Main entry:

Parkes, M. B. (Malcolm Beckwith)

Title & Author:

Pause and effect : an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West / M.B. Parkes.

Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, ©1993.

Description:

xvi, 327 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-327) and indexes.
Principal Abbreviations and Conventions -- I. Pause: Symbols as Notation -- 1. Antiquity: Aids for Inexperienced Readers and the Prehistory of Punctuation -- 2. Changing Attitudes to the Written Word: Components in a 'Grammar of Legibility' -- 3. Carolingian Renovatio: Augmenting Old Notation with New Symbols -- 4. The Requirements of Public Worship -- 5. The Development of the General Repertory of Punctuation -- 6. The Technology of Printing and the Stabilization of the Symbols -- II. Effect: Symbols as Signs -- 7. Influences on the Application of Punctuation -- Antiquity; the Analysis of Texts and the Application of Pauses -- Modes of Punctuation -- Exegesis and the Interpretation of the Message of a Text -- Public Worship and Aural Responses to the Written Word -- The Influence of Scholastic Modes of Thought and Expression -- The Punctuation of the Humanists -- The Impact of Printing: a Precarious Balance between Logical and Rhetorical Analysis -- The Mimetic Ambitions of the Novelist and the Exploitation of the Pragmatics of the Written Medium -- 8. The Layout and Punctuation of Verse -- III. Plates and Commentaries -- IV. Glossary, Indexes and Lists -- Select Glossary of Technical Terms and Punctuation Symbols -- Index of Authors cited and Extracts quoted to Illustrate the Use of Punctuation or Layout -- Index of Manuscripts cited -- Select List of Printed Works cited.

Summary:

"Over the centuries punctuation has become an essential component of written language. Its primary function is to resolve structural uncertainties in a text, and to signal nuances of semantic significance. The importance of the study of punctuation to a number of disciplines will be widely recognised as a result of the publication of this first definitive history." "The first part of Pause and Effect identifies the graphic symbols and deals with their history. It covers the antecedents of the repertory of symbols, as well as the ways in which the repertory was refined and augmented with new symbols to meet changing requirements. The second part offers a short general account of the principal influences which have contributed to the ways in which the symbols have been applied in texts, focusing on the evidence of the practice itself rather than on theorists. The treatment enables the reader to compare usages in different periods, and to isolate the principles which underlie the use of punctuation in all periods." "The examples and plates which are at the core of the book provide the reader with an opportunity to test the author's observations. The examples are taken from a wide range of literary texts from different periods and languages. Latin texts are accompanied by English translations intended to illustrate the use of punctuation in the originals in so far as this is possible.".
"Pause and Effect is destined to be a standard work. It will stimulate interest and scholarly debates among writers, literary critics, philosophers, linguists, rhetoricians, palaeographers and all those who study the use of language."--BOOK JACKET.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0520079418
9780520079410
0859677427
9780859677424

Subject:

Punctuation History.
Ponctuation Histoire.
Punctuation
Geschichte
Zeichensetzung
Interpunctie.
Rhétorique Histoire.
Geschichte 350-1800

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 89656
Call No.: P301.5.P86.P37 (ID:93-B2599)
Status: Available