Punctuation: The Phenomenology Of Punctuation

Phenomenology of Punctuation

Modern English punctuation has a long history and we can trace its origins to the ancient times. The less punctuation marks, taken in isolation, convey meaning or expression and the more they constitute the opposite pole in language to names, the more each of them acquires a definitive physiognomic status of its own, an expression of its own, which cannot be separated from its syntactic function but is by no means exhausted by it. Every day we use punctuation marks that have become usual for us, having no idea that, in fact, they were invented in the ancient Romans or Greeks. Punctuation marks are the elements of writing, performing support functions of division (separation) of semantic segments of text, sentences,

The first sign that we will pay our attention if the question mark. It was initially named a note of interrogation. In the XVII-XVIII centuries there was not clear where exactly this mark should be put, either in an indirect question or just in the direct. Later, in the middle of XVIII century, it was denoted that the question mark should be used only in case of direct questions. There are a lot of legends concerning the origin of the look of the question mark. We can find quite interesting old urban legend that could be made as a really origin story, but we can suggest that it is not true in fact. There is a theory that the question mark was actually designed as a device to mark locations on maps that were not discovered yet, and they were given the shape that is the shape of the tail of a cat that appears when this pet is inquisitive. Like this, we can find the theory that exclamation mark was designed in accordance with the shape of the tail of surprised cat. We can find the origin of these marks in ancient Egypt, where the cats were worshiped. The real problem of this hypothesis is that there were no punctuation marks used in ancient Egypt at all until XIX century until the 19th century, but we have some other versions that can be taken as real

There was the other word "period" and it was taken as a name for what is usually called called the "full point", or the punctuation mark that was a dot on the baseline, and used in several situations. The word combination "full stop" was used to define the end of the whole statement or the sentence.

Next we will learn about the origin of the equal sign. It was invented by mathematician Robert Recorde of English origin in 1557, with this rationale: "I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gmowe lines of one length, thus : , bicause noe 2 thynges,can be more equalle." His equal signs were designed about five times longer than the modern signs, and it was about more than a one hundred years for his sign to be taken in the scientific world by his colleagues to be used instead of the weird curly ones invented by Descartes.

The origin of the octothorpe can be traced back to the ancient times. The strange name for this ancient mark for counting starts from Thorpe, that is the ancient Norse word for a village or farm that is often seen in British nominations for places. The symbol was originally used in creating maps, showing a village that has by 8 fields around, so it was called the