Transcript NAIVE RULES OF THE USE OF UPPERCASE AND LOWER …

NAIVE RULES OF THE USE OF
UPPERCASE AND LOWER CASE
LETTERS
(BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF THE
CONSTRUCTION WITH THE X-CASE LETTER Y)
Elena L. Vilinbakhova
St. Petersburg State University
1. BACKGROUND
The use of uppercase and lowercase letters in
Russian:
• purely orthographic
Example: uppercase letter in the beginning of the
sentence or in proper names like Alexander
• loaded with additional meaning, showing
author’s ideology / religion / feelings towards the
described object
Example: uppercase letter in Rodina ‘motherland’
1. Background
“Orthographic” cases – stable and unambiguous;
“Meaningful” cases – not so evident → need a
comment s bol’shoi / malen’koi bukvy ‘with
uppercase / lowercase letter’.
Metalanguage comment in oral communication →
metalanguage comment in written texts →
independent construction with the x-case letter Y.
2. METHOD
• Search option in…
·
the Russian National Corpus
·
Russian language Internet resources
• Search terms:
1) partially filled construction s … bukvy ‘with the
… letter’,
2) particular variants: s bol’shoi / propisnoi /
zaglavnoi / malen’koi / strochnoi bukvy ‘with
uppercase / lowercase letter’
3. NAÏVE RULES: RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION
3.1 General remarks
1) Most often found in literature, press and
informal Internet communication.
2) Used as a modifier of a word or language
expression
3) Includes 4 components:
(1) preposition s ‘with’, (2) adjective describing the
case (upper / lower), (3) noun bukvy ‘letter
GEN.SG’, (4) the first letter of the word
3.1. General remarks
Most popular variant: S BOL’SHOI BUKVY (lit.
‘with big letter’) ‘with the uppercase letter’
CHELOVEK S BOL’SHOI BUKVY ‘a person with the
uppercase letter’. A person with high moral virtues
[Dictionary of Ozhegov and Shvedova online 20092012]
S BOL’SHOI BUKVY ‘with the uppercase letter’. Of the
highest grade, in the full sense of the word, true,
genuine, authentic. [Dictionary of synonyms ASIS of
Trishin 2010]
3.2. Uppercase and lowercase letters in
different parts of speech
FORMAL RULES: upper-case letter is used:
• in a certain syntactic position (“in order to highlight the
beginning of particular segments of the text” [Lopatin
2009]);
• in different kinds of names and titles;
• in a special stylistic way, “in the contexts where the
author ascribes to the word a special high sense” [Ibid.].
! Not all parts of speech can be written with the uppercase letter regardless of their syntactic position or their
occurrence in different denominations; such option is
restricted to nouns and pronouns.
3.2. Uppercase and lowercase letters in
different parts of speech
NAÏVE RULES: Construction with the x-case
letter Y is used as a modifier not only for nouns
and pronouns, but also verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, particles Da ‘yes’ and Net ‘no’.
(1) Te zadachi, kotorye Vy pered nami postavite,
budut vypolneny ne prosto horosho, a horosho s
bol’shoi bykvy (Internet)
‘The tasks that you give to us will be accomplished
not only well, but well with uppercase letter’
3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and
lowercase letters
FORMAL RULES: two possibilities
bol’shaia bukva (lit. ‘big letter’) ‘uppercase letter’
malen’kaia bukva (lit. ‘small letter’) ‘lowercase
letter’
NAÏVE RULES: In construction with the x-case
letter Y the list of adjectives includes not only…
3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and
lowercase letters
bolshaia ‘big, uppercase’
propisnaia ‘uppercase’
zaglavnaia ‘uppercase’
malen’kaia
‘small,
lowercase’
strochnaia ‘lowercase’
BUT ALSO
gigantskaia ‘giant’
ogromnaia ‘enormous’
ochen’ bol’shaia ‘very
big’
mal’usen’kaia ‘wee’
kroshechnaia ‘tiny’, etc.
3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and
lowercase letters
! The meaning of “normal-sized” uppercase or
lowercase letters and their intensified
counterparts is different.
(2) Vy pevets ne tol’ko s bol’shoi, no i s gigantskoi
bukvy!!! (Internet)
‘You are a singer not only with a capital (lit. bigE.V.), but with a giant letter!!!’
3.4. Naïve semantics of uppercase and
lowercase letters
FORMAL RULES: uppercase letter is the
marked member of semantic opposition,
expressing…
·
the singularity of an object in denominations
·
respect in some religious notions and pronoun
Vy ‘you’
·
unspecified ‘special high sense’ (see above).
The deviations: lowercase letter can occur in
proper names with collective meaning (zhuchka
‘Zhucka is a usual dog’s name’ about a dog).
NAÏVE RULES: Uppercase first letter is positive
and lowercase first letter is negative.
Meanings of UPPERCASE letter (s bol’shoi /
propisnoi / zaglavnoi / etc. bukvy ‘with the
uppercase letter Y’):
1) correspondence of the denotatum to some
perfect image or ideal prototype of the category
(3) Znaiu, chto ia romantic do mozga kostei, chto
veriu Nastoiashchuiu liubov’ s zaglavnoi bukvy
(Internet)
‘I know I am a romantic to the morrow of my bones,
as I believe in Real Love with capital letter’
·
· 2) high significance of the denotatum
(4) Put’ v Sant’iago-de-Kompostely stanovitsia
sobytiem s bol’shoi bukvy, a ne zhalkim podobiem
nekoego zabega na sverhdalniuiu distantsii (RNC)
‘The way to Santiago de Compostela becomes an
event with capital letter, not a shadow of some
ultra long-distance round’
· 3) singularity and specificity
(5) A vot ego preemnik kak raz i mozhet okasat’sia
tem samym Preemnikom s bol’shoi bukvy, o
kotorom Putin ob’’avil 12 fevralia (RNC)
‘And his successor can turn out to be exactly The
Successor with capital letter, about whom Putin
made an announcement on February, 12’
·
4) intensity of the denotatum’s properties
(6) S vashimi rasuzhdeniiami pro takih, kak ia, nado
s bol’shoi bukvy krichat’. (RNC)
‘With your reasoning, it is necessary to shout with
capital letter about people like me’
·
5) high quality of the denotatum
(7) Kollektivnyi genii byl (i priznaval sebia)
diletantom, no <…> diletantom s bol’shoi bukvy
(RNC)
“Collective genius” was (and acknowledged himself)
as a “dilettante”, but <…> a dilettante “with
uppercase letter”
Meanings of LOWERCASE letter (s malen’koi /
mal’usen’koi / kroshechnoi / etc. bukvy ‘with the
lowercase letter Y’):
· 1) ordinary, unremarkable nature of the denotatum
(8) Pochinka komp’iuternoi electroniki, k sozhaleniiu, ne
hobbi, a rabota s malen’koi bukvy, neredko rutina
‘The repair of computer electronicas, unfortunately, is not a
hobby, but a job with lowercase letter, often a routine’
· 2) low quality of the denotatum
(9) Takoi sebe doctorishka s maliusen’koi bukvy c
pretenziei na velikogo vracha. (Internet)
<About a doctor> ‘<Such a doctor with tiny letter with
pretension on being a great doctor’
·
3) inferiority of the denotatum
(10) Soglashus’ s Vami v tom, chto zhenshchina bez
muzhchiny – eto zhenshchina s malen’koi bukvy
(Internet)
‘I agree with you that a woman without a man is a woman
with lowercase letter’
The opposition in contamination:
(11) Literatura byvaet s bol’shoi i s malen’koi bukvy,
inache govoria, literature elitarnaia i literatura
kommercheskaia (Internet)
‘Literature can be with uppercase and with lowercase
letter, in other words, elite literature and commercial
literature’
3.5. Uppercase and lowercase letters in
language games
1) the referent should be called with a certain offensive
lexeme, beginning with the same or different letter.
(12) Chudak s bol’shoi bukvy M (Internet)
‘Eccentric man with capital M’
2) the referent possesses some feature
(13) Zhenshchina with capital (lit. big) ZH (Internet)
‘Woman with uppercase W’/ ‘Woman with big A<ss>’
Ambiguity: 1) positive meaning ‘perfect woman’
2) ironic meaning ‘woman with a big ass’.
3.6. Uppercase and lowercase letters in oral
speech
FORMAL RULES: Upper/lowercase letters used in
written texts.
NAÏVE RULES: Construction used with speech
verbs
to
speak,
to
pronounce,
etc.;
upper/lowercase letters have intonation patterns.
(14) Ya govoriu slovo “Kultura” c bol’shoi bukvy (RNC)
‘I am saying the word “Culture” with capital letter’
(15) Familiiu Berii on spetsial’no proisnios s malen’koi
bukvy, daby vyrasit’ svoio k nemu prezrenie (Internet)
‘He pronounced the surname Beria with lowercase letter on
purpose in order to express his disdain’
4. CONCLUSION
Naïve rules, derived from linguistic
behavior of construction with the x-case
letter y, differ in many ways from
orthographical norms of Russian
language.
What if we put them into action?
4. Conclusion
1) Uppercase letters can be used with different
parts of speech
I want to read a Good book. ‘very good’
Не Cried. ‘very loud’
2) Uppercase and lowercase letters can differ in
size from tiny to enormous
She is Beautiful. ‘extremely beautiful’
She is a woman. ‘a miserable woman’
4. Conclusion
· 3) Uppercase letter is positive, lowercase letter
is negative
Sasha is my Friend ‘a good, real friend’
Igor is my friend ‘not a close one, more like
acquaintance’
4) First letter can be interpreted in two
dimensions, implicating another (offensive)
word, or even changed
John is so F/Cool.
5) Uppercase and lowercase letters occur in oral
communication
Rule # 15: In the White House, always pronounce
“president” with uppercase letter.
Thank you for your attention!