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Elena L. Vilinbakhova St. Petersburg State University

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

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Elena L. Vilinbakhova St. Petersburg State University

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  1. NAIVE RULES OF THE USE OF UPPERCASE AND LOWER CASELETTERS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF THE CONSTRUCTION WITH THE X-CASE LETTER Y) Elena L. Vilinbakhova St. Petersburg State University

  2. 1. BACKGROUND The use of uppercase and lowercase letters in Russian: • purelyorthographic 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’

  3. 1. Background “Orthographic” cases – stable and unambiguous; “Meaningful” cases – not so evident → need a commentsbol’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.

  4. 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: sbol’shoi / propisnoi / zaglavnoi / malen’koi / strochnoi bukvy ‘with uppercase / lowercase letter’

  5. 3. NAÏVE RULES: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION3.1 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) Includes4 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

  6. 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 2009-2012] 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]

  7. 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 upper-case letter regardless of their syntactic position or their occurrence in different denominations; such option is restricted tonouns and pronouns.

  8. 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’ andNet ‘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’

  9. 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…

  10. 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

  11. 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. big- E.V.), but with a giant letter!!!’

  12. 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).

  13. 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’ ·    

  14. ·     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’

  15. ·      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”

  16. 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’

  17. ·     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 oppositionin 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’

  18. 3.5. Uppercase and lowercase letters in language games 1)the referentshould 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 referentpossesses 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’.

  19. 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’

  20. 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?

  21. 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’

  22. 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.

  23. Thank you for your attention!

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