certain order in the writing of texts and in their interpretation. However, literature knows many examples of a peculiar arrangement of characters in the text, which became exceptions to the accepted norms - this phenomenon is called author punctuation. Rules and linguistic norms in this case fade into the background, but are not completely denied.
Original punctuation is built on the basis of existing principles. In addition, punctuation marks are variable - often the author has a choice of which sign to put here, which particular semantic nuance to emphasize. The selected character will be grammatically correct anyway.
About the essence of punctuation marks
Author punctuation combines such phenomena as the whole set of punctuation marks in a particular work of the author or non-standard, their arrangement deviating from the accepted rules. Why do writers and poets use this technique?
Punctuation marks for the author of a work of art are the same tools as letters and words. With their help, writers and poets build the rhythmic pattern of the text. It is as if they are leading the reader through the story, indicating that it would be worth stopping here, but here you can accelerate to take off.
For a competent reader, a sentence with author punctuation is like an invitation from the writer to stop and reflect on the text. A competent reader will immediately ask himself a question - why did this sign appear here? Brackets are often used for additional remarks, dashes - for a sharp contrast. Ellipsis often sets a minor mood - as if the hero was thinking or yearning for something.
The correct punctuation strategy is not only to blindly follow grammar norms and rules, but also to rely on your linguistic intuition, to understand the correct intonation of the recorded sentence, and also to understand your intention. The author must be aware of what he wants to tell the reader. It will not be superfluous to try to imagine yourself in the place of the reader and think about how the latter will perceive what the author has written in the context of what he has already read.
When did you talk about author punctuation?
It will be unusual for a modern reader to hear this, but until the 19th century, a separate concept of signs placed by the author himself practically did not exist, especially in Russian literature. Many pen workers did not care about punctuation marks - they boldly left the right to their placement for proofreaders and editors. Author spelling and punctuation could be rethought several times by outsiders. Nowadays, when even the point set in the SMS message makes one doubt the meaning of what is written, it is hard to imagine that the poet of the century before last could not care about commas at all.
You and I might not recognize many old works in their original form — some signs did not exist in principle. In addition, the modern way of arranging signs differs from the old one. Lermontov, for example, put much more than three points in the ellipsis - their number could reach up to 5-6.
The history of punctuation marks: interesting facts
Punctuation marks were created and developed gradually, in parallel with the enrichment of languages. From the ancient period until the Renaissance, the use of punctuation was unsystematic and was not controlled by any norms. But now came the era of typography - and punctuation standards sooner or later had to be unified. It happened in the 16th century.
The creators of the modern punctuation system are Italian book printers Aldov Manutsiev the Elder and Younger - grandfather and grandson. They are credited with the invention of a semicolon, many still known fonts, as well as the first use of a corporate publishing mark. But the first punctuation marks appeared long before the Manucius.
Point
The dot indicates the completeness of the author’s thoughts, the logical end of something is the oldest of the punctuation marks. It first appeared among the ancient Greeks, and in Russian writing - already at the end of the 15th century. At first, it didn’t matter at what height to put it - it could be at the bottom of the line, or in the middle.
In Church Slavonic writing there was a prototype of a point - the so-called "stop sign" in the form of a cross. The scribe designated the place where he was forced to interrupt the transcription. In this case, the stop sign could well be placed in the middle of the unfinished word. In addition, a pause in the text could be indicated with a colon, three dots in the form of a triangle, or four in the form of a rhombus.
Comma
The comma seems to indicate semantic equality in the context of the whole sentence of those words and phrases that it shares. In Russian manuscripts, the comma appears about half a century later than the point - at the beginning of the 16th century.
Colon
The main task of the colon is to explain and interpret. Usually after this sign is always followed by details, giving the key to understanding the previous part of the sentence. But at first, in the Russian language, the colon performed much more functions - it was used as an abbreviation (like a dot now), put at the end of the sentence, replaced the ellipsis. In some European languages (Finnish, Swedish), a colon is still used to abbreviate the word (as in the Russian hyphen in the middle of the word). Also, a colon is used if the author’s speech follows it. Punctuation in this case is complemented by quotation marks.
Dash
Of all the punctuation marks in Russian writing, the dash most recently appeared - the writer Karamzin introduced it into everyday life in the 18th century. The name comes from the French word tiret - to separate. At first, the dash was called much more interesting: “silence” or “thought-separating sign”. However, these names make clear about the function of the dash - meaningful pause before the next part of the sentence.
Ellipsis
The ellipsis sign in Russian was first called the 'restraint mark'. For the first time in the norms of grammar, he was mentioned at the beginning of the XIX century. Today, the ellipsis can express the understatement or some kind of uncertainty of the author in the written. Also, with an ellipsis, as conceived by the author, a sentence may begin if it is necessary to indicate that the action has already begun.
Exclamation point
An exclamation point came to us from the Latin language. The ancient Romans, in order to mark a place in the text that they especially liked, used the short word 'Io' for joy. Over time, the shape of this insert became more and more ergonomic - the letter O decreased in size and slipped under the letter I. As a result, a modern exclamation mark appeared, which in fact is the ancestor of the emoticon. Now the exclamation in the text can reflect not only joy, but also fright, surprise, anxiety, anger, as well as many other emotions.
Question mark
The origin of the question mark is similar to the previous one regarding the exclamation point. To express the question and bewilderment, the Romans had the subscript 'Qo'. Gradually, she also transformed into a more compact form. The question mark began to be actively used in the XVII-XVIII centuries.
Together with an exclamation point, a question mark can form even more expressive combinations ?! and? !!, under which most often lies surprise. Also, both signs are combined with ellipsis - then surprise turns into a stun. In fact, there already exists a combined sign of interrogative and exclamation, called the interrobang. It was invented only 60-70 years ago in America and even used for some time in newspapers, but the newfangled sign did not take root. So if you want to surprise readers with your author punctuation, you already have an example for borrowing.
Interestingly, in Spanish, both signs - interrogative and exclamation - are also used in an inverted position. An inverted sign precedes the phrase - a question or exclamation - is similar to the principle of open-closed quotes.
Quotes
Quotation marks are used to isolate direct speech, quote, give the word an ironic connotation, to insert names or rare words into the text, the explanation of which is subsequently given. It seems that no other sign has such a variety of forms - different types of quotes are used in different languages:
- "Herringbone" habits - in Russian in print;
- “Paws” - habits - in German or in Russian, if written by hand;
- English quotes, double or single;
- "Polish" quotation marks;
- "Swedish" quotation marks - directed in the opposite direction with respect to the word;
- Japanese and Chinese quotation marks are not like any other. You see them below in the picture.
Separate rules exist for quotation marks in quotation marks. In Russian, quotation marks of the first order are herringbone quotes, and inside them are German foot quotes. For example, consider how the following phrase fits into our story: “The teacher said:“ Write out a sentence with author punctuation. ” If the heap of signs is confusing, it is allowed to use only quotation marks, herringbone, while the second, closing quotation mark will combine the functions of both orders.
The primary task is to highlight the main
Often, author punctuation that contradicts the rules is applied where the author intentionally wants to highlight something. Our gaze seems to be attracted to where there is an extra dash. The text becomes more expressive and acquires an emotional coloring.
For example, commas often neutral in their emotional coloring replace a more expressive dash - especially where you need to withstand a dramatic pause. Linguists call this technique “reinforcing a symbolic position”.
Commas can also be replaced by periods. By the way, contrary to a common misconception, the well-known line from the poem by A. Blok: “Night, street, street lamp, pharmacy” contains commas, not dots.
Writer Style Features
Speaking of author punctuation in relation to a particular writer, they often mean his manner of punctuation. Some are keen on dots, while others, for example, often use dashes. The peculiar manner of writing and arranging signs as if becomes a visiting card of the writer. Remember, for example, Mayakovsky and his game with lines. In turn, F. M. Dostoevsky liked to use the dash after the union, and Maxim Gorky could put it in place of a comma.
If we are talking about the process of publishing a book, then the definition of “author punctuation” includes all characters found in the text, including those that are arranged in accordance with the rules. After editing the text, punctuation can change - the corrector has the right to improve the grammatical side of the text at his discretion.
Nothing more: author punctuation ... without punctuation
One of the methods of influencing the reader in modern literature may be the complete absence of punctuation marks. Most often, this technique is used in white or free verse. Sometimes a writer or poet tries to structure what is written at least in lines, but it happens that he intentionally tries to abandon the even inner rhythm of the narrative. The text seems to be approaching the reader with its entire mass and absorbs it as a whole, not allowing itself to come to its senses.
Such a work is always a mystery, the answer to which each reader finds on his own, placing semantic accents. This technique achieves maximum hyperbolization if the words are written without spaces and capital letters - in fact, this is exactly what the text looked like at the time of writing.
Too many characters
There is a converse to the absence of dividing characters of the author’s punctuation technique - the supersaturation of text with characters. In this way, the author can equally express the fussiness or haste of what is happening, as well as mint events and create a feeling of their full distinctness. A similar method of working with text is called parcellation - from the French word "parcel" denoting a particle. Often, dots are used as a separator character - many sentences of one or two words in size make our eyes and mind cling to every detail in the text.
Transforming Punctuation: Using Smiles
Whether we like it or not, the use of emoticons in Internet correspondence is gradually becoming increasingly important. There are already scientific papers on whether to consider emoticons punctuation marks or not? So far, language researchers agree that a smiley composed of punctuation marks - a colon and a bracket - can serve as such, but a picture from a set of smiles in the messenger should already be considered an icon. In any case, emoticons as text dividers may well qualify for inclusion in the category of author punctuation, and their arrangement rules are already beginning to take shape.
Authoritative experts in modern linguistics argue that the smile should be isolated from the rest of the text, if not two, then at least one gap. Also, the smiley bracket always “eats” the dot to avoid visual piling up of characters in the sentence - even if this is your author’s punctuation. Examples can be found on any forum - for most Internet users, the parenthesis-smiley has even become a substitute for the point, and the presence of the latter may raise doubts - why didn’t my interlocutor smile? Something went wrong?
Reception of crossed out text
Another favorite trick of netizens is to use strikethrough text in an ironic way. The author seemed to allow himself a little more freedom, wrote what he thinks - and then he remembered that decent people read it, crossed out what was written, and came up with a more digestible version. This technique is often used by bloggers with a good sense of humor. Perhaps someday we will see a similar example in the school textbook as a sentence with author punctuation.
Author style or ignorance?
You cannot make a gross mistake in a sentence and hide behind the notion of author punctuation. The latter always serves as an element of expressiveness, while an incorrectly placed (or vice versa, forgotten) sign simply indicates your illiteracy. Any punctuation should facilitate the perception of the text, and not hamper it. Author's spelling and punctuation will serve as an object for numerous discussions for a long time, but in order to break the rules, you need to understand them first.