A Good Point from the Boyfriend
You know, English punctuation is really lacking. You have your choice of
a period, which sounds very flat (as in the case email here),
or an exclamation point, which communicates an enthusiasm a hair shy of
crazed. If only there were something in between.
I think I'm going to start using "^" to end a sentence when I want to
express tempered enthusiasm. Want to start a trend with me? ;-)
Love you^
posted by kStyle @ 3:55 PM
1 Comments:
I must politely disagree with the good Boyfriend. I marvel, actually, at the immense possibilities of just the basic period, comma, question mark, and exclamation point (I omit the semicolon, colon, and dash for their rampant overuse). A period sounds flat if it's used flatly, an exclamation point crazed if that's its context.
To me, the claim that the marks' possibilities are finite is akin to saying that there should be more than 26 letters, or that there aren't enough words. In different contexts, with shadings provided by the words they're used with, and by the rhythms of the sentences in which they're contained, the basic marks' possibilities are actually limitless, I think. It's just a matter of making them do what you want.
Semi-related note: the new Harry Potter book contains a sentence that has two dashes, two colons, and two semicolons. The horror. The clunkiness! I shudder.
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