This post may be a bit incoherent at times.I recently consulted Wikipedia about interrobangs: should they be ?! or !?. I now realise that 'Interrobang' refers specifically to the informal punctuation mark that is a merge of the two - so not just them next to each other. I cannot imagine why its inventor (Richard Isbell) thought the merge was needed...and it wasn't. Well it didn't catch on anyway.
However, I totally agree that !? and ?! are vital to modern life. Ha. I hate sentences like that!? Or do I?!
This is what Wikipedia says about the merged punctuation mark and the order. It's a bit of a shame because it's what I was going to say but now I can't take credit for it:
"Use of an interrobang may be considered somewhat redundant, considering the same effect is captured in standard English by ending a sentence with both an exclamation point and a question mark, the order of which is determined by whether it is more rhetorical/excited or more interrogative."
A trainer wearing rodeo zebra!? (more rhetorical/excited)
Why does that snail have huge nostrils?! (more interrogative)
By the way, I don't know where I was going with the second paragraph but I've left it there anyway.
I quite like the French 'point exclarrogatif'. Sounds a bit drunk and rambling.
1 comments:
the snail-nostrils question is genius and sums up why its great to be alive!?!.... oh my goodness what does that one mean?
Aran
Post a Comment