Peculiar Punctuation

By Frostcat · Mar 25, 2011 · ·
  1. Let me start by saying that I'm certainly no master of grammar. I attempt to write in what I believe sounds appropriate. Occasionally I end up with run on sentences, and I'm not very good with hyphenating words that don't need them.

    Recently I came across some obscure punctuation; The Interrobang, Ironicon and Sarcomark. While I question the usefulness of the Interrobang, a combination of a Question Mark and an Exclamation Point, the others are interesting.

    The Ironicon is used to express that a statement should be taken at a second level (irony, sarcasm, rhetorical questions). While this, obviously, isn't strictly necessary in the English language, I could see it's usefulness.

    The Sarcomark, as far as I'm aware, is strictly used to indicate sarcasm.

    I'm torn on the matter of obscure punctuation.

    Obviously, with some extra clarification, these marks are completely unnecessary. Simply attaching a description of your characters actions or expressions, or even secondary piece of speech, would easily explain what you're conveying.

    On the other hand, should we have to do that? I've always believed that the rules of English are there for two reasons. A formal set of rules gives a set middle-ground to which we can all arrive, the mode of speech clearly laid out. Additionally, when one is figuring out how to express something, set rules give a clear picture of how it can be said appropriately!

    Playing devil's advocate, as I'm wont to do, I sometimes wonder if the rules are always necessary. In my mind, it seems arbitrary that I should have to add an extra line or two (perhaps more) to my dialogue just to explain that my character is being sarcastic. A Sarcomark would, if regularly used and accepted, express the characters sarcasm without more added words.

    Verbosity, to me, is not a virtue. Surprising, considering my personal tendency towards being overly verbose in my speech. I do try, however, to stray from being unnecessarily verbose, especially when writing. Sarcomarks, Interrobangs and Ironicons would have given us useful tools if they had entered the mainstream.

Comments

  1. Bay K.
    Ok, so the Interrobang is a combo of ? and ! --?!
    But what do Ironicons and Sarcomarks look like, symbol-wise?
  2. Still Life
    I've always believed that the rules of English are there for one reason: For us to find creative ways to break them. But your reasons seem good as well. :)

    However, I just can't help feeling that the Sarcomark seems blatantly unncessary within the context of writing fiction. And - well - just not fun if everyone gets it.

    If you're writing fiction and you set up a scene and do it well, the sarcasm should be obvious without your having to provide additional explanation. I think that's what separates writing and writing as a craft.
  3. Arathald
    The ironican looks like a backwards question mark: ؟
    The sarcomark (sarcmak?) appears to be a clockwise spiral ending with a dot in the middle.

    The interrobang I think is marginally useful, although it's better to use a question mark and figure out another way to get the emphasis across.

    The ironicon looks to be a widely accepted, but little-known punctuation mark. I think it could be used properly if done in a very tounge-in-cheek manner, and I think you would have to explain its usage to your readers (I think, for example, Jasper Fforde could get away with using it, especially in his "Thursday Next" series). If it started becoming widely-known, I think you could justify using it if it helped keep a passage from becoming overly wordy.

    The sarcomark (sarcmark?) looks to be the invention of a company trying to sell software to make your computer support it. I would never in a million years use it. I think this article sums it up nicely: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/20/rise-of-the-sarcmark
  4. Frostcat
    I had thought that the sarcomark was an extension of the percontation point invented in the 1580's. Perhaps I was mistaken.
  5. Arathald
    It could be. I couldn't find any reference to the sarcomark with that specific spelling, though Wikipedia redirects that spelling to the irony mark (the backwards question mark). Doing a general search for it shows nothing useful. It could be that the sarcomark was something legitimate of its own at some point in the past, then the sarcmark thing was intended to sound like it?

    I actually think it would be really interesting to use the ironicon or any of the lesser-known punctuations à la Jasper Fforde. It certainly wouldn't fit into the style of my current novel, though. [Edit: hmm... I already said that, didn't I?]
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