I often see this accomplished with dashed interjections - dashes! can you believe that? - as a way to break up a sentence while still continuing with a single train of thought. But I always support the invention of new punctuation, how long has it been since we got any? We're well overdue.
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
78 points (100.0% liked)
Showerthoughts
33454 readers
483 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Is the interrobang not enough for you‽
¡I love the interrobang! But I feel like we need more than just that. ⸘Would it not be fantastic to know the tone of a sentence from the beginning‽
Also, I believe what OP is looking for is something like this image. Sadly, I can't find a keyboard with them, or a copy/pastable line where they've been typed. 
Would also be useful mixed with the interrobang. The backwards question mark "⸮" is also often used for rhetorical questions. But it's sometimes replaced with ❓because it's easier to type on a phone. ❗Is sometimes used for sarcastic enthusiasm, too, instead of the "official" sarcmark with is apparently copywrited and difficult to parse because it's all swirly and weird, whereas the big red ❗ or ❓ is way more obviously out of place and meant to be noticed, like sarcasm or a rhetorical question.
I can't find a keyboard with them, or a copy/pastable line where they've been typed
Maybe use combining diacritical marks?
I'm using 0x326 (Combining Comma Below), but you may need the CGJ in there to render correctly in all contexts
e.g.
Foo!̦ Bar?̦
Edit: Combining grapheme joiner, not zero width joiner
I'm not techy enough to know if that's something I can do on my android or not. Lol. I never use the laptop for anything other than school.
load more comments
(1 replies)
This is English good sir or madam as the case may be. If you want pre-sentence punctuation you'll have to switch to Spanish or similar. Thank you.
¡Be the change you want to see in the language! We owe ourselves that much, ¿do we not?
I always enjoy a good interrobang before bed
We're both talking about the same thing right?
Writing is as much a form of stylistic expression as any other medium.
¿Perhaps something like this: 
?
Out of all the additions to punctuation I've seen this is the one I find myself needing most often. Interrobangs are easily written as "?!" and even most other ones can be quick fixed with storytelling like "said lovingly", "said with authority" and whatnot.
But "Is that the best, or is it just what we have?" is an absolutely horrible thing to write punctuation for when you mean it as two connected questions like "Is that the best? Or is it just what we have?"
It should obviously be replaced with a question comma. There are so many cases where you also have the question in the middle of the sentence such as "Is that okay (question comma) because I don't think so..."
I've thought the same thing many times. I love interrobang (not least of which for it's kickass name), but the same sentiment can be expressed in other ways. Dialogue can convey the others, but if you want to recreate the way humans actually speak English, you need a mid sentence punctuation, like a comma, that can express questioning. Even in speech, we change our intonation to be higher when questioning, and we do that sometimes in the middle of a sentence. It's just not conveyable perfectly with our current set of symbols.
Exactly this. If you know what a semicolon and question mark/exclamation point's purpose is, then you know how this punctuation works. The best tool is that which requires no manual at all. Occam's Razor, or something along those lines.
¡It's immediately, perfectly understandable! :k
I suggest using a ternary operator. At least 10% of Lemmy users will understand this syntax.
noooo pls don't DRY tun-state-desiccate language with terse-nary cleverness
Please, I'm confused enough about what people younger than 30 are trying to say.
Probably in programming communities ? people will understand : people won't understand
I've occasionally seen the exclamation mark put inside of parentheses. I interpret it as the writer saying to the reader, "are you seeing this shit?"
Anyway, not sure if that's what you're going for here.
load more comments
(5 replies)
They are already invented: 😱 and 😱😱😱
Kinda like this sentence?; because it starts off as a question, but I explain it afterwards with a statement.
I don't really understand what you mean, do you have examples of how you would use it? Or a scenario where you would need it
I’m actually also quite curious
I have been posting examples under other comments
load more comments
(1 replies)
"The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath."
- Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart
Because English needs to be more complex
What we really need is a format option for backwards italics (sartalics) instead of a stupid proprietary font.
Italics
Have you tried handwriting italics? It's not fun.
That's when you underline.
And if you're using software that doesn't support formatting?
You just said you were handwriting.
Emphasis isn't always possible with every utility, but a simple Unicode addition would work well for a variety of software, as well as be easy and readable on paper compared to underlines (especially if there're words below). It's also more accessible if you can't draw straight lines to save your life. Like me.
Switch from block letters to cursive, or vice versa. Or all capitals. Anything that shows a difference.
I daresay this would be a revolutionary addition to grammar;! What say you?
Does this cover what you're asking for, I hope it does?!
I use these often, but it doesn't solve a sentence being split into two distinct tones. A "!?" mark is useful for when you're effectively shouting a question, but it's not the instance I'm referring to.
view more: next ›