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Pause and Effect: Punctuation in the West (Hardcover)

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4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

We often take punctuation for granted, but its evolution has been largely responsible for our ability to communicate meaning and convey emphasis with the written word. Believing that the best way to understand usage is to study it historically, Parkes focuses on how marks have actually been used. He cites examples from a wide range of literary texts from different periods and languages; the examples and plates also provide the reader with an opportunity to test Parkes's observations. This long-awaited book will no doubt stimulate debate among writers, editors, literary critics, philosophers, linguists, rhetoricians, and historians. It is destined to become a standard reference work for anyone interested in the history and use of language.


About the Author

M. B. Parkes is Fellow of Keble College and Lecturer in Palaeography, Oxford University. He is the author of English Cursive Book Hands 1250-1500 (California, 1980).

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press (February 10, 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520079418
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520079410
  • Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,483,901 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #35 in  Books > History > Historical Study > Writing Systems

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More About the Author

M. B. Parkes
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Where did our punctuation marks come from?, May 18, 2000
By Mark Howells (Puyallup, Washington State, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote without punctuation to interrupt their texts. That was left to the reader to interpret the places to pause, stop, or otherwise divide the text.

As Latin grew to be a second language in the Middle Ages, scribes began to give their readers more assistance in interpretation - thus our Western punctuation became varied and prolific.

The invention of the printing press standardized and froze our choice of punctuation.

The author does an amazing job of showing by example how the needs of the both the readers & writers of each period developed into the selection of marks which we use today.

The illustrations of manuscripts being in the back of the book rather than interspersed in the text makes for some shuffling, but the illustrations also carry their own clear descriptions of the particular punctuation practice which they illuminate.

English translations of most of the Latin text used as examples are thoughtfully provided.

I wish we still had use of the rhetorical question mark to indicate a question not requiring an answer!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Good grief, guys!, June 27, 2007

The presentation is not "pedantic" but "scholarly" or "academic."
Yes, Greek and Latin used "punctuation."
No, Latin did not "become a second language."
An incunabulum is a printed piece that was produced before 1500, thus in the "cradle" of the print period.
(Manuscript books were still being produced after the advent of the printing press. Medieval books in manuscript are called usually called "codices" or even "codexes.")
Parkes' work reproduces legible pages from manuscripts so that the reader can see exactly what he is transcribing on the facing page and judge for themselves. Helpfully, he also translates the text and comments on its punctuation.
Sorry, but this book has no general (topical) index, and it would indeed be more useful if it had one. Still, it has some highly useful features, like the glossary of terms at the end.

It's too bad that reviews on this book are pretty much beside the point since this book is out of print, and as far as I can tell no one has had a used copy for sale on Amazon in a couple of years. As many as seven requests for it have been outstanding at one time.

U of Cal Press has no plans to reprint it. It is the only book-length work in the 20th c. devoted to a systematic analysis of medieval punctuation practice with most examples from Latin and a few from the vernacular languages. If you are researching punctuation at any period, any Western European language, then this book should be on your list of "Works Cited."

At least one copy is held as "non-circulating" in larger university libraries; otherwise, whoever has it checked out just keeps it-- forever.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars the pedantry is the thing, March 22, 2002
By A Customer
...His assessment of manuscript practices is enhanced by a vast fund of knowledge in classical and medieval history. Parkes has always had an unpretentious way of relating the somewhat esoteric points of palaeography to the wider currents of reading and writing in his chosen time periods. He is able to make you see that grammar and literacy in pre-Reformation Europe were very precious attainments, and that the tradition of classical and later monastic education involved highly sophisticated learning techniques for very good reasons. Highly recommended for the closet pedant with a taste for the lost art of reading!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The Standard History of Punctuation
Parkes' book is *the* standard history of punctuation in Western writing. It is written by a first-rate scholar who has spent a career studying the original manuscripts, and tells... Read more
Published on November 3, 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Pedantic, yet thorough
Parkes writes in a manner that does his subject justice -- though the index isn't quite what I need it to be, his research (as far as I can judge) is exquisitely thorough, and the... Read more
Published on April 25, 2000

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