Punctuation and text segmentation in 15th-century pamphlets

Marko Neumann

doi:10.1515/zfs-2021-2035

Abstract

Abstract The use of punctuation in German incunabula is often described as arbitrary, irregular, and unsystematic (cf. Masalon 2014: 54–56). This concerns the inventory, frequency, and function of punctuation marks as well as pragmatic aspects such as how typesetters treated punctuation in their respective target texts. In this paper, punctuation is not seen as an independent linguistic subsystem, but as a means of text segmentation that – along with other measures (e. g. capital letters, pilcrows, and white space) – was used to structure a text with respect to its formal appearance, helping the reader to decode information. This case study is based on a corpus of German pamphlets written by the Bohemian astrologer Wenzel Faber and printed annually beginning in 1481 at various print shops, principally in Leipzig and Nuremberg. The analysis finds significant changes in the editions before and after 1490. These changes include an increasing consistency in the intensity of text segmentation, and a use of capital letters and punctuation marks developed from a polyfunctional to a monofunctional approach. Finally, different types of text segmentation are proposed, each characterized by a specific relationship between its frequency and its function. Despite this overall tendency, one must still take into account that typesetters followed individual punctuation practices in their search for suitable forms of text segmentation.

Highlights

The last quarter of the 15th century is an important phase in the history of German punctuation, as basic features of our modern punctuation system were explored and consolidated in printers’ search for suitable forms of text segmentation
This case study has shown that segmentation in the early phase of letterpress printing was by no means arbitrary and idiosyncratic; the assumption of a syntactic principle, which implies that texts were intentionally structured according to syntactic aspects using similar methods, does not comprehensively reflect the actual procedures in late medieval print shops either
Kirchhoff’s (2017: 169–171) analysis of two 15th-century texts indicates a predominantly syntactically based, albeit inconsistent, use of punctuation marks, with capital letters used primarily to mark the beginning of sentences

Summary

Introduction

The last quarter of the 15th century is an important phase in the history of German punctuation, as basic features of our modern punctuation system were explored and consolidated in printers’ search for suitable forms of text segmentation. It seems reasonable to evaluate punctuation and capitalization in line with these developments, as the insertion of punctuation marks and the use of capital letters provided additional semantic, syntactic and/or prosodic information that helped the reader to facilitate and accelerate the reading process (cf Lennard 1995). Both features are considered as means of text segmentation – text segmentation being the process of structuring a given text with regard to its formal appearance. This will lead to a classification of different approaches to the treatment of punctuation marks and capital letters in the process of text segmentation

Wenzel Faber and his ‘Practica Deutsch’

Practices of text segmentation

Means of text segmentation

Intensity of segmentation

Paragraph-internal capital letters and punctuation marks

Conclusion