Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction
The digital era has brought with it a shift in the field of literary editing in terms of the amount and kind of textual variation that can reasonably be annotated by editors. However, questions remain about how far readers engage with textual variants, especially minor ones such as small-scale chang...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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John Benjamins
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32338/ |
| _version_ | 1848794386105630720 |
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| author | Carrol, Gareth Conklin, Kathy Guy, Josephine Scott, Rebekah |
| author_facet | Carrol, Gareth Conklin, Kathy Guy, Josephine Scott, Rebekah |
| author_sort | Carrol, Gareth |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The digital era has brought with it a shift in the field of literary editing in terms of the amount and kind of textual variation that can reasonably be annotated by editors. However, questions remain about how far readers engage with textual variants, especially minor ones such as small-scale changes to punctuation. In this study we present an eye-tracking experiment investigating reader sensitivity to variations in surface textual features of prose fiction. We monitored eye movements while participants read textual variants from Dickens and James, hypothesising that readers may pay more attention to lexical rather than punctuation changes. We found longer reading times for both types, but only lexical changes also increased reading times for the rest of the sentence. In addition, eye movement behaviour and conscious ability to report changes were highly correlated. We discuss the implications for how such methods might be applied to questions of “literary” significance and textual processing. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-32338 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:15:22Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | John Benjamins |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-323382020-05-04T17:03:44Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32338/ Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction Carrol, Gareth Conklin, Kathy Guy, Josephine Scott, Rebekah The digital era has brought with it a shift in the field of literary editing in terms of the amount and kind of textual variation that can reasonably be annotated by editors. However, questions remain about how far readers engage with textual variants, especially minor ones such as small-scale changes to punctuation. In this study we present an eye-tracking experiment investigating reader sensitivity to variations in surface textual features of prose fiction. We monitored eye movements while participants read textual variants from Dickens and James, hypothesising that readers may pay more attention to lexical rather than punctuation changes. We found longer reading times for both types, but only lexical changes also increased reading times for the rest of the sentence. In addition, eye movement behaviour and conscious ability to report changes were highly correlated. We discuss the implications for how such methods might be applied to questions of “literary” significance and textual processing. John Benjamins 2015-03-30 Article PeerReviewed Carrol, Gareth, Conklin, Kathy, Guy, Josephine and Scott, Rebekah (2015) Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction. Scientific Study of Literature, 5 (2). pp. 200-228. ISSN 2210-4380 Text-editing Prose fiction Textual variants Punctuation Reading Eye-tracking http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ssol.5.2.05con doi:10.1075/ssol.5.2.05con doi:10.1075/ssol.5.2.05con |
| spellingShingle | Text-editing Prose fiction Textual variants Punctuation Reading Eye-tracking Carrol, Gareth Conklin, Kathy Guy, Josephine Scott, Rebekah Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title | Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title_full | Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title_fullStr | Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title_short | Processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| title_sort | processing punctuation and word changes in different editions of prose fiction |
| topic | Text-editing Prose fiction Textual variants Punctuation Reading Eye-tracking |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32338/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32338/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32338/ |