Although it had been a while since I spent much time in that particular literary neighborhood, about a week-and-a-half back I came upon a piece in The Wall Street Journal’s Life & Culture section entitled, “Is This the Future of Punctuation?!”
I dug the fact that they combined the question mark and exclamation point back-to-back. I’ve found myself recently, mostly in email or text, using these punctuation marks both in the same order and reversed, depending on the context.
As one with a long history of misapplying punctuation to text, I’ve been attempting to broaden my horizons disambiguation-wise. That is the function of properly-applied punctuation, isn’t it: to aid in the removal of ambiguity!? Maybe I could clear up my editorial landscape if I could just get my arms around the rules of engagement.
Friends continually tell me that they don’t have a clue as to what I’m writing about and maybe the problem is my longtime dysfunctional relationship with commas, quotation marks, hyphens, dashes (especially dashes!), and italics. I’m sure it’s nothing more substantial than that. You don’t think impaired cognition could be a culprit, do you?!
As the current and former copy editors at The Park Record can attest, when it comes to writing a weekly newspaper column, I’m “punctuatively” challenged. Or should that be “punctuationally?” Obviously, I’m “adverbally,” not to mention “vocabularally,” in the dark.
My constant use of italics to differentiate or provide emphasis also doesn’t often make the cut. My longtime good friend Kat James, who preceded my longtime good friend David Hampshire at the Record’s copy desk, can attest to my inconsistencies in the grammar department. They do attempt to educate me on these matters, however, but that principle about old dogs and new tricks always seems to raise its head.
But, back to the future of accentuating linear thought upon the printed page. In the new world of punctuation, it’s a jungle out there! You got your “guillemets” ( ), your “solidus” ( ), your “interpunct” ( ), your “snark” ( ), your “pilcrow” ( ), and your “interrobang” ( ).
One of my favorites is the backwards question mark ” “, or “snark.” Also known as the “point d’ironie,” it can be used to denote irony or sarcasm, not that these specific applications would ever find a comfort zone in this space
Another quite cool punctuation is the single mark ( ) that can be used in lieu of the combination exclamation point/question mark discussed at the beginning of the column. Known as an “interrobang,” it indicates a question posed in an enthusiastic fashion. As much as I dig it, however, don’t you think I should be allowed to just splatter it about whenever I wish
Now, the “pilcrow” ( ), according to the article in the WSJ, was originally used back in the day to separate blocks of text in old Latin manuscripts. In recent times, however, it has been utilized to signify a new paragraph where an indentation isn’t present.
Myself, I never use the old semicolon unless it’s part of a quote I’m copy-and-pasting to the text. And there are times when I feel that I overuse the dash — not because of any punctuation rule but rather because I’m attempting to treat the writing with the same breath and emphasis intervals as the spoken word — and I’m really not all that hip on how to do it otherwise.
There seems to be validation for this in the WSJ piece. “Such marks are symptoms of an increasing tendency to punctuate for rhetorical rather than grammatical effect. Instead of presenting syntactical and logical relationships, punctuation reproduces the patterns of speech.”
“One manifestation of this is the advance of the dash. It imitates the jagged urgency of conversation, in which we change direction sharply and with punch. Their appeal is visual, their shape dramatic. That’s what a modern talky style of writing seems to demand.” Hear! hear! Author! author!
Then there’s the beleagered apostrophe, of course. It’s probably going the way of the appendix. Booker T. & the MG’s incorporated it into their name as a way of protecting their brand from a lawsuit by “Morris Garages,” manufacturers of the MG sports car. Go figure
Now that ought to help get your punctuational ducks in line! — . Just remember, don’t take any wooden pilcrows!? !
Jay Meehan is a culture junkie and an observer, participant, and chronicler of the Park City and Wasatch County social scenes for the past 40 years.