From: Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin (antonio@tuvalkin.web.pt)
Date: Tue Sep 06 2005 - 20:07:12 CDT
On 2005.09.06, 02:40, John Hudson <tiro@tiro.com> wrote:
> I'm objecting to is the claim that it is a 'punctuation mark', which
> implies a grammatical function. Insofar as the interrobang confuses the
> two distinct grammatical constructions normally distinguished by the
This argument is for me very unusual. I did have a quite conservative
education in what concerns grammar, and consider myself very severe as a
typesetter (and so I'm told by "graphical artists" I have sometimes the
displeasure to work with), but indeed I never imagined that the semantics
conveyed by "?", "!" and "…" could not be combined.
On the contrary, it is usual (withing "accuracy-obsessed" circles) to
clearly distinguish, say f.i., "!…" from "…!" to mark a sentence where
suspension and emmotion play their parts differently. I understand that
John's argument is language-independent; FWIW, I would (and do) use the
mentioned criteria also in other languages, not only in Portuguese.
OTOH, it could be said that, following _ad absurdum_ John's argument about
"grammaticality", all punctuation is "expressive typography" -- as well as
case-titling, hyphenation and all things noy conveyed in spoken language.
-- ____.
António MARTINS-Tuválkin | ()|
<antonio@tuvalkin.web.pt> |####|
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