caesuradistinguish

Caesuradistinguish is a neologistic verb (and occasionally used as a noun) in poetry analysis and digital humanities to denote the act of identifying and marking caesuras in a line of verse or in a text-to-speech transcript. The term blends caesura, a pause in a line created by the rhythm of the language, with distinguish, signaling the act of making a specific separation among possible pauses.

In practice, caesuradistinguish may be used by editors and analysts to annotate lines with the location and type of caesura: medial, initial, terminal, or caesural formulas. Annotations can employ markers such as [caesura], ||, or ⟨caesura⟩ to indicate the pause.

Usage in scholarly work typically involves manual or automated prosodic analysis. Automated tools may propose caesura candidates, which the analyst then caesuradistinguish to confirm or refute, often within digital editions or annotated corpora.

Example: In a line such as "To be || or not to be," the analyst caesuradistinguishes the medial caesura after "be" as a prominent pause that may influence performance interpretation.

Etymology and status: The term is a recent coinage with no widely established standardization. As such, its exact definition can vary by project, and some editors may prefer synonyms like caesural annotation or prosodic tagging rather than the compound.

See also: caesura; caesural pause; prosody; textual annotation; digital humanities.