The Importance of Punctuation
I am sure you would have known of the
importance of punctuation. How one less comma could change the meaning of a
sentence entirely and cause ten million people to die. Yes, I am exaggerating, but
only to show you how important punctuation is.
It is so important that it has spawned books
that look into the importance of punctuation. One such book that I have read is
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero
Tolerance Approach to Punctuation written by Lynne Truss. I have read it
years ago and have forgotten most of it. What I have not forgotten though, is
the message, punctuation is IMPORTANT.
Nowadays, however, the importance of
punctuation has been taken to another level. Recently I had the pleasure (yes,
pleasure, because I did enjoy reading it and I hope you will too~) of reading
an article in The New York Times titled “When Your Punctuation Says It All(!)”. Yup, one more commentary to add to the arsenal.
But this article showcases an importance of a different kind.
With the arrival of internet and email and
instant messaging and internet chat rooms, we all know that communication has
evolved. Then it further evolved with mobile phones and SMSs (how passé), which
led to data for smartphones which kick started applications like Whatsapp and
LINE and so on and so forth. Therefore, language has also changed along with
these evolvements, which means that punctuation has taken on a whole new level
of importance.
As the article has so glibly articulated, if you
have bothered to read it, punctuation now has transcend words (as in usually they
only give emphases and meanings to the words or sentences they are attached to)
to now convey meanings and emotions on its own. Example, nowadays I see
comments like this, “!!!” left on Facebook. I know what it means. I am sure you
that what it means. Are there words preceding the triple dose of exclamation
marks? No. But, together with context, we all know what those three exclamation
marks put together side-by-side mean. And there is plenty of emoting that
punctuations do nowadays. PLENTY.
For example (do note that these are drawn from
my personal observations):
1. The
meaning of a period/full stop at the end of a simple Whatsapp message and the
usage of capital letters.
E.g.:
Friend #1: Hey I’ll be quite late
Friend #2: Ok.
Friend #1: Hey not too late k… just a little
late… don’t be mad
Friend #2: ok
It
does seem that the second “ok” without the capital “O” and minus the period convey
a softer and less aggressive tone amirite?
2. The
quintessential ellipses (plural) as seen in the example in point 1.
What does an ellipsis do? Used in academic
papers, it indicates an “intentional omission of a word, sentence or whole
section” of text. In the current communication landscape? When used in a
sentence, it is to soften a conversation, to show afterthought, or to imply
indecision (depends on the context). But when used alone, as in “…”, it is to
denote incredulity in the face of stupidity/idiocy (in line with this pictogram
-_-“’).
E.g.:
Friend #1: I read that Zayn Malik from 1D will
be teaching at Singapore Poly! I want to study in SP!
Friend #2: …
3. The
triple exclamation marks.
As I have mentioned before, the “!!!” signifies
a stupendous amount of thrill/astonishment/anger/fear/shock. It can be seen in
both a positive or negative light.
E.g.:
Friend #1: I just saw a perv stare at me while
I walked past!
Friend #2: !!!
Another example:
Friend #1: I just saw Zayn Malik from 1D at
Singapore Poly!
Friend #2: !!!
I will leave you to interpret if the reaction,
“!!!”, in the second example is positive or negative.
#needisaymore
However, there is one interesting thing that I noticed
about the hash tag. I believe it originated from Twitter as a way to tag tweets
within the designated 140 characters. Now, it has transcended Twitter to go beyond
the internet and computers/phones and is now part of people’s lingo/speech. Recently
I heard a speaker, who was (aptly) teaching photography in social media, peppering
his speech with the phrase “just saying”, which came from #justsaying. I did a
Google search for the meaning for #justsaying and this is what I got:
5. The
tilde.
You have no idea what tilde is right? It’s this
~ symbol. Yeah, now you learnt something. I am glad. Here is a Buzzfeed article
on the tilde and its uses; it is quite an interesting read. I used to
use the tilde quite often in my Facebook posts, because it adds a femininely
cutesy edge to my posts. Then I got older and the tilde got younger (it seemed
childish after a while) and I dropped it. Then I saw a drop in its appearance
online as well, so eventually it seemed like it was not used anymore.
Recently, I have seen a resurgence of the tilde,
but not used in the way the article explains. Personally I use the tilde to
indicate singing and lyrics. E.g., “~blah blah blah… ~love hurts”.
Most notably though, I see it in one of my
friend’s messaging style. Almost every sentence is punctuated with it, which
goes against what I thought I knew about that friend. Maybe my friend just
wanted to sound friendly, I cannot be sure.
Till now, the tilde and its significance
remains a mystery to me.
But see? That is the thing about the tildes
(and by extension, punctuation); there are no absolute meaning and
significance. It is how one reads into it and is very context dependent. It is
also dependent on the user. You really have to know the user to know what the
punctuation means. Of course there are universal punctuations that are understood
by all, like triple exclamation marks and ellipses. But for others, the meaning
must be inferred.
In future, punctuation will be another field of
study in linguistics and literature. I can already see it.
!!!
#english #linguistics #swag #justsaying
#TTFout
*drops microphone on floor*
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