Subparagraph

The subparagraph is the sign of Ponctuation of text which announces the beginning of new a Paragraphe. This first functional definition is however not exact being the procedural texts (laws, payments, contracts…) where the subparagraph is at the same time a punctuation mark and a segment of text, named him also subparagraph : in the legal texts, one calls subparagraph a subdivision of paragraph.

Etymology

The word subparagraph has according to the sources two etymology S of contrary direction, and consequently incompatible:

Latin AD lineam , with the accusative, i.e. " while going towards the line, with the ligne" ;
Latin has linea (with has long, i.e. with the ablative), which means " while moving away, while deviating from the ligne".

The first explanation recalls the instruction given in Dictée to the person who writes by the person who dictates: " With the ligne" ; the second explanation is more in conformity so that one knows first use of the word in French, which is in the Correspondance of Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac published in 1654:

“has vostre leisure , writes it with its correspondent, will make you copy me '' Harangue of Casa because I wish to put it in a foreword at the end of the selected Lettres . But I would like that the copy fust '' in several sections, or (to speak as Rocollet) in linea has, as are all my speeches, which is a thing which helps extremely that which read and démesle well the confusion of the species. ” (quoted in Littré, s.v. subparagraph ).

Mr. Rocollet is at the time First printer of the King de France Louis XIV; " to speak like Rocollet" , it is to specify qu'" linea" has; must be taken with the technical direction, typographical, i.e. " by beginning a news ligne" , and with this intention by leaving the line in the course of composition without finishing it to begin a remote news of the left margin of it.

Separation of the paragraphs

There exist four ways of separating the paragraphs from a text:

the subparagraph returning , which is most usual: it is a withdrawal of two squares on the books of schoolboy, or a Cadratin in standard typography; one also about it speaks about Indentation , returned or white . It will be noted that the returning subparagraph can be lower than the em quadrat (in particular in the Quotidien S which seek to gain place, not to shorten the lines), but also higher, even much higher: in the publications of luxury, it can be quarter, third, half, even of two thirds length of line (known as Justification);
the projecting subparagraph , known as also in synopsis , because it is used to compose the tables of content and the lists with long items; one also about it speaks about outgoing subparagraph ;
the subparagraph aligned , which is marked by a simple return to the line and the left margin, without withdrawal nor projecting; if the line which precedes is not full until the right margin with justification, it remains hollow, and it is only the hollow of the line, when there is one of them, which is the most frequent case, which announces the change of paragraph. Grevisse writes in the Good use: “According to a modern typographical fashion, the printers do not put any more in withdrawal the beginning of the text in subparagraph. Clearness does not have anything to gain with this new use. ” ;
the paving stone , alternative of the precedent, where the passage from one paragraph to another is not marked by a subparagraph nor a hollow line, but by a line pitch often named Interligne ; it is this subparagraph which is used in Anglo-Saxon typography, and which for is made most widespread Web pages.

Opening subparagraph, closing subparagraph

The subparagraph opening is the withdrawal of an em quadrat which in good standard typography comes at the head from paragraph.

The subparagraph closing is the hollow line which generally marks the end of the paragraph.

According to this design, each paragraph of a text followed is included/understood between an opening subparagraph and a closing subparagraph.

Ian Tschichold, typographer German, precisely points out in Livre and typography (transl. france Paris, ED. Combined, 1994) that the first paragraph which follows a title or a subtitle does not need opening subparagraph. To what one can add that in any start of text or section, the opening subparagraph can be replaced by a reference letter.

Alternatives of the opening subparagraph

The opening subparagraph has a certain number of alternatives where the white sign is accompanied by a black sign:

the subparagraph guillemeté mark the beginning of a paragraph of quotation or direct brought back speech, even of a dialog with the speech of a first speaker;
the tireté subparagraph of dialog, which marks the speech of a new speaker, and sometimes the beginning of dialog itself, the indent employed is generally in this case an indent em quadrat;
the suspended subparagraph, which makes begin the paragraph with points of suspension (which can themselves be followed of tiny) to mark the resumption of the wire of the text after a cut or an interruption;
the tireté subparagraph of list, often in synopsis, which is used to compose of the lists: the indent employed in this case is generally an en quad;
the numbered subparagraph, which also is used to him to compose of the lists;
the indexed subparagraph, very close functionally to the two precedents, which is used to create lists but can also alert on a note or a clause: in this case, the text is preceded by a small hand to the Doigt (index) tended.

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