Untersuchungen Uber Die Syntax Der Sprache Otfrids, Volume 1 (German Edition)

Kafka made no definitive version of The Castle for the printer, and one could reasonably assume that he might still have brought in this or that correction, including punctuation. So I am not enormously shocked (not pleased, either, obviously) that Max Brod, as Kafka's first editor, from time to time should have created a paragraph indentation or added a semicolon to make the text easier to read. Actually, even in Brod's edition, the general character of Kafka's syntax still shows clearly, and the novel preserves its great long breath. Let's go back to that third-chapter sentence: it is relatively long, with commas but no semicolons (in the manuscript and in all the German editions). So what disturbs me most in the Vialatte version of this sentence is the added semicolon. It represents the end of a logical segment, a caesura that invites one to lower the voice, take a short pause. That caesura (although correct by the rules of syntax) chokes off Kafka's breath. David then even divides the sentence into three parts, with two semicolons ...»