Quote:
Clearly Tolkien is trying to highlight/bring attention to/emphasize the quoted words. That appears to be his style and is actually consistent with what I was taught being brought up in England in the 60's and 70's.
Ms. Seth has not told us whether the emphasis is mild or strong – indeed can we really know?
I am quite all right with her succinct: “Tolkien's emphasis”.
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"Clearly" to you, but to me nothing in the examples you cite suggests the quotes are being used for emphasis in the way the theory requires there either. It's just an assumption you're making.
The
only reference to the older practice of using quotes in place of italics I can find refers to their use in "separating" a word from the rest of the sentence, as I just did and am about to do again with the word "separating". Could you have been thinking of this?