Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2014 September 30

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September 30

Text between Chapters

Is there a particular name for text that is part of a novel but that is inserted BETWEEN chapters rather than being part of a chapter?

I wish I could cite an example of this phenomenon. I'm passing along a question I was asked and could not find an example in the books at hand.

Thanks, CBHA (talk) 01:23, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Robert Heinlein's Time Enough For Love has three large main sections, each made up of chapters. Between these sections are little minichapters comprised of aphorisms. μηδείς (talk) 01:39, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Although an addendum usually comes at the end of a book, I don't think it has to; the word just means something added, so that would do as a general term. A more a specific term would depend on the purpose of the extra text.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:23, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

"Addendum" is not right, it would signal that the inserted text related only to the preceding chapter. I would go with "interlude", borrowing a term from music: "a piece of music...to be inserted between sections of another composition." --Viennese Waltz 08:44, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I agree with Shantavira that the purpose of the inserted text usually determines what it's called, and I agree with Viennese Waltz that interlude is often used in the context of both fiction and nonfiction. A term that I have seen in works of nonfiction but that I don't offhand recall seeing in fiction is excursus. Deor (talk) 10:21, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Until we get evidence to the contrary, I don't think there is a widely-used and well-known term for this that is agnostic to the amount/type/content of the text. 'Interlude' would probably work ok, but that depends on an analogy that will be lost on some people. To avoid that, I would just use compositional semantics and call it 'interstitial text' - the definition that comes from the components is that it is text that comes between some other primary parts. To be very clear, you could call it 'chapter-interstitial text' SemanticMantis (talk) 16:16, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

CBHA, given the sequential nature of books, how do you know that the text in question is not associated with the following component (chapter, section, part, whatever)? An Epigraph (literature) is .. a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The fact that it is on a separate page doesn't make it not an epigraph. Where an epigraph precedes an entire book, it's very often on a separate page. (Equally, I suppose it could be considered an example of whatever a quotation at the end of a component is called.) If the argument is that it's not related to the subsequent text because there's no obvious relationship to it, I could say that about the majority of epigraphs I've come across. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:10, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Jack, I don't think CBHA is talking about epigraphs, but rather about sections of prose that are inserted in a novel outside the sequence of chapters. In a search of my shelves, the first example I happened to find is Christopher Moore's novel Sacré Bleu, in which between chapters 1 and 2 there is a short section (about a page and a quarter) headed "Interlude in Blue #1: Sacré Bleu", between chapters 5 and 6 there is "Interlude in Blue #2: Making the Blue", and so forth. Deor (talk) 19:35, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I suppose the distinction might be that to be "set at the beginning of a ... component" is different than to be "set before the next component." But I did forget about that word, and agree that it is probably fine to use for many examples of interstitial text. I myself often prefer using definite description to names for this sort of thing, though "Epigraph" is defensibly both. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:42, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

The book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid has main chapters alternating with dialogs.

—Wavelength (talk) 19:41, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

• The word you want may be "interchapter". 109.146.63.99 (talk) 02:08, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

"Intercalary" might work. It literally means something inserted into the calendar, like Feb 29th on leap year. However, it can also be more broadly used for anything inserted out of the normal order. For example, some PBS kids shows are a half hour long, and consist of two shorts, each maybe 12 minutes long, with an even shorter intercalary between them, where they chat with the author, meet some real kids, etc. Angelina Ballerina & Curious George are two examples. StuRat (talk) 13:35, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

Slovak language question

Slovak text on a plaque in Bratislava.

In Bratislava, I saw this text on the sidewalk of Pražská street (the sidewalk actually runs several metres above the actual street). What does it say? JIP | Talk 17:55, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

For convenience to other editors, here is a facsimile of the text.

PRESTAVBA ŠTÁTNEJ CESTY 1/2 BOLA

REALIZOVANÁ V ROKOCH 1974 - 1977

INVESTORSKU ČINNOSŤ VYKONÁVAL

INVESTING BRATISLAVA · GENERÁLNY

PEOJEKTANT DOPRAVOPROJEKT BRA-

TISLAVA · VYŠŠI DODÁVATEĹ STAVBY

DOPRASTAV, N.P., BRATISLAVA

—Wavelength (talk) 18:52, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

It seems to refer to the reconstruction / refurbishment of a section of highway that was carried out between 1974 and 1977. I think 1/2 is actually I/2, which is State Highway 2 that runs (or ran) through Bratislava. "PRESTAVBA ŠTÁTNEJ CESTY I/2" translates (from Slovak) as "Reconstruction of State I/2". The stuff after the years lists the involved parties - Investing Bratislava as the financer, Dopravoprojekt were design engineers and Doprastav the construction company. - Eron^Talk 20:12, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

I spotted a couple of omitted and mistaken diacritics in Wavelength's facsimile: INVESTORSKÚ (3rd line), VYŠŠÍ DODÁVATEĽ (6th line). Otherwise it's correct. --Theurgist (talk) 06:24, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Considering the age of the plaque, is it actually in Slovak or is it Czech? The article on Czechoslovakia doesn't talk about official languages, but I'd formed the impression that only Czech had that status. --65.94.51.64 (talk) 13:41, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

I know a bit of Czech, and the sign is in Slovak. Czech and Slovak had equal status as official languages of Czechoslovakia at the national, federal level. Czech was the official language of the Czech Socialist Republic, and Slovak was the official language of the Slovak Socialist Republic. Marco polo (talk) 13:59, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. --65.94.51.64 (talk) 16:53, 1 October 2014 (UTC)