Signs of Civilisation by Bård Borch Michalsen

Signs of Civilisation by Bård Borch Michalsen

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Summary

Signs of Civilisation provides an account of the rich cultural history of punctuation.

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Signs of Civilisation by Bård Borch Michalsen

'Punctuation is not only an important part of our language code; an advanced system of punctuation has been a driving force in our entire Western Civilisation. Nothing less.' With the invention of printing, reading books moved from being an act only performed by priests and aristocrats into an individual, even private, activity. This change helped spark the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution - in which punctuation played a crucial role. As long as texts were read out loud only by an educated elite there was no need for punctuation to mark pauses, full stops or questions. So punctuation - the full stop, the comma, the exclamation mark, the question mark and the semicolon - helped shape modern-day Europe as we know it.
Bård Borch Michalsen is the author of several books about communication, language and writing, including Comma, published in Norway in 2014. Having worked for many years as a journalist and newspaper editor, he is now an associate professor at the Arctic University of Norway where he teaches communication and project management.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781529326734
ISBN 10 1529326737
Title Signs of Civilisation
Author Bård Borch Michalsen
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Year published 2019-11-04
Number of pages 176
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.