Personally, the only mark I could see myself using is the interrobang. It's pretty much just the condensing of two already existing marks, and is intuitively read by just about any existing reader...
Personally, the only mark I could see myself using is the interrobang. It's pretty much just the condensing of two already existing marks, and is intuitively read by just about any existing reader when they come across it.
The rest, I'm not so sold on. In my opinion, none of them have that same intuitive meaning as the interrobang and thus will probably mean more rote memorization by grammar learners, particularly in English—notorious as it is for being arbitrary with its rules already.
Honestly, I'm not sold on even interrobangs. It looks hard to discern at a distance as it's too similar to a question mark, and so I think it'd just end up being confusing. Some of the others look...
Honestly, I'm not sold on even interrobangs. It looks hard to discern at a distance as it's too similar to a question mark, and so I think it'd just end up being confusing.
Some of the others look like they could be useful, such as one to explicitly delineate sarcasm or rhetorical questions, but I'm not sold on the designs at all.
Note: I pulled the title from the site and am not personally advocating for the use of these. I am definitely curious what people think of these though. Good ideas? Bad ideas? Which ones, if any,...
Note: I pulled the title from the site and am not personally advocating for the use of these.
I am definitely curious what people think of these though. Good ideas? Bad ideas? Which ones, if any, can you see yourself using?
I think a lot of punctuation that gets adopted appears to be through bending or misuse of existing symbols. I looked at the 'Sarcmark' and the description started with "This copyrighted...
I think a lot of punctuation that gets adopted appears to be through bending or misuse of existing symbols.
I looked at the 'Sarcmark' and the description started with "This copyrighted symbol...", which doesn't seem congruent with the concept of mass adoption.
This is an interesting site with some neat ideas, but it reads more like an art piece to me (not suggesting it actually is).
I do think one major change that has affected writing and the potential of new punction is emoji. The concept of really casual, quick, conversational writing is a relatively new thing.
Postcards, memos, letters, etc. all had their own little rules and standards to follow. Only through necessity did SMS, IRC and IM popularise emoticons and, later, emoji - required to replace or approximate body language and tone of voice for instantaneous conversation.
I know some people hate emoji, but they are already ubiquitous (and here to stay), already covering use cases of many of these symbols (at least in immediate conversation).
Sorry for the essay, I just find the addition of these weird little heiroglyphs to everyday language fascinating (and I can't deny they fill a real gap).
You'd enjoy the book Because Internet by Gretchen McCullough. It has a whole chapter on emoji, and how some have gained standalone meaning (e.g. the eggplant emoji), while others are used to fill...
You'd enjoy the book Because Internet by Gretchen McCullough. It has a whole chapter on emoji, and how some have gained standalone meaning (e.g. the eggplant emoji), while others are used to fill in the missing information that you'd get from tone of voice and gestures in-person. Very much worth a read!
The only ones I can see being used are the interrobang, and the exclaimation/question commas. The rest just... don't have a frequent enough use case to be needed. How often do you need to denote...
The only ones I can see being used are the interrobang, and the exclaimation/question commas. The rest just... don't have a frequent enough use case to be needed. How often do you need to denote that you are certain about something in a way that cannot be done without a full stop or excaimation mark, or without adding a simple "I am certain" to the start of your sentence?
Thanks for sharing! These are pretty cool, but I agree with the assessment of it as more of an art piece than something to be practically implemented. An obvious statement about the inability of...
Thanks for sharing! These are pretty cool, but I agree with the assessment of it as more of an art piece than something to be practically implemented. An obvious statement about the inability of written communication to fully convey all range of emotion, tone, etc.
The mostly appealing one to me is “El Rey.” I certainly frequently find myself in the circumstance described. In general I opt for a blend of periods and exclamation points and lean towards more of the latter than the former (when appropriate).
I do wonder how we would end up ever adopting new punctuation. What comes to mind is the use of “/s” online, which seems similar to the “Snark Mark” here.
Pretty neat. I was aware of the interrobang already, but hadn't heard of any of the others. Obviously, the possibility of these becoming common practice is slim (not to mention, they'd need to be...
Pretty neat. I was aware of the interrobang already, but hadn't heard of any of the others. Obviously, the possibility of these becoming common practice is slim (not to mention, they'd need to be part of Unicode to gain traction in the first place...), but I like the general idea. I suppose tone indicators do the same job - but I've only seen those used in smaller circles online.
Language is this sort of weird, amorphous thing that naturally evolves over time, and intentional, engineered language reform is largely ineffective. Not that I don't appreciate the thought behind these sorts of things, however.
How has no one mentioned the friendly period yet? I think the design needs some work, but the concept is great. Periods have such a cold feeling them in conversational text, but I’d really not...
How has no one mentioned the friendly period yet?
I think the design needs some work, but the concept is great. Periods have such a cold feeling them in conversational text, but I’d really not have two or three exclamation marks in my emails to try and convey I’m not a robot and no, I don’t hate you.
For the digital realm, I feel that emojis do a lot what these aspire to achieve. Between =x , =) and =( there are a lot of punctuation marks that are in use besides emoji - even wingdings was used...
For the digital realm, I feel that emojis do a lot what these aspire to achieve. Between =x , =) and =( there are a lot of punctuation marks that are in use besides emoji - even wingdings was used in this way. I feel like digital pictograms like emoji have dramatically enhanced writing for the regular folk. Plus, it's added an interesting extra layer of meaning. It's not "correct" in professional/business/academic writing, but that will evolve. I expect within 10-20 years emojis or emoji like pictograms will be a regular part of writing even in academic/business settings.
Personally, the only mark I could see myself using is the interrobang. It's pretty much just the condensing of two already existing marks, and is intuitively read by just about any existing reader when they come across it.
The rest, I'm not so sold on. In my opinion, none of them have that same intuitive meaning as the interrobang and thus will probably mean more rote memorization by grammar learners, particularly in English—notorious as it is for being arbitrary with its rules already.
Honestly, I'm not sold on even interrobangs. It looks hard to discern at a distance as it's too similar to a question mark, and so I think it'd just end up being confusing.
Some of the others look like they could be useful, such as one to explicitly delineate sarcasm or rhetorical questions, but I'm not sold on the designs at all.
I agree and I use the interrobang every opportunity I get, but there have been many times where I’ve wished there was a a question comma.
Note: I pulled the title from the site and am not personally advocating for the use of these.
I am definitely curious what people think of these though. Good ideas? Bad ideas? Which ones, if any, can you see yourself using?
I think a lot of punctuation that gets adopted appears to be through bending or misuse of existing symbols.
I looked at the 'Sarcmark' and the description started with "This copyrighted symbol...", which doesn't seem congruent with the concept of mass adoption.
This is an interesting site with some neat ideas, but it reads more like an art piece to me (not suggesting it actually is).
I do think one major change that has affected writing and the potential of new punction is emoji. The concept of really casual, quick, conversational writing is a relatively new thing.
Postcards, memos, letters, etc. all had their own little rules and standards to follow. Only through necessity did SMS, IRC and IM popularise emoticons and, later, emoji - required to replace or approximate body language and tone of voice for instantaneous conversation.
I know some people hate emoji, but they are already ubiquitous (and here to stay), already covering use cases of many of these symbols (at least in immediate conversation).
Sorry for the essay, I just find the addition of these weird little heiroglyphs to everyday language fascinating (and I can't deny they fill a real gap).
You'd enjoy the book Because Internet by Gretchen McCullough. It has a whole chapter on emoji, and how some have gained standalone meaning (e.g. the eggplant emoji), while others are used to fill in the missing information that you'd get from tone of voice and gestures in-person. Very much worth a read!
The only ones I can see being used are the interrobang, and the exclaimation/question commas. The rest just... don't have a frequent enough use case to be needed. How often do you need to denote that you are certain about something in a way that cannot be done without a full stop or excaimation mark, or without adding a simple "I am certain" to the start of your sentence?
Thanks for sharing! These are pretty cool, but I agree with the assessment of it as more of an art piece than something to be practically implemented. An obvious statement about the inability of written communication to fully convey all range of emotion, tone, etc.
The mostly appealing one to me is “El Rey.” I certainly frequently find myself in the circumstance described. In general I opt for a blend of periods and exclamation points and lean towards more of the latter than the former (when appropriate).
I do wonder how we would end up ever adopting new punctuation. What comes to mind is the use of “/s” online, which seems similar to the “Snark Mark” here.
Pretty neat. I was aware of the interrobang already, but hadn't heard of any of the others. Obviously, the possibility of these becoming common practice is slim (not to mention, they'd need to be part of Unicode to gain traction in the first place...), but I like the general idea. I suppose tone indicators do the same job - but I've only seen those used in smaller circles online.
Language is this sort of weird, amorphous thing that naturally evolves over time, and intentional, engineered language reform is largely ineffective. Not that I don't appreciate the thought behind these sorts of things, however.
How has no one mentioned the friendly period yet?
I think the design needs some work, but the concept is great. Periods have such a cold feeling them in conversational text, but I’d really not have two or three exclamation marks in my emails to try and convey I’m not a robot and no, I don’t hate you.
For the digital realm, I feel that emojis do a lot what these aspire to achieve. Between =x , =) and =( there are a lot of punctuation marks that are in use besides emoji - even wingdings was used in this way. I feel like digital pictograms like emoji have dramatically enhanced writing for the regular folk. Plus, it's added an interesting extra layer of meaning. It's not "correct" in professional/business/academic writing, but that will evolve. I expect within 10-20 years emojis or emoji like pictograms will be a regular part of writing even in academic/business settings.