The punctuation of a language assists in its rhythm and therefore how it sounds. These small marks can make all the difference in the meaning of a passage.
Introduction
Punctuation
is how the words are assembled in order to express them. The punctuation
determines the flow of the speech and how the language is expressed. Along with
grammar, punctuation determines how the language is assembled and then
transmitted to others either in writing or in speech. Without punctuation the
reader does not know how the language should be read or where emphasis should
be placed. The punctuation of the Elizabethan period was different from that of
the modern period so it is useful to start with a comparison of the punctuation
of both periods and to discover how one became the other.
The next
part of the process is to examine the punctuation marks themselves and see how
they were used in the Elizabethan period. For the most part it will be found
that they were used in similar if not the same ways. Their entrance into the
language and how they were initially used is useful as this will describe much
of how the language sounded and the reasons for this.
The last
part of the discussion will examine the influence of printers on the
punctuation and how the printers affected the printed word. This is important
for the researcher as it will raise some issues with regard to the period word
and how it was changed by the printers in the process of their typesetting and
printing. Other elements of typesetting associated with punctuation and the
presentation of the words will also be discussed.
The
punctuation of a language acts as the signposts for the reader so that they may
understand how the language should be read. Changes in punctuation by the
printer either from the period or modern can change the meaning of a passage of
text greatly, as such it is important to understand the punctuation and how it
was used in the period in order to gain the original meaning from the text.
Comparison of Punctuation
Just as
with many parts of the language the foundations for the modern elements can be
found in the Renaissance. “The basis of the modern punctuation system emerged
during the Renaissance.” (Crystal, 2003:68). This does not mean that they were
the same merely that the one was the foundation for the other which results in
many areas of similarity between the two. This process was, as with many
processes in England at the time, influenced by thought from abroad and
especially from Italy. “The modern set of [punctuation] marks slowly emerged
during the sixteenth century, with English writers influenced by continental
practices.” (Crystal, 2008:65). This is further evidenced by the presence of
Italian printers in England at the time whose editorial skills would have come
to bear on their work.
As with the
rest of the language, the punctuation at the time was fluid as there was no
exact standard which had been established. However, in the case of punctuation,
“the basis of English punctuation practices was being established at precisely
the time that Shakespeare was writing.” (Crystal, 2008:66). This is one of the
reasons that Shakespeare makes such a useful source for language from the
period.
“when a punctuation mark is used
that is not required by Early Modern English grammar, then it has to be
explained, and – once an error in transmission is ruled out – the most likely
explanation is that it is there for phonetic purposes.” (Crystal, 2008:69)
Error in
transmission is a subject which will be discussed a little further along in the
discussion as they are important. What should be taken from the above at this
stage is that the punctuation mark is assumed to be there for phonetic
purposes. Thus it is there to make the language sound correctly. This
demonstrates an influence which can be found in many of the considerations of
the language including orthography and grammar. “During the EModE period,
punctuation was essentially rhetorical, reflecting much more closely the pauses
and emphases of speech:” (Smith, 2005:127).
The
emphasis on phonetic spelling and punctuation reveals a process which was
on-going in the entire language at the time and not just punctuation. The two
approaches speaking and reading in which reading eventually dominates (Crystal,
2008:68) reveals an argument as to whether the punctuation should be based on
how it is said or how it is read. Due much to the documents being written at
the time and the printers reading eventually dominated. What is interesting
about this is that the same consideration with regard to the flow of the
language was still important, especially for pauses, “one period = two colons =
four commas” (Crystal, 2008:67). This set a form of standard as to how the
language should be read and thus pronounced also.
One of the
quotes above discusses the presence of marks not required by the language this
is an important consideration especially as bare punctuation more common than
over-punctuation in the English of the period (Crystal, 2008:70). The reader
and researcher both need to take care in examining documents of the period and
especially the search for standard forms in the language. These were not as
present as they might have been.
“there was a great deal of
idiosyncrasy and arbitrariness in their use, and attempts to find a neat
correlation between punctuation and prosody in Early Modern English texts have
never succeeded.” (Crystal, 2003:68)
The
language at the time was in flux, there were very little standards to go by so
writers wrote as they felt was best at the time and to what suited them at the
time. Errors of transmission are a very important consideration to be made by
the researcher especially as the addition or deletion of punctuation marks in
the process of translating the text can change the meaning (Crystal, 2003:68).
On example of this is the addition of exclamation marks, which will be
discussed further along. The errors in transmission are the reason why in
examining the language it is important to find as close to the primary material
as possible.
Punctuation Marks
“John Hart … had a great deal to
say about both the rhetorical and grammatical functions of ‘pointing’. He
distinguished the period (‘point’), colon (‘joint’), comma, question mark
(‘asker’), exclamation mark (‘wonderer’), parentheses (‘clozer’), square
brackets (‘notes’), apostrophe (‘tourner’), hyphen (‘joiner’), diaeresis
(‘sondrer’), and capital (‘great’) letters. His detailed account greatly
influenced the way grammarians and printers dealt with this area, and
punctuation marks in books came to be more widely used as a result.” (Crystal,
2003:68)
John Hart was one of the influential
reformers of the period and one who left his mark on the language. His goal was
to standardise the language so that it was used in a more universal way and
thus be easier to understand. He was not the only one pursuing this goal, but
many of Hart’s determinations with regard to the language can still be found in
the modern language. This list is especially useful as it describes those
punctuation marks which were present at the time. Something that should be
noted is that these marks did not all appear at the same time, but as with the
language, developed over time. The punctuation marks presented here are those
which have some significance interest to them especially for the researcher.
The apostrophe “arrived in
England in the 1550s, and by the time Shakespeare began to write was appearing
sporadically in plays.” (Crystal, 2008:83). The fact that the mark was sporadic
in plays demonstrates that it took time for the use of the punctuation mark to
be accepted. As is known of the mark in the modern language it has at least two
purposes, and just as with the mark in general, they took time for acceptance.
“The use of an –s ending to show
possession did not develop at the same rate as the use to mark elision
[omission]. Most possessives in the original texts have no apostrophe,”
(Crystal, 2008:85)
The apostrophe
is a most useful punctuation mark and allowed the language to develop in new
and different ways that it otherwise would not have been able to without the
mark. The simple addition of possessives allowed for simplification for the
reader and the use of it in elision, while used in different forms beforehand,
gave clear indication in the language as to what was happening. A similar story
is the case with the hyphen.
The hyphen
is one of those marks which has continued to plague theorists from the Early
Modern period and well into our own, the use of hyphens was uncertain then as
now, but became increasingly common in 1570s (Crystal, 2008:96). There are few
clear times when the hyphen is used, and it is used in several other places,
this was the same case as in the Elizabethan period. What can clearly be said
about the use of the hyphen is that it was used for breaking words at end of
line and in compound words same as modern (Crystal, 2008:97). As can be seen
the language collected a common use of punctuation marks over time.
The
semi-colon is a mark which was used quite frequently in the language over time,
though its most frequent use did not occur until the Elizabethan period, “the
semicolon, used with increasing frequency in English texts after about 1580,
although its nomenclature remained doubtful for many decades.” (Lass, 1999:29).
Just as with the hyphen, the use of the semi-colon was debated by theorists at
the time. The presence of the mark is also useful in dating the language by the
amount if times it is used. For some time the semi-colon was used in the same
way as the colon (Crystal, 2003:68). As it became used more and more over the
decades it developed a use of its own, which is found in the modern language.
“The mark [inverted commas]
started to appear in English during the 1590s, and increased in frequency
throughout the following century, … There is hardly any sign of it in
Shakespearean texts” (Crystal, 2008:94)
Inverted
commas, or quotation marks, were used for speech just as they are in the
current language. This means that this is one of the marks which attained and
kept its use through the changes in language from the Elizabethan to our own.
However, it should be noted that this process was slow as can be indicated by
its lack of presence in Shakespeare’s works. What is interesting about this is
that before the use of such a mark, the reporting verb was in parentheses or
followed it with a colon (Crystal, 2008:95). This construction was simplified
by the use of the inverted commas.
The question mark is one that was
described in form and function by Hart, as indicated above. It was seen as a
“point of interrogation” (Crystal, 2008:66) and therefore clearly used when a
question was asked either of the reader or when one character asked another.
While clear in their use in this particular instance, there was some confusion
with this and the exclamation mark.
The exclamation mark was a
relatively late introduction to the English language, and had some confusion in
the beginning between it and the question mark. Exclamation marks were used in
the 1590’s confused with question mark both physically and editorially
(Crystal, 2008:72). Physically they look much the same as the question mark.
Without the clear printing that is present in the modern world or even more so
in the case of handwriting, it would be easy to confuse which was which in the
editing process. For the modern researcher it is important to be aware of the
presence of exclamation marks in Shakespeare’s works as they are not original,
“it is important to know that, when reading such material … all exclamation
marks (and indeed dashes too) have been added by the modern editor” (Crystal,
2008:77). In earlier works the case is even truer and thus the researcher needs
to be careful. The exclamation mark was a late-comer to the English language
and not common at all in the earlier periods.
“their [parentheses] main
function is to enclose an observation which makes an extra or subordinate
semantic point; if omitted, the rest of the sentence would still stand.”
(Crystal, 2008:78)
The fact
that the above refers to the function expressed as their main function is
significant. Just as with many words in the English language in the Elizabethan
period with regard to use and spelling, many of the marks were also debated as
to their correct function. For the most part there was no universal standard
for usage of parentheses; for the most part that which they enclosed was for
explanatory purposes, or to reduce the emphasis on it (Crystal, 2008:80). So in
simple terms parentheses were used to enclose additional information which had
little impact upon the surrounding information, topic or grammar.
The marks
which have been discussed here are those which have some significance in the
language attributed to them. This is the case even if it is due to their
dubious use and explanation. This does not deny the presence of other marks in
the language, as there obviously are, but is more focused on those which need
some explanation. To this, for the most part those which are absent are those
which have the same or very similar functions in the Elizabethan period as they
do in the modern.
Typesetting
“Students of Shakespeare’s
language need to be aware of the layers of uncertainty surrounding the texts we
have available, and understand the bibliographic variables involved,” (Crystal,
2008:40)
The subject
of printers and typesetting would seem to be unrelated to the subject of the
language of a culture however it is through such a medium that languages of the
Early Modern period became popular and known. With regard to punctuation it is
even more important because the editorial decisions of the printers affected
how the language was presented and thus understood by others. Some of the
changes were simply editorial and others were due to the type. The typesetting
and limited by type resulted in altered punctuation in many cases (Crystal,
2008:71).
The issue of typesetting would
have been less of an issue if the printers themselves were native speakers
however this was not the case. Many came from the continent and their editorial
practices were not native. In 1561, printers and grammarians reference to
Italians for punctuation (Lass, 1999:21). This led to even more confusion as to
how the punctuation should be presented. Thus the presentation of typesetting
was somewhat haphazard.
Capitalisation has become
standard in the modern language. In the Elizabethan period this was simply not
the case. Any noun, verb or adjective could be capitalised (Smith, 2005:127).
This was dependent on what the author wished to emphasise at the time. In most
cases the patterns of capitalisation in the language followed the description
of what was important, but even this was not a set standard. There was great
variation in capitalisation of names and “important” words, or due to
personification (Crystal, 2008:50). Thus a word could be capitalised in one
part of the text and then not in another, depending on the writer and the
printer at the time.
Eventually some standardisation
did come about even if it was only used for the structure of the language
rather than expressing importance or similar ideas. Eventually for the
structure of the language a capital follows period, sometimes follows
semi-colon or colon especially when expressing break, and capital “i” for
pronoun (Crystal, 2008:48ff). These practices of capitalisation were followed
for the most part by the printers and became the standards in the language.
Further elements in the printed
texts were merely present to save space or to ensure that the ends of the lines
were lined up, or justified, space-saving measures used in the text, mostly for
typesetting (Crystal, 2008:53). These space-saving measures are more associated
with the punctuation than the alphabet due to them being marks, but there are
some elements of cross-over in the subject due to the appearance of changes in
spelling due to their use. Two examples of this are the use of the tilde and
superscript letters.
Omitted letters were marked by
the placement of a tilde (~) over letter to show following missing, it was use
most commonly with “m” or “n” especially when doubled (Crystal, 2008:56). This
technique was designed to shorten a word by a letter in order to fit the word
into the line and thus have the line correctly justified at the end. In the
case of superscript letters, they were used to shorten common words, “y” with
“u” for thou, “t” for that, “e” for the (Crystal, 2008:57). In this case the
line could be shortened by several letters depending on how many of the words
were present and what was required by the printer at the time. These two are
not usually found in the modern language, however other space-saving measures
still are.
There are space-saving
punctuation marks which are still used, and some which are present on the
common keyboard of English-language computers today. Logograms are symbols
standing for words, “&” for and, &c for et cetera, or for things which
are assumed knowledge (Crystal, 2008:55). The “&” is present on the
keyboard and is often used in many different places. For the most part it is
used for expedience. Et cetera is for the most part shortened to “etc.” rather
than using the logogram present, however the other can still be found. Another
common space-saving element which is still present in the modern language which
was used in the Elizabethan is that of abbreviations, and now just as then they
were used for common things such as titles and money (Crystal:55).
Italics are really a form of
print rather than a punctuation mark, just as in the modern language, in the
Elizabethan they were used to highlight particular points in the text. In fact
in the Elizabethan texts they were used for several things most of which
continue on today. Most commonly italics were used for stage directions, titles,
foreign words, names for speeches and unfamiliar words (Crystal, 2008:89). As
with the modern language the italics were used to highlight something which was
important or different which the reader was meant to pay attention to. What
should be noted here is that it was the printers who had the real control as to
what would be italicised and what would not as this was difficult to express in
handwriting.
Conclusion
Punctuation
is like the signposts on the road and gives us directions as to how the language
should be read and pronounced. Without such indications the meaning derived
from the language can turn out much different and lose its understanding for
the reader. It is of little use for the punctuation to be present without rules
to guide its use and the reasons for it.
The
punctuation of the Elizabethan was much less organised than that of the present
day and this needs to be taken into account. Even with this taken into account
the punctuation of that previous period laid the foundations for punctuation in
modern English. The reader needs to be aware that even with the similarities in
the languages and the punctuation care still needs to be taken in the reading
as there are still differences of note which can alter the meaning of the
punctuation and thus the language.
A selection
of punctuation marks have been indicated and discussed. The discussion of these
select punctuation marks claims neither that they are the most significant nor
that they are the only ones. Other punctuation marks were used and used in
similar manner as is found in modern texts. The ones which have been discussed
are those which demonstrate differences between their presence in Elizabethan
language and in the modern. This is significant as they mark both changes in
the language and also differences between the modern and the Elizabethan.
Printers
and typesetting seems to be a subject which emerges regardless of which part of
the Elizabethan language is discussed. This is simply the case as most of the
language which is left for the researcher is in printed form rather than in
hand-writing. What needs to be acknowledged here is the impact which the
printers had on the use of punctuation and also the significant marks which
were added to the language either as space-savers or as marks of significance
some of which have travelled through to the modern language and typeset.
Punctuation
is a subject which is significant and cannot be ignored for a complete
discussion and understanding of a language where it is present. For the researcher
it is significant that while very similar to the punctuation of the present
language there are differences which need to be acknowledged and recognised.
This discussion has pointed out some points of importance which a researcher
needs to take into account in the reading and discussing of the language of the
Elizabethan period.
Bibliography
Crystal, D. (2003) The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (2nd ed),
Cambridge University Press, New York, USA
Crystal, D. (2008) ‘Think
on my Words’: Exploring Shakespeare’s Language, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK
Lass, R. (ed.)(1999) The
Cambridge History of the English Language: Volume III: 1476 – 1776,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Smith, J. (2005) Essentials
of Early English, Routledge, New York, USA
