Punctuation Practice in Early Modern English Scientific WritingThe Case of MS 3009 at the Wellcome Library, London
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Universidad de Málaga
info
ISSN: 1137-6368
Ano de publicación: 2020
Título do exemplar: Language and Linguistics
Número: 61
Páxinas: 81-97
Tipo: Artigo
Outras publicacións en: Miscelánea: A journal of english and american studies
Resumo
The study of punctuation has traditionally been overlooked by some scholars for being considered haphazard and unpredictable. In medieval manuscripts, every scribe was free to use their own repertory of symbols. However, the establishment of the printing press along with the proliferation of professional scriveners resulted in a process of standardization of the system in such a way that by the end of the 16th century a repertory of punctuation symbols was fully developed (Salmon 1999: 15; Calle-Martín 2019: 179-200). The present study seeks to examine the punctuation system of a 17th-century recipe book housed in the Wellcome Library in London, MS Wellcome 3009. This paper has therefore been conceived with a twofold objective: a) to assess the inventory of punctuation marks in the text; and b) to analyze the use and pragmatic functions of these symbols.