Pointing as Punctuation
Crawford, M. (March 2012). Taken at Hampton Court, England.
Pointing, as punctuation was called in Medieval England, refers back to the Latin term "punctus", meaning simply point (Reimer, 1998). Since the punctuation marks used in manuscripts were made up of different shaped and placed points it seemed logical to maintain the name. At this point though, punctuation was still utilized as a means to guide readers when reading texts aloud. The punctuation placed by scribes was intended to help readers know where pauses were meant to be placed when they read the text to others. To do this there was a need for a strong understanding of the language, most often Latin, which meant that religious texts were more carefully annotated since the monks who copied them had a better understanding of the language than their secular counterparts (Reimer, 1998).
As can be seen by the image of a late fifteenth/early sixteenth century (left) manuscript, the punctuation and spacing in use were still not the same as what is used in modern language. Given the higher costs and time that went into creating the 'paper', whether it was vellum or parchment, ink, and quill (Tillotson, 2005), it is somewhat understandable that scribes sought to limit the amount of white space within their writing.
Who did the Pointing?
An interesting aspect of pointing, particularly during the medieval period, is that much of it was not done by the original scribe, rather it was added before being read aloud (Reimer, 1998). This raises the question of whether the punctuation was added to improve the writing and its readability, or if it served only as performance cues for reading aloud. If the first, we can see a possible impact upon silent reading as the pointing would be present for all readers, silent and otherwise, but if the latter, we must question whether there was any thought to how best to facilitate silent reading or if the entirety of the task was reading the text aloud.
Continue to Modern
Site by Meggan Crawford
Created for ETEC 540, University of British Columbia
As can be seen by the image of a late fifteenth/early sixteenth century (left) manuscript, the punctuation and spacing in use were still not the same as what is used in modern language. Given the higher costs and time that went into creating the 'paper', whether it was vellum or parchment, ink, and quill (Tillotson, 2005), it is somewhat understandable that scribes sought to limit the amount of white space within their writing.
Who did the Pointing?
An interesting aspect of pointing, particularly during the medieval period, is that much of it was not done by the original scribe, rather it was added before being read aloud (Reimer, 1998). This raises the question of whether the punctuation was added to improve the writing and its readability, or if it served only as performance cues for reading aloud. If the first, we can see a possible impact upon silent reading as the pointing would be present for all readers, silent and otherwise, but if the latter, we must question whether there was any thought to how best to facilitate silent reading or if the entirety of the task was reading the text aloud.
Continue to Modern
Site by Meggan Crawford
Created for ETEC 540, University of British Columbia