TOWARDS THE SACRAL ORTHOGRAPHIC NORM – CAPITAL LETTER WIRITING IN STRICTLY SCIENTIFIC SUBSTYLE OF RELIGIOUS STYLE: EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXTS IN SERBIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

Abstract

The essay deals with the issues of the orthographic deviation in sacred writings from the standard orthographic norm in Serbian and English languages considering the use of uppercase letters in common nouns, pronouns, religious honorifics, names of icons (iconyms) and names of churches (ecclesionyms), etc. The aim of this analysis is to propose the orthographic norm for theological scientific works by determining the cases of this deviation. The comparative method has been applied in analyzing of the texts belonging to the strictly scientific substyle of the religious style. There is a specific use of uppercase letter writing in theological texts which does not comply fully with the orthographic norm. There is certain inconsistency in applying uppercase letters in the theological scientific works in both Serbian and English languages. It concerns the use of uppercase letters in writing certain common nouns, pronouns (not only personal, but also possessive, demonstrative and relative pronouns relating to Christ, Mother of God and the Holy Trinity), theonyms, attributes in the names of saints, church ranks, ecclesionyms, iconyms, names of administrative church units, names of the members of different religions. The cases of the deviation from the orthographic norm, as well as of the inconsistency in the use of uppercase letters in writing of certain words occur more frequently in Serbian than in English language. The use of uppercase letters is conditional, i.e. it is influenced by the author–s perspective towards the problem he deals with and the connotative dimension. The uppercase letter marking is facultative and even in the strictly scientific works of theology it can be applied as means of expressing emotion and personal attitude.