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Fw: Lubin, Cola & Parenthetical Images
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EDNOTE. NABOKV-L thanks the formidable Associate Editor of NABOKOV STUDIES
for her well informed clarification. "Cola" (sg. of Greek "colon") is used
by Lubin in two senses (and apparently in two different etymologies)---the
one I cited (p. 192) and hers --p, 207, note 11. Peter Lubin's etymology
for his suggested term "capicue" (<Sp. "capicua) [numerical palindrome] with
deeper roots in Lat. "caput" and "cola" may well be a prank --as are
several of his neologisms. Long live scholarship!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (26
lines) ------------------
> I too wondered if Peter Lubin's article might be a possible
> source for an early description of Nabokov's parenthetical
> gems. But this is not what Lubin means by "cola"; he is
> using the word in its technical sense of "metrical (or, more
> loosely, phrasal) units". It's the plural of "colon," a
> Greek word which originally meant "limb" but came to mean a
> line of verse. Greek tragedies, which in the surviving late
> copies are written without line breaks, must be divided into
> separate lines in order to make sense, and this process is
> called "colometry" -- making the cola come out right in
> terms of the meter. The name of the punctuation mark "colon"
> is derived from the same word, probably because it marks the
> end of a phrasal unit. (The anatomical colon, in case you
> were wondering, is derived from a different Greek word.)
>
> So when Lubin talks about "three- or four-cola synaesthetic
> periods" (207 n. 11) he's using classical grammatical
> terminology to describe a sentence like "I am thinking of
> aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments,
> prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art"-- three or four
> phrasal units that make up a 'period' or balanced group of
> clauses.
>
> Many thanks to all for this distraction from tax preparation--
>
> Mary Belllino
>
for her well informed clarification. "Cola" (sg. of Greek "colon") is used
by Lubin in two senses (and apparently in two different etymologies)---the
one I cited (p. 192) and hers --p, 207, note 11. Peter Lubin's etymology
for his suggested term "capicue" (<Sp. "capicua) [numerical palindrome] with
deeper roots in Lat. "caput" and "cola" may well be a prank --as are
several of his neologisms. Long live scholarship!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (26
lines) ------------------
> I too wondered if Peter Lubin's article might be a possible
> source for an early description of Nabokov's parenthetical
> gems. But this is not what Lubin means by "cola"; he is
> using the word in its technical sense of "metrical (or, more
> loosely, phrasal) units". It's the plural of "colon," a
> Greek word which originally meant "limb" but came to mean a
> line of verse. Greek tragedies, which in the surviving late
> copies are written without line breaks, must be divided into
> separate lines in order to make sense, and this process is
> called "colometry" -- making the cola come out right in
> terms of the meter. The name of the punctuation mark "colon"
> is derived from the same word, probably because it marks the
> end of a phrasal unit. (The anatomical colon, in case you
> were wondering, is derived from a different Greek word.)
>
> So when Lubin talks about "three- or four-cola synaesthetic
> periods" (207 n. 11) he's using classical grammatical
> terminology to describe a sentence like "I am thinking of
> aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments,
> prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art"-- three or four
> phrasal units that make up a 'period' or balanced group of
> clauses.
>
> Many thanks to all for this distraction from tax preparation--
>
> Mary Belllino
>