33.
The most omnipresent factor in the Visuality of the Text is orthography,
which has again received less sustained study than it merits.23 My
proposal for a ‘level’ of ‘Graphology’ by analogy to ‘Phonology’
(II.46) is not reflected in current usage of the terms. On the Internet, I found
‘graphology’ ‘defined as the science of determining personality and
character traits from their handwriting’; ‘over 300 different personality
traits can be analyzed’, ‘giving great insight and knowledge to an
individual’s personality and behavior’ (Graphology Associates).www It works in sonorous institutions like the ‘British
Academy of Graphology’ (London), the ‘Institut International de Recherches
Graphologiques’ (Paris), and the ‘Associazone Italiana Grafoanalisi per l’Étà
Evolutiva’ (Torino). Some ‘insights’ include (from
Graphology Associates):www
[1465] this ‘please notice
me’ characteristic is shown in upswept final strokes that flaunt themselves
throughout the writing. […] The longer the strokes, the stronger the craving
for love and attention.
[1466] If the upswept finals appear in the letter d, the
writer is probably able to fulfil a need for recognition through literary and
cultural abilities.
Some
‘insights’ from the handwriting of Tony Blair [1467] and Bill Clinton [1468]
sound partly predictable and partly surprising (from British Graphology):www
[1467]
The wish to enjoy what he does and to avoid unnecessary hassle inclines him to
aim to please others and to weigh options wisely. Aggression is not what he
seeks, even though he can summon it when necessary: he prefers negotiation. His
writing reveals signs of obstinacy in communication, but positively he is also
adaptable.
[1468]
The close word spacing and rounded forms indicate that he needs people and
craves security and closeness to hide an inner emptiness, while the left slant
and variable letter spacing indicate that he finds it very difficult to reveal
much of himself and is likely find close relationships difficult. […] The long
lower zone of letters such as g and y indicate […] strong materialistic and
sexual drives.
34, Meanwhile, again on the
Internet, ‘Graphemes’ figure as units for ‘correspondence’,
‘conversion’, or ‘translation’ to and from ‘Phonemes’. This activity
seems as sober as ‘Graphology’ seems imaginative, and some websites
contemplate enlisting computers. The driving issue is of course automatic voice
recognition, which was announced to be just around the corner for years; but
humans easily distinguish Graphemes a computer does not. Correspondences have
become reliable only recently when the computer could apply a detailed profile
of the speaker’s voice, plus knowledge about combinations within words.
However, voice recognition is still unable to distinguish between sense and
nonsense in context.
35. In the teaching and learning of languages, orthography has been mainly a fastidious issue in standardisation (cf. II.183). For English or French, where the relations of Graphemes to Phonemes at times seem phantasmagorical, spelling Sound by Sound is a recipe for disaster, above all for the many Letters that have fallen ‘silent’ in the course of evolution. So a restricted background in reading can make orthography stressful and troublesome. I once arranged a simple test asking elementary public school pupils in Florida to ‘write down as many of the 50 states as you can’. I was not exploring orthography but strategies of knowledge: going in alphabetical order from a memorised list (which soon broke down); or moving across their visual image of a US map, which hangs in many school rooms for kids to peruse as they daydream (which worked better). But the visual images of the names did not seem to be well secured as orthography, and the ones we got included ‘Albemba’, ‘Alksa’, ‘Arozna’, ‘Ieerandna’, ‘Ielllnoy’, ‘Keinteyk’, ‘Soth Carealinen’, ‘Wist Vurginupp’, ‘Wastason’, ‘Calfifurya’/’Callfga’ (California?), ‘Coneiteit’/’Kuneekeen’ (Connecticut?), and ‘Calroda’/’Crittordo’ (Colorado?),
36. Non-natives with little background in
reading English produce oddities by reasoning from the native language. A
skilled Indian Mercedes mechanic in Sinai’a (UAE) billed me for ‘SISTHAM REPERING’. A snack
stall that mysteriously materialised on the sidewalk in front of my beachhouse
in Qinitra, Morocco, sported the sign ‘Sandwitch LeRelax’ — two English
words connected in the manner of Arabic ‘iDaafah’ (annexation) with the Definite
Article ‘Le’ also suggesting a francophone influence, as did the ‘t’ to
tell apart the sound of English ‘Sandwitch’ from French ‘sandwich’. As
an Arabic pattern it could mean ‘the sandwich of relaxing’, but must have
intended to mean ‘relax with a sandwich’.
37.
Probably just because English Orthography is so fractious, it has been a
specious touchstone for a person’s supposed ‘education’ and
‘intelligence’, and a cause of much exertion in English teaching (cf. V.40).
I suspect English Orthography is barely ‘teachable’ like other
subject-matters. We can try out helpful tips for the normal placements of
‘long and short vowels’, or ‘single and double consonants’, But much of
our Orthography must still be absorbed by extensive exposure to visual
discourse, until the valid visual shapes of words can be intuitively and
holistically distinguished from invalid ones.
38.
Lacking consensual methods, ‘English Composition’ follows the negative
orientation of education at large (I.60f; II.183), persecuting invalid Orthography
[1469] far worse than a ‘Political Science’ course’ [1470]; and
warns of grave dangers for a job application [1471-72].
[1469]
Two or more misspelled words will result in a lowering of one letter grade.www
[1470] Between 5 and 9
misspelled words will result in a 10 point deduction.www
[1471] Bad punctuation
and misspelled words indicate to a prospective employer that you don’t care
about the impression you’re making.www
[1472] Misspelled words will silently kill your credibility.
(Kansas City Job Line)www
In
the public sphere, risible misspellings plague newspapers pressured by speedy
production [1473-76]. In grotesque cases, chagrined retractions follow [1477-
78].
[1473] High Wind Causes Outrages
(Evening Capital) [outages]
[1474] Reagan goes for
juggler in Midwest (Charleston Gazette) [jugular]
[1475] Hijackers
threaten to set plan on fire (Evening Independent) [plane]
[1476] Panty
pests easy to control (Oconto Reporter) [pantry]
[1477]
It was incorrectly reported last Friday that today is T-Shirt
Appreciation Day. In fact, it is actually Teacher
Appreciation Day. (Illinois
State University
Daily
Vidette)
[1478]
Correction. A letter published last Saturday wrote concerning gay sex incidents
‘per annum’ but spelled it ‘per anum’.
This error led to our transcription as ‘per anus’.
The News regrets the error and is glad to set the record straight. (Huntsville
News)
Bush
Jr’s 1998 Spanish election slogan ‘juntos podemos’ (‘united we can
achieve’) was printed in the Houston Chronicle as ‘juntos pedemos’
(‘united let us fart)’ — just the wheeze for a man who gives carte
blanche, erm, noire, to industries like Koch belching out toxic emissions
(VII.86), and who called the president of Russia ‘Pooty-Poot’ without
knowing (one assumes) that such is how the sound-effect of farting is rendered
in pop comics like The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.
39.
By now, fractious Orthography is being tamed by word processors designed to
instantly ‘auto-correct’ expected misspellings, such as ‘beleive’, ‘charachter’,
‘dollers’, and ‘libarry’ (Microsoft WORD). As a competent speller but a
lousy typist, I now apply a pre-emptive strategy by reloading the
‘auto-correct’ tool with short tags that at once convert into all the longer
words or phrases I use, e.g. ‘laaa => language’, ‘liiis =>
linguistics’, ‘psyyy => psychology’, ‘t&p => theory and
practice’. ‘Rdbaddd’ types my entire mailing address, fully formatted.
WORD in Microsoft Office 2000 hints at this invaluable resource in its
‘Help’, apparently without seeing the encompassing potential: ‘You can
also use AutoCorrect’ ‘to store text or graphics you plan to reuse’.
40.
Punctuation can be defined as the use of a modest sub-system of Grapheme
symbols whose importance far exceeds their visual size. Like Orthography, Punctuation
has received little attention in linguistics but a fastidious lot in education.
It is less arbitrary, but may seem just as much so from the authoritarian ways
it is often ‘taught’. And ‘correctness’ in punctuation may also be
misinterpreted as a valid measure of your level of ‘education’ or
‘intelligence’ (cf. V.37).
41.
Whoever seeks counsel on the ‘punctuation of English’ will not lack would-be
advisors. At the Amazon on-line bookshop, I find 44 works with Punctuation Guide
in the title, collocating with terms ranging from Complete or Ultimate
over to Basic, Brief, Quick, Handy, Easy, Simple, and the neologism
Unintimidating. In April 2003, I found 3,197 websites via the AltaVista
search engine for ‘punctuation rules’. Like the myriad ‘grammar rules’
also promulgated by language guardians (II.19f), the provenance is uneven at
best. Some sound merely shallow [1479-80]; or make unworkably vague and obscure
appeals to ‘thought’ or ‘meaning’ [1481-82]; or just don’t reflect the
facts of attested usage [1483-84] — much like the ‘rules’ of
‘grammar’, though mercifully less tortuous.
[1479]
Do not use a colon to introduce a list after the verb ‘to be’ unless you add
‘the following’ or ‘as follows’.
[1480]
Never use more than one exclamation
point.
[1481] Use a comma to set off an interruption in the main thought of a
sentence.
[1482]
Do not use commas to bracket phrases that are essential to a sentence’s
meaning.
[1483] Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives that equally modify the same noun.
[1484]
Never
use a comma before a dependent clause at the end of a sentence.
The
homage to ‘rules’ seems to correlate with a blinkered disinterest in
Prosody:
[1485]
Never punctuate unless you know a rule. Avoid punctuating by reflex because it
sounds good.
[1486] Punctuation marks the
structure of sentences, not the voice pauses or inflections. After you learn the basic structures of complex sentences
[sic], punctuating correctly becomes a matter of applying logical rules.
The
Survey of English Usage displayed a more informed consensus:24
[1487] Punctuation practice
is governed primarily by grammatical considerations [and] sometimes linked to
intonation, stress, rhythm, or any other prosodic distinctions, […] but the
link is neither simple nor systematic.
[1488] We are dealing with tendencies
which, while clear enough, are by no means rules. […] There is […] a great
deal of flexibility [and] opportunity for personal taste.
Seeming uniformity, the Survey adds, comes from the ‘regular practice of printing organizations’ or ‘publishing houses’ who can ‘impose fairly strict
conventions’.
42.
Disregarding the key role of Prosody leads to describing Punctuation by treating
each Mark in isolation — first the period, then the comma, and so forth,
rather like describing grammar by treating first the Noun, then the Verb, and so
forth. Such a description obscures the systemic nature of the overarching
principles that guide the dynamic choice of marks during the writing process.
43.
Video tapes I filmed of students and staff at the University of Florida while
they wrote revealed them hesitating or stopping to consider just before
selecting or changing a punctuation mark. A Comma got replaced by a Period
at the end of [1489]; or a Period got replaced by a Comma in [1490]. (I enclose
<crossed-out material> in pointy brackets, and {inserted material} in
curly brackets; an upright line | is for a pause.)
[1489] Turn left |
, <stop at the stop
sign> {follow the road}, and turn right into the parking lot of the hospital
<,> .
[1490] This goes on for <two> |
three weeks or so <.>|
, and the total grade
counts 10%.
Evidently,
writers assess the need for one mark or another as they move along.
44.
My own account will be seek to show punctuation in its relations among
Lexicogrammar, Prosody, and Visuality. I shall follow the consistent principles
of operation in a linear medium, including print.25
The pacing principle is most firmly aligned with Prosody: you
mark with punctuation the points where a hesitation or pause would occur in the
implicit prosodic contour of the written text, as in [1491-92].
[1491] Erika read aloud: ‘On this spot, on the tenth of May, 1933, under the evil
spirit of Fascism, the gangsters of the Nazi party burned the noblest works of
German and World Literature.’ (Bury the Dead)
[1492] Bodie read aloud, ‘One, two, three, four, five — You’ll be
all right — You’ll have something to remember, a lot to remember.’ (Professionals
15)
Punctuation tends to mark off the end of a Pitch contour from the start of a new one, as shown here for sample [1492].
45.
Among the more common usages, a Comma suggests a brief pause [1493], the
Semicolon a longer one at the end of a Clause [1494], and a Period a still
longer one at the end of a Sentence [1494].
[1493] Nana ran to him beseechingly, but
he waved her back. (Peter Pan)
[1494] I wished to know if she was unhappy; but I felt it was not my province to inquire. (Agnes Grey)
[1495]
I was a fool ever to come back here. But I felt stranded.
(Chatterley)
The
length of Pauses could logically suggest varying strengths of Cohesion and
Coherence, e.g., tighter for ‘running but waving back’ [1493], looser for
‘wishing but feeling’ [1494], and looser still for ‘being a fool but
feeling stranded’ [1495].
46.
Some less common usages for pacing are the Dash and the Suspension Dots, which
can signal a stronger hesitation or a postponement or break in Cohesion
[1496-97]. Dots may also indicate the voice losing volume and trailing off
[1498].
[1494]
I found out what made it cold. Twas ice — tons of it —
in the
basement (Whirligigs)
[1497] Then they…I could recount…I disdain to chronicle such victories. (Egoist)
[1498] ‘I thought she loved me…and
was good…’ Adam’s voice had been
gradually sinking into a hoarse undertone (Adam Bede)
47.
Pauses can carry auxiliary functions, such as inviting hearers to draw ominous
conclusions [1499]; allowing the speaker time to ‘think’ [1500]; or having a
Statement treated as a ‘question’ [1501].
[1499] ‘And, if I find you sneakin’
off to the Three Pigeons…’ His pause was more eloquent than his
speech (Damsel)
[1500] ‘Why
now’ — he paused, to think briefly upon his words — ‘I took it
for granted you were showing Miss Madden around.’ (Market Place).
[1501]
‘I must return to Oxford to-morrow, and I don’t know on which side of the
scale to throw in my voice’ He paused,
as if asking a question. (North and South)
These can be distinguished from dysfunctional pauses
where the speaker just doesn’t manage to sustain Cohesion or Coherence [1502-03]
(from Bush Jr).26
[1502] I should have clarified
it by my statement. I just clarified it by my — not should have — I just.
[1503] There’s an old saying in
Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says: Fool
me once, shame on [pause] shame on you. [pause] Fool me [long, uncomfortable,
agonizing pause] you can’t get fooled again.
48.
For the look-back
principle, the mark indicates that what’s coming up looks back to
what came before. The most prominent are of course the terminal marks of Period,
Question Mark, and Exclamation Mark to identify the preceding stretch as a
Statement, Question or Exclamation even when the format is the same, either as a
Clause [1504-06] or a Non-Clause [1507-09].
[1504]
she would say to him gently, ‘You are a child.’
(Lame Prince)
[1505]
‘You are a foreigner?’
The voice was sharp, beside Holly’s knee. (Archangel)
[1506]
You are a fool!
I could shake
you!’ she cried, trembling with
passion (Sons)
[1507]
‘I said I was going to be a minister to-day before any of you said anything at
all.’ ‘You right’, said Herman. ‘You the firs’ one to say it.’ (Penrod)
[1508]
‘I’ve always believed in being broad-minded and liberal —’ ‘You? Liberal?’ (Babbitt)
[1509] ‘What do you intend to
be?’ ‘A messenger’, answered the hazel-nut child.
‘You a messenger!’(Blue
Fairy)
In
return, a Period after the format of a Question or Exclamation lowers the Weight
and suggests a gently falling prosodic contour.
[1511]
How could she resist.
(Pan)
[1510] Tuppence beamed upon him. ‘How lovely.’(Adversary)
49.
The converse look-ahead principle signals what to expect after the mark,
the most distinctive being the Colon that looks ahead to a specification or
explan-ation of what went shortly before. A Noun Phrase may describe the
upcoming content [1512-13]; or the Colon may point toward some Action or Event
[1514-15].
[1512]
They lose control over both the revenue and the expenditure, often with catas-trophic
results: rent not paid, fuel bills missed, arrears mounting. (Wigan Pier)
[1513]
The
cattle in the district are: 10 asses, 401 oxen, 492 cows (Dr
Livingstone)
[1514] At this moment the door opened: a fat, furious face looked in. (Sylvie)
[1515] Connie heard a low whistle behind her. She glanced
sharply round: the
keeper was striding downhill towards her (Chatterly)
The
Dash can also serve for look-ahead when some expectation has been aroused:
[1516]
One good thing was immediately brought to a certainty by this removal —
the ball at the Crown. (Emma)
[1517] he saw what he had been looking for —
a puff of white smoke (Whirligigs)
A left-hand Parenthesis can look
ahead to a specification [1518], commentary [1519], or clarification, which the
right-hand one concludes.
[1518] his flat […] was a mixture of Victorian (the furniture) and deco (the mirrors, the glass). (Nudists)
[1519] the money was good (if you could prise it from the agent) and it widened my working circle (if you survived). (Coward’s
Chronicles)
[1520] What was
the name of Geoffrey Howe’s dog when he was chancellor (when Sir Geoffrey was chancellor, that is, not the dog)? (Punch)
50.
The Hyphen looks ahead to a continuation of a Word, but its usage is singularly
unstable. You conventionally find it for multi-part Modifiers before a Noun
[1521], but you may also find either separation [1522] or fusion [1523].
Sometimes too, the Hyphen looks further ahead to a second hyphen preceding the
added part [1524].
[1521] lower-class juvenile delinquents find themselves confronting a legal
system which has literally declared war against them (Power, Crime, and Mystification)
[1522] There was never a consensus
for them, as there was for middle class and lower class opinion. (Third
Way)
[1523] For white middleclass males, however,
pride and dignity has little resonance (Blissed Out)
[1524] In the
socialist society both upper- and lower-class crime would disappear (Controlling Crime)
Here at least, the ‘flexibility’
and ‘personal taste’ noted in [1488]
are confirmed.
51.
Together, look-ahead and look-back set off a Framed Quote in the sense of III.74
by placing Quotation Marks at the front and the end. A Comma usually looks ahead
to the Frame after the Quote, which is the unmarked position, though usage is
divided on whether it goes (illogically) before or (logically) after the
Quotation Mark [1525-26];
another Comma usually looks ahead if the Quote is resumed after the Frame [1527]. To my surprise, I also found a Comma in addition to other Marks [1528-30],
as if it were deemed indispensable.
[1525]
‘Climb on my back then, dear master,’ said the horse. (Under the Sea)
[1526]
‘Do not stray from the path’, said a notice in the Cheviots (Walking the Dales)
[1527]
‘I have travelled widely’,
said Goodney, ‘in the world of pornography.’ (Money)
[1528]
Prince Charles was shown a potion guaranteeing virility […]. ‘How does it
work?,’ he asked for the sake of British tabloid papers. (Guardian)
[1529] ‘Great God!,’ cried I. (War
of the Worlds)
[1530]
'The
first thing I always do
—
', he
said. (Bookshop)
A Colon too is eminently suited ahead
of the Quote, the more so when the type of Quote has been indicated [1531-32].
[1531]
It is an old saying:
‘The devil looks after his own.’ (Penitentiaries)
[1532] He was
hearing again the question of the night before: ‘The cup my Father hath given me, shall I not drink
it?’ (Ben-Hur )
Punctuation tends to mark off the end of a Pitch contour from the start of a new one, as shown here for sample [1492]
52. A short Quote may have no other mark ahead of it but a Quotation Mark [1533], especially if it is included in a longer Tone Group [1534].
US
usage Prefers doubled Quotation Marks [1535] over the European
single marks [1536]. Older usages may set off Quotes with Dashes too [1537].
[1535]
“Tom, it was middling warm in
school, warn’t it?”
“Yes’m.” “Powerful warm, warn’t it?”
“Yes’m.” (Sawyer)
[1536]
She frowned fiercely and said ‘Remember’
terribly sternly. (Garden Party)
[1537] ‘And what, sir’ — said
Pott — ‘what, sir, is the state of the public mind in London?’
(Pickwick)
Suspension dots, as their name might hint, can serve to
create some ‘hesitation’ for ‘suspense’ about what to look ahead for.
[1538] But
when she actually touched her steadily-lived life with him she…hesitated. (Chatterly)
[1539] ‘What
is it?’ said Maggie, in a whisper. ‘Why it’s... a... new...guess, Maggie!’ (Floss)
53.
The listing principle
marks off with Punctuation, mainly Commas, a series of three or more Items, most
strategically with clear Cohesion and Coherence among them, e.g. Nouns [1540],
Verbs [1541], Modifiers [1542], or whole Clauses [1543]. Normally, the
Conjunction ‘and’ or, less often, ‘or’ goes before the final Item [1542,
1540], but may be omitted for laconic or literary effect [1544-45], or else
placed before each item for effusive effect without Commas [1546-47].
[1540] you
showed no surprise, fear, annoyance, or displeasure at my moroseness. (Eyre)
[1541] let their motto be: Hunt, shoot, and fight (Eyre)
[1542] He was sleeping easily, lightly, and wholesomely. (Golden
Road)
[1543] Somewhere in the dark a
duck was quacking, a cock
was crowing, a dove was cooing, an owl was hooting, a lamb
was bleating, and Jip was barking. (Dolittle)
[1544] Life was made for riding, driving, dancing, going. (Financier)
[1545] With
this question Plotinus grapples, earnestly, shrewdly, fairly.
(Alexandria)
[1546]
I’ve been wondering what the people on the receiving end of a Bush lecture on
personal responsibility think when they watch Dubya weasel and
waffle and bob and weave and blame
and deny. (Paul Begala)
[1547] The sadness seemed to extinguish her as if she had no
real eyes or fingers or
genitals or teeth or frown-lines
or kidneys (Lee’s Ghost)
Weighty
listed Items can be set off by Semicolons [1549], particularly if they contain
Commas [1549]; or by Dashes [1550]; or even by Periods [1551].
[1548] He has a sullen, rebellious spirit; a violent temper; and an untoward, intractable disposition. (Copperfield)
[1549] I will talk of things heavenly,
or things earthly;
things
moral, or things evangelical; things sacred, or things profane; (Pilgrim’s Progress)
[1550] Closet after closet — drawer after drawer — corner after corner —
were scrutinized to no purpose. (Loss
of Breath)
[1551] John Major is now being exposed for what some of us
always warned that he was. A fake. A flake. A wimp. A phoney. (Daily
Mirror)
54. Just two Items linked by
‘and’ or ‘or’ shouldn’t need a Comma, and may not be a list [1552-53].
But I do find some Commas there [1554-55],
resembling a List. Also, a Comma helps with no Conjunction, as in literary usage
[1556-57].
[1552] The tradition gives many convincing
pictures of the inwardness and invasiveness of friends
and rivals. (Authors)
[1553] They sleep on the floor without mattress or bedcover.
(Amnesty).
[1554] It was true he was footloose, and unmarried. (Cameron)
[1555] They sound like pirates,