Punctuation in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-century French and Spanish Grammars

Abstract

This chapter proposes a model for the study of diachronic variation in punctuation from a comparative perspective. The author approaches the study of punctuation from a cross-linguistic perspective, focusing on Early Modern French and Spanish. This type of contrastive, diachronic avenue of research remains virtually unexplored and is achieved by introducing a model inspired from variational linguistics with a view to revealing differences and similarities in punctuation patterns across French and Spanish. The author extends recent theoretical attempts to define and further advance the emerging sub-field of comparative graphematics. The proposed model of analysis sheds new light on developments and variation in the history of punctuation from a cross-linguistic point of view.