From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Wed Sep 07 2005 - 00:52:30 CDT
Gregg Reynolds wrote:
> Punctuation marks have never been "grammatical". I don't even know what
> "relates directly to the nuts and bolts of a basic linguistic activity"
> means.
I paused several times when writing that particular sentence, worrying about the use of
the word linguistic, and unsure of the best terminology to express my sense of the
relationship between punctuation as a subclass of typographical marks and how I compose
ordered thoughts in language. Now, Gregg, you have provided me with a better term, and I
can rephrase my view of punctuation as relating directly to the nuts and bolts of a basic
*rhetorical* activity that has to do with the structuring of ideas in language. My
objection to the interrobang remains that it ambiguates that which the independent
question mark and exclamation marks expressly disambiguate. But perhaps this amounts to my
saying that not making clear whether an utterance is a question or an exclamation is poor
rhetoric.
John Hudson
-- Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com Currently reading: October ferry to Gabriola, by Malcolm Lowry A fork in the road, by Anik See
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