LiP Language in Performance Sebastian Patt Punctuation as a Means of Medium-Dependent Presentation Structure in English Exploring the Guide Functions of Punctuation Punctuation as a Means of Medium-Dependent Presentation Structure in English 47 Edited by Werner Hüllen (†) and Rainer Schulze Advisory Board: Thomas Herbst (Erlangen), Andreas Jucker (Zürich), Manfred Krug (Bamberg), Christian Mair (Freiburg i.Br.), Ute Römer (Atlanta, GA, USA), Andrea Sand (Trier), Hans-Jörg Schmid (München), Josef Schmied (Chemnitz) and Edgar W. Schneider (Regensburg) Sebastian Patt Punctuation as a Means of Medium-Dependent Presentation Structure in English Exploring the Guide Functions of Punctuation Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Natio nalbibl io grafie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. © 2013 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 · D-72070 Tübingen Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. Jede Ver- wer tung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulässig und strafbar. Das gilt insbesondere für Vervielfältigungen, Übersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und die Einspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Gedruckt auf säurefreiem und alterungsbeständigem Werkdruckpapier. Internet: www.narr.de E-Mail: [email protected] Satz: Informationsdesign D. Fratzke, Kirchentellinsfurt Printed in Germany ISSN 0939-9399 ISBN 978-3-8233-6753-6 Contents Figures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX Typographical conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Linguistic description, presentation structure and the status of punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1 Issues of linguistic description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.1 Medium-transferability and the linguistic sign . . . . . . . . 13 2.1.2 Decoding linguistic utterances: a ‘three-channel approach’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.1.3 Linguistic description: distinctive units of analysis. . . . . 26 2.1.3.1 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.1.3.2 The medium-independent expression system. . . 28 2.1.3.3 The medium-dependent expression systems of speech and writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.2 Presentation structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 2.2.1 Medium-independent choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.2.1.1 Choices which do not influence directly the structure of clause complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.2.1.2 Choices which influence directly the structure of clause complexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2.2.2 Medium-dependent choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 2.2.2.1 Medium-dependent spoken choices. . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.2.2.2 Medium-dependent written choices. . . . . . . . . . . 48 2.3 Verbal and nonverbal information: punctuation from a semiotic perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 2.3.1 Verbal and nonverbal information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 2.3.2 Punctuation marks as indices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 2.3.2.1 Determining the communicative value of punctuation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Patt_V-299End_neu.indd V 04.04.13 11:23 VI Contents 2.3.2.2 Punctuation in a model of verbal and nonverbal information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3 A short diachronic view on punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.1 Forerunners of punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 3.2 Punctuation in Old and Middle English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 3.3 Punctuation and the orthographic sentence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4 The structure of written text: the script unit model. . . . . . . . . . . . 81 4.1 The relationship of orthographic sentence and clause complex. 81 4.2 The level of parasyntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 4.3 The script unit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5 Elements of punctuation in present-day English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.1 Defining punctuation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.2 Non-alphanumeric characters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.2.1 As part of orthographic word-forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 5.2.2 Creating punctuation units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.2.2.1 Terminal period (or full stop) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 5.2.2.2 Question mark and exclamation mark. . . . . . . . . 102 5.2.2.3 Semicolon and colon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 5.2.2.4 Comma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 5.2.2.5 Dash and parentheses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 5.2.2.6 Quotation marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 5.2.3 The dual function of punctuation marks: separation and specification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 6 Collecting data to account for the communicative value of punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 7 Exploring the guide functions of punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 7.1 General punctuation principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 7.1.1 Punctuation as a style marker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 7.1.1.1 Indicating dimensions of linguistic variation . . . 126 7.1.1.2 Divided usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 7.1.2 Obligatory sentence-internal punctuation. . . . . . . . . . . . 132 7.1.2.1 Cases of structural opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 7.1.2.2 Cases of intervening syntactic material. . . . . . . . 136 7.1.3 Punctuation and structural integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 7.2 Punctuation in context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.2.1 Punctuation at word-level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.2.1.1 Disambiguation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.2.1.2 Intensity of effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 7.2.2 Punctuation units and syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Patt_V-299End_neu.indd VI 04.04.13 11:23 Contents VII 7.2.2.1 Coordinated constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 7.2.2.1.1 Syndetic coordination. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 7.2.2.1.2 Asyndetic coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 7.2.2.2 Restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers . . . . . . 160 7.2.2.2.1 Relative clause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 7.2.2.2.2 Apposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 7.2.2.3 Adverbials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 7.2.2.3.1 Adjunct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 7.2.2.3.2 Disjunct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 7.2.2.3.3 Conjunct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 7.2.2.4 Disambiguation of medium-independent structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 7.2.2.4.1 The linguistic function of punctuation 204 7.2.2.4.2 Parsing strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 7.2.2.4.3 Punctuation as a guide to ambiguous medium-independent structures: some examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 7.2.3 Punctuation units and text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 7.2.3.1 Punctuational variability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 7.2.3.1.1 Light and heavy punctuation. . . . . . . . 224 7.2.3.1.2 Punctuation as an indicator of sub- and superordinate boundaries . . . . . . . 229 7.2.3.1.3 Deviant punctuation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 7.2.3.2 The specifying function of punctuation . . . . . . . 242 7.2.3.2.1 Punctuation as a marker of separative force. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 7.2.3.2.2 Punctuation and discourse structure. . 245 8 The guide functions of punctuation: theoretical and functional synopsis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 8.1 Synopsis I: theoretical insights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 8.2 Synopsis II: functional insights. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 8.2.1 Punctuation as a paralinguistic device: guide functions 1 to 8 (GF 1–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254 8.2.1.1 Reducing cognitive complexity (GF 1–4) . . . . . . 254 8.2.1.1.1 Guide function 1 (GF 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 8.2.1.1.2 Guide function 2 (GF 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 8.2.1.1.3 Guide function 3 (GF 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 8.2.1.1.4 Guide function 4 (GF 4) . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 8.2.1.2 C ontributing to the conceptualisation of a piece of writing (GF 5–8). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 8.2.1.2.1 Guide function 5 (GF 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 8.2.1.2.2 Guide function 6 (GF 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 Patt_V-299End_neu.indd VII 04.04.13 11:23 VIII Contents 8.2.1.2.3 Guide function 7 (GF 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 8.2.1.2.4 Guide function 8 (GF 8) . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 8.2.2 Punctuation as a linguistic device: guide function 9 (GF 9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 9 Conclusion: punctuation and the reader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Patt_V-299End_neu.indd VIII 04.04.13 11:23 Figures Figure 2.1 Transferring a linguistic utterance from one medium to the other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Figure 2.2 A traditional representation of the linguistic sign as proposed by de Saussure (1978 [1915]: 99). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Figure 2.3 Image acoustique and image écrite as equivalent representations of substance in a modified version of the linguistic sign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Figure 2.4 A comprehensive extension of the linguistic sign . . . . . . . . 20 Figure 2.5 Description of homophonous and homographic lexemes. . 23 Figure 2.6 Medium-dependent and medium-independent units . . . . . 27 Figure 2.7 Tonal variations and concomitant distinctions in meaning of the sequence >is he sure of it< . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Figure 2.8 Medium-independent and medium-presentational choices 57 Figure 2.9 Verbal and nonverbal signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Figure 2.10 The communicative value of punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Figure 4.1 Script units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Figure 4.2 Syntactic status at punctuation unit boundaries . . . . . . . . . 88 Figure 5.1 Written presentational choices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Figure 5.2 Punctuation hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Figure 5.3 Symbols used in Figure 5.4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Figure 5.4 Possible decision process when creating punctuation units 114 Figure 6.1 The potential nature of punctuation examples. . . . . . . . . . . 117 Figure 6.2 Cyclic process of a multi-method approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Figure 7.1 Summary of general punctuation principles . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Figure 7.2 The influence of constituent length on punctuation usage in syndetic non-elliptical coordinate constructions (based on Meyer 1987) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Figure 7.3 The influence of the coordinators and and but on punctuation usage in syndetic non-elliptical coordinate constructions (based on Meyer 1987) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Figure 7.4 Summary of script unit types distinguished in section 4.3. 174 Figure 7.5 The punctuation of adjunct phrases and adjunct clauses in sentence-initial position (based on Meyer 1987) . . . . . . . . . 180 Figure 7.6 Punctuation of finally located adverbial clauses with regard to adverbial type (based on Ford 1992). . . . . . . . . . . 189 Patt_V-299End_neu.indd IX 04.04.13 11:23