[Lingtyp] orthography in formatted examples

[Christian Lehmann]

Dear colleagues,

here is a little methodological problem which some may dismiss as 
trivial but which needs to be solved if we care 
forstandardizinglinguistic methodology. It concerns the orthographic 
representation of linguistic data, esp. suchasare provided with an 
interlinear gloss.

In the past decades, it has become customary in linguistic publications 
to omit punctuation in data which are formatted as examples and provided 
by a gloss, like this:


quo

	

usque

	

tandem

	

abutere

	

Catilina

	

patientia

	

nostra

whither

	

continually

	

finally

	

abuse:FUT:MID.2.SG

	

Catilina:VOC.SG

	

patience(F):ABL.SG

	

our:F.ABL.SG

“ How far will you continue to abuse our patience, Catiline?” (Cic. 
/Cat/. I, 1)

The example is actually taken from a text; and there it is, of course, 
provided with initialcapitalization, with commasin between and with a 
final question mark. Many of us have gotten accustomed to omitting these 
things in formatted examples. My own guidelines for interlinear glosses

(christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling_description/grammaticography/gloss/) 


also recommend the omission. The practice seems inevitable for a 
representation of a piece of text which is not in orthography but in 
some moreformal representation, say phonetic or morphophonemic. Here I 
am talking about *orthographic representations*.

There are somereasons for the practice of omitting punctuation and 
sentence-initial capitalizationin glossed examples:

 1.

    These orthographic marks maynot figure in the original source:

     1.

        There is no published orthographic version which would need to
        be cited literally; it is just a transcription of a recording.
        Omission of punctuation signals this.

     2.

        The quoted stretch of text is not (necessarily) a sentence, be
        it in its original context, be it in the language system.

 1.

    These orthographic marks would confuse the mapping of symbols
    structuring the interlinear gloss onto the original text line:

     1.

        Punctuation symbols like ‘.’, ‘:’ have a special function in
        glosses which they do not have in a fully orthographictext line.
        Others like ‘,’ and ‘!’are inadmissible in the gloss. If such
        symbolsappeared in the original text line, they would map on
        nothing in the gloss line.

     2.

        Punctuation symbols like ‘-’ should have the same function in
        the original text and in the gloss.

(Ad (1b): We are not talking about examples which are just syntagmas 
below clause level. In some linguistic publications, such examples 
areprovided with a final full stop, too. This is plainly unthinking.)

Here are some reasons for abandoning the ban onpunctuation and initial 
capitalization:

 1.

    It makes the language exemplified appear as one which lacks an
    orthography, thus dangerously evoking the attitude towards „an idiom
    which does not even have a grammar“.

 2.

    Punctuation, of course, fulfills a sensible function in established
    orthographies: it reflects the syntactic or prosodic structure of a
    piece of text. Omitting it from an example renders this less easily
    intelligible.

 3.

    Whenever a linguistic example is, in fact, quoted from a text noted
    in established orthography, the quotation should be faithful,
    including the punctuation.

 4.

    Current practice allows for exceptions to the principle of
    suppression of punctuation: at least question marks are commonly set.

You may know of more reasons for or against the practice of suppression 
of punctuation and of initial capitalizationin linguistic examples, or 
you may be able to invalidate some of the above. I would be grateful for 
some discussion which helpsto bring this closer to a recommendation that 
most of us could share and that would have a chance to find its way into 
style sheets.

Christian

-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland

Tel.: 	+49/361/2113417
E-Post: 	christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: 	https://www.christianlehmann.eu

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