TO THE HISTORY OF CAPITAL LETTERS USAGE WHILE WRITING THE MONARCHS’ NAMES (BASED ON THE ARTICLES OF N.M. KARAMZIN in 1802-1803)
Abstract
DOI 10.18522/1995-0640-2024-2-10-20
The article compares the rules of using capital letters while writing the names of Russian monarchs, fixed in grammar books of the second half of the 18th century and their actual usage in three articles written by N.M. Karamzin, published in the journal “Messenger of Europe” in 1802-1803. It was established, that the norm described in these grammar books let variability in the usage of capital letters. Through N.M. Karamzin’s texts we can find adherence to various norm options, associated with the implementation of the author’s intention to semantize the use of graphic means. Writing exclusively in capital letters particularly concerned with the names of the three monarchs, who played the most significant role in the history of Russia. Moreover, in the editions of the same articles in the “Collected
Works” of 1814 and 1820 N.M. Karamzin implements another acceptable option of the norm, offered by grammar books, and replaces writing in capital letters with writing in discharge (a graphic technique in Russian typography associated with the use of increasing space between letters in a word), while expanding the range of names of monarchs to persons belonging to the Romanov family starting with Princess Sophia.
Key words: N.M. Karamzin, grammar books of the 18th century, capital letters, names of monarchs
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