Russian Punctuation as a Sign System

Abstract

The Russian punctuation is a system of signs with its own functions and its own formal organization, different from the organization of alphabetic characters, numbers and other written signs of the Russian language. In terms of formal organization, punctuation marks differ from two-dimension characters in geometry and in onedimensionality or even zero-dimensionality. In terms of function, they are used as signs of articulation and organization of the text (as the metatext by A. Wierzbicka). Punctuation marks are located between graphic (linguistic-visual) and paragraphic (nonlinguistic visual) systems of writing. They perform their function in combination with the system of spaces (word space, arbitrary line end, empty part of the page, empty page) and paragraph tools. The punctuation is similar in function to road signs and computer text markup but unlike them punctuation marks are situated on the line alternately with the main objects of the writing.