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Irony punctuation |
Irony punctuation is any form of notation proposed or used to denoteirony orsarcasm in written text. Written text, inEnglish and other languages, lacks a standard way to mark irony, and several forms ofpunctuation have been proposed to fill the gap. The oldest is thepercontation point in the form of a reversedquestion mark (⸮), proposed by English printerHenry Denham in the 1580s for markingrhetorical questions, which can be a form of irony. Specificirony marks have also been proposed, such as in the form of an open upward arrow (△
|), used byMarcellin Jobard in the 19th century, and in a form resembling a reversed question mark (
), proposed by French poetAlcanter de Brahm during the 19th century.
Irony punctuation is primarily used to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. A bracketedexclamation point or question mark as well asscare quotes are also occasionally used to express irony or sarcasm.
The percontation point(
), a reversed question mark later referred to as a rhetorical question mark, was proposed byHenry Denham in the 1580s and was used at the end of a question that does not require an answer—arhetorical question. Its use died out in the 17th century.[1] This character can be represented using the reversed question mark (⸮) found in Unicode as U+2E2E; another character approximating it isthe Arabic question mark (؟), U+061F.
The modern question mark (? U+003F) is descended from the "punctus interrogativus" (described as "a lightning flash, striking from right to left"),[2] but unlike the modern question mark, the punctus interrogativus may be contrasted with the punctus percontativus—the former marking questions that require an answer while the latter marks rhetorical questions.[3]
In 1668,John Wilkins, inAn Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language, proposed using aninverted exclamation mark to punctuate rhetorical questions.[4]
In an article dated 11 October 1841,Marcellin Jobard, a Belgian newspaper publisher, introduced an "irony mark" (French:point d'ironie) in the shape of an oversized arrow head with small stem (rather like anideogram of aChristmas tree).[5][6] The next year he expanded his idea, suggesting the symbol could be used in various orientations (on its side, upside down, etc.) to mark "a point of irritation, an indignation point, a point of hesitation".[7][8]
Another irony point (French:point d'ironie) was proposed by the French poetAlcanter de Brahm (alias, Marcel Bernhardt) in his 1899 bookL'ostensoir des ironies to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level (irony, sarcasm, etc.). It is illustrated by a glyph resembling, but not identical to, a small, elevated, backward-facing question mark.[3]
Hervé Bazin, in his essay "Plumons l'Oiseau" ("Let's pluck the bird", 1966), used the Greek letterψ with a dot below for the same purpose(.svg)
).[10] In the same work, the author proposed five other innovative punctuation marks: the "doubt point"(.svg)
), "conviction point"(.svg)
), "acclamation point"(.svg)
), "authority point"(.svg)
), and "love point"(.svg)
).[11]
In March 2007, the Dutch foundation CPNB (Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek) presented another design of an irony mark, theironieteken: (
).[12][13]
Tom Driberg recommended that ironic statements be printed inleftward-slanting italics, which he also called sartalics, to distinguish irony from the emphasis indicated by conventional rightward-slanting italics.[14][15]
Scare quotes are a particular use ofquotation marks. They are placed around a word or phrase to indicate that it is not used in the fashion that the writer would personally use it. In contrast to the nominal typographic purpose of quotation marks, the enclosed words are not necessarily quoted from another source. When read aloud, various techniques are used to convey the sense, such as prepending the addition of "so-called" or a similar word or phrase of disdain, using a sarcastic or mocking tone, or usingair quotes, or any combination of the above.
In certainEthiopic languages, sarcasm and unreal phrases are indicated at the end of a sentence with a sarcasm mark calledtemherte slaq[16][17] ortimirte slaq[18] (Amharic: ትእምርተ፡ሥላቅ),[18][19] a character that looks like theinverted exclamation point (U+00A1) ( ¡ ).[16]
It is common in online conversation among some Internet users to use a fictitious closing tag patterned afterHTML:</sarcasm>. Over time, it has evolved to lose the angle brackets (/sarcasm) and has subsequently been shortened to/sarc or/s (not to be confused with the valid HTML end tag</s> used to end astruck-through passage).[20] Users of the websiteReddit frequently denote sarcasm through the use of/s, as shorthand.[21] This usage later evolved intotone indicators.
Rhetorical questions in some informal situations can use a bracketed question mark, e.g., "Oh, really[?]". The equivalent for an ironic or sarcastic statement would be a bracketed exclamation mark, e.g., "Oh, really[!]". Subtitles, such as inTeletext, sometimes use an exclamation mark within brackets or parentheses to mark sarcasm.[22]
Another method of expressing sarcasm is by placing atilde (~) adjacent to the punctuation. This allows for easy use with any keyboard, as well as variation. Variations include dry sarcasm (~.), enthusiastic sarcasm (~!), and sarcastic questions (~?). The sports blogCard Chronicle has adopted this methodology by inserting (~) after the period at the end of the sentence.[23] It has also been adopted by theUdacity Machine Learning Nanodegree community.[24]
On the Internet, it is common to seealternating uppercase and lowercase lettering to convey a mocking or sarcastic tone, often in the form ofmemes. One example is the "Mocking SpongeBob" meme, which consists of a caption paired with a still taken from theSpongeBob SquarePants episode"Little Yellow Book" of the characterSpongeBob SquarePants acting like a chicken.[25][better source needed]
Typing in all-capital letters, using aTwitter-stylehashtag,#sarcasm, oremoticons like "Rolling eyes" (
), ":>", and ":P /
, are used by some in instant messaging. Some might use the "victory hand"dingbat /emoji (
) character to simulate "scare quotes".[26]
The upside-down face emoji (
) is often used to convey sarcasm.[27] However, it can also be understood to indicate a variety of subtle or concealed emotions. These can include annoyance, indignation, panic, mockery, and other more ambiguous feelings.[28][29]
In many gaming communities, the word "Kappa" is frequently used to display sarcasm as well as joking intent. This is due to the word acting as an emoticon onTwitch, a livestreaming site, where it has gained popularity for such purpose.[30]
CollegeHumor jokingly proposed new marks called "sarcastisies" which resemble ragged, or zig-zagged parentheses, used to enclose sarcastic remarks.[31]
A "SarcMark" symbol, which resembled an @, but with the spiral reversed and a period at its center instead of an 'a', requiring custom computer font software was proposed in 2010.[32]
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