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<p> </p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
Dear colleagues,</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">here is a little methodological problem which
some
may dismiss as trivial but which needs to be solved if we c</span><span
lang="en-US">are
for</span><span lang="en-US"> standardiz</span><span
lang="en-US">ing</span><span lang="en-US">
linguistic methodology. It concerns the orthographic
representation
of linguistic data, </span><span lang="en-US">esp. such</span><span
lang="en-US">
a</span><span lang="en-US">s</span><span lang="en-US"> are
provided
with an interlinear gloss.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">In the past decades, it has become customary in
linguistic publications to omit punctuation in data which are
f</span><span lang="en-US">ormat</span><span lang="en-US">ted as
examples and provided by a gloss, like this:</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<br>
</p>
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<colgroup><col width="21*"> <col width="30*"> <col width="22*">
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<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="8%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> quo</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="12%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> usque</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="9%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> tandem</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="21%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> abutere</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="16%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> Catilina</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="21%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> patientia</p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="13%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> nostra</p>
</td>
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<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="8%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">whither</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="12%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">continually</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="9%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">finally</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="21%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">abuse:FUT:MID.2.SG</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="16%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">Catilina:VOC.SG</font></p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="21%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">patience(F):ABL.SG </font> </p>
</td>
<td style="border: none; padding: 0cm" width="13%">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">our:F.ABL.SG</font></p>
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<td colspan="7" style="border: none; padding: 0cm"
width="100%" valign="top">
<p class="western" lang="en-US"> “ <font style="font-size:
11pt" size="2">How far will you continue to abuse our
patience, Catiline?” (Cic. <i>Cat</i>. I, 1)</font></p>
</td>
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<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">The example is actually taken from a text; and
there it is, of course, provided with </span><span lang="en-US">initial</span><span
lang="en-US">
c</span><span lang="en-US">apitalization</span><span
lang="en-US">,
with comma</span><span lang="en-US">s</span><span lang="en-US">
in
between and with a final q</span><span lang="en-US">uestion mark</span><span
lang="en-US">.
Many of us have </span><span lang="en-US">gotten </span><span
lang="en-US">accustomed
to omitting these things in formatted examples. My own
guidelines for
interlinear glosses</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">(</span><font style="font-size: 11pt" size="2"><span
lang="en-US">christianlehmann.eu/ling/ling_meth/ling_description/grammaticography/gloss/)
</span></font>
</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">also recommend t</span><span lang="en-US">he
omission</span><span lang="en-US">. The practice seems
inevitable for
a representation of a piece of text which is not in orthography
but
in some m</span><span lang="en-US">ore</span><span lang="en-US">
form</span><span lang="en-US">al representation</span><span
lang="en-US">,
say phonetic or morphophonemic. Here I am talking about </span><span
lang="en-US"><b>orthographic
representations</b></span><span lang="en-US">.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">There are s</span><span lang="en-US">ome</span><span
lang="en-US">
reasons for the practice of omitting punctuation and </span><span
lang="en-US">sentence-</span><span lang="en-US">initial
</span><span lang="en-US">c</span><span lang="en-US">apitalization</span><span
lang="en-US">
in glossed examples:</span></p>
<ol>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> <span lang="en-US">These orthographic marks m</span><span
lang="en-US">ay</span><span lang="en-US"> not figure in the
original source:</span></p>
</li>
</ol>
<ol>
<ol type="a">
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height:
100%" lang="en-US"> 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.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height:
100%" lang="en-US"> The quoted stretch of text is not
(necessarily) a sentence, be it in its original context, be
it in the language system.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> These orthographic marks would confuse the
mapping of symbols structuring the interlinear gloss onto the
original text line:</p>
<ol type="a">
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height:
100%" lang="en-US"> <span lang="en-US">Punctuation
symbols like ‘.’, ‘:’ have a special function in glosses
which they do not have in a </span><span lang="en-US">fully
orthographic</span><span lang="en-US"> text line. </span><span
lang="en-US">Others </span><span lang="en-US">like ‘,’
</span><span lang="en-US">and ‘!’</span><span lang="en-US">
are inadmissible in the gloss. If </span><span
lang="en-US">such symbols</span><span lang="en-US">
appeared in the original text line, they would map on
nothing </span><span lang="en-US">in the gloss line</span><span
lang="en-US">.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height:
100%" lang="en-US"> Punctuation symbols like ‘-’ should
have the same function in the original text and in the
gloss.</p>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">(Ad (1b): We are not talking about examples
which
are just s</span><span lang="en-US">yntagmas below clause level</span><span
lang="en-US">.
In </span><span lang="en-US">some </span><span lang="en-US">linguistic
publications, </span><span lang="en-US">such e</span><span
lang="en-US">xamples
</span><span lang="en-US">are</span><span lang="en-US"> </span><span
lang="en-US">provided
with a final full stop, too. This is plainly u</span><span
lang="en-US">nthinking</span><span lang="en-US">.)</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">Here are some reasons for abandoning the b</span><span
lang="en-US">an
on</span><span lang="en-US"> punctuation and initial c</span><span
lang="en-US">apitalization</span><span lang="en-US">:</span></p>
<ol>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> <span lang="en-US">It makes the language e</span><span
lang="en-US">xemplifi</span><span lang="en-US">ed appear as
one which lacks an orthography, thus dangerously e</span><span
lang="en-US">vok</span><span lang="en-US">ing the attitude
towards „an idiom which does not even have a grammar“.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> 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.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> <span lang="en-US">Whenever a linguistic
example is, in fact, quoted from a text noted in established
orthography, the quotation should be f</span><span
lang="en-US">aithful</span><span lang="en-US">, including
the punctuation.</span></p>
</li>
<li>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US"> <span lang="en-US">Current practice allows for
exceptions to the principle of suppression of punctuation:
at least question marks are c</span><span lang="en-US">ommon</span><span
lang="en-US">ly set.</span></p>
</li>
</ol>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
<span lang="en-US">You may know of more reasons for or against the
practice of suppression of punctuation and of initial c</span><span
lang="en-US">apitalization</span><span lang="en-US">
in linguistic examples, or </span><span lang="en-US">you </span><span
lang="en-US">may
be able to invalidate some of the above. I </span><span
lang="en-US">would
be grateful for some discussion which helps</span><span
lang="en-US">
to 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.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; line-height: 100%"
lang="en-US">
Christian</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<p style="font-size:90%">Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann<br>
Rudolfstr. 4<br>
99092 Erfurt<br>
<span style="font-variant:small-caps">Deutschland</span></p>
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<td>Tel.:</td>
<td>+49/361/2113417</td>
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<td>E-Post:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:christianw_lehmann@arcor.de">christianw_lehmann@arcor.de</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Web:</td>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.christianlehmann.eu">https://www.christianlehmann.eu</a></td>
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