The Percontation Point

[joreth]

I am bringing back the Percontation Point, which looks like ؟ (a backward question mark) and denotes sarcasm or irony in the sentence. With limited character space and lack of tone, I need all the help I can get telling others when I'm being sarcastic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation

It's kind of amazing how many people got upset at the suggestion of visually labeling online interactions as sarcastic or ironic (I found some message boards while researching the symbol). The most common response is "if you're too stupid to tell I'm not serious, you shouldn't be on the internet".

I'm rather appalled at that attitude. Without tone, and with lots of people reading who don't know the writer personally, I find it incredibly easy to misunderstand irony and sarcasm, and think someone is being serious when they're not.

I went off on someone for being a sexist asshole before he explained he was being sarcastic simply because I had never read that person's name or writing before and had no clue what his personality or viewpoint was. He even used some hashtag code that apparently means "I'm being sarcastic" that I had never heard before and can't remember now.

It would have been nice for both of us if I could tell at a glance that he meant the opposite of what he was saying the way I can tell when I hear or see someone speak.

**EDIT**
I went on a search for a convenient webpage to bookmark that had single character symbols that could be entered into text boxes like Twitter & Facebook status updates, so that I could copy and paste the character, rather than try to remember all the alt codes to do it. I found several good sources, but none of them had the percontation point, even though it is a text character and not an image. So I took the characters from the largest source of special characters, added the percontation point to it, removed the characters that didn't show up or that were duplicates, and uploaded it all as a public Google Doc.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cV6rGtnruVnU5pFwNMEPls318w1c5Pc9chipIHW367M/edit?hl=en_US

Comments

[datan0de.livejournal.com]

I love this idea. Can you use it in a couple of sentences to demonstrate? Does it go at the end of the sentence, or right after the irony? If at the end, is it in addition to "regular" punctuation or instead of it? Ironic grammar Nazi minds want to know!

[the-failed-poet.livejournal.com]

Seconding datan0de's questions about this.

I like the idea of having an irony punctuation.

[joreth]

"This percontation point (؟), later also referred to as a rhetorical question mark, was invented by Henry Denham in the 1580s and was used at the end of a question which does not require an answer--a rhetorical question. Its use died out in the 17th century. It was the reverse of an ordinary question mark, so that instead of the main opening pointing back into the sentence, it opened away from it.[4] This character can be represented using the reversed question mark (؟) found in Unicode as U+2E2E. ...

The irony mark or irony point ( ؟ ) (French: point d’ironie) is a punctuation mark proposed by the French poet Alcanter de Brahm (alias Marcel Bernhardt) at the end of the 19th century used to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level (e.g. irony, sarcasm, etc.). It is illustrated by a small, elevated, backward-facing question mark.[3][5]
It was in turn taken by Hervé Bazin in his book Plumons l’Oiseau ("Let's pluck the bird", 1966), in which the author proposes several other innovative punctuation marks, such as the "doubt point" (), "certitude point" (), "acclamation point" (), "authority point" (), "indignation point" (), and "love point" ()."

So, it would appear you use this at the end of the sentence to indicate that the sentence has "another layer" to it.

If you don't see the punctuation marks and you're reading this on a black background, click on the blank space between the ( ) for each mark. The marks are graphics that are black characters on a transparent background so you'll have to view it on a page that is not black.

[joreth]

Oh, use it in a couple of sentences...

My browser crashed again! I LOVE going through my history to recreate each window with its dozens of tabs؟

Unhappy with your primary's relationship rules? Just ignore them. It's the easy, fun way to show someone what boundaries YOU want!؟

(the !?, btw, is its own punctuation mark, called the interrobang. It's usually one superimposed over the other (‽), but with keyboards, it can be written one after the other too. A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question.
For example:
You did what‽
You're pregnant‽)

I've given up on online communication

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Seen this? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/slejames/shorter-university-bans-g_n_1069153_115918455.html

I posted on FB about it the other day. After that, I've given up hope.

Re: I've given up on online communication

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

Actually, that's not entirely true.
It was the thread a day or so ago about ghost hunting where someone said "Maybe someday science will figure out there're more than 3 dimensions" and I replied "Science has pretty well etsablished that already, TIME is the 4th" and in response I've gotten like a HUNDRED comments mocking science.
*sigh*

NOW I've given up hope.

[corpsefairy.livejournal.com]

"if you're too stupid to tell I'm not serious, you shouldn't be on the internet".

Wow, that's completely backwards. It should be: If the majority of people can't tell you were being ironic, then you need to be a better writer.

[joreth]

No kidding! All the forums (and there were several) that I saw those comments on were members-only, and I didn't want to sign up to forums I had no interest in being a member on just to take them down a peg or two, or I would have actually told them so.

[sumit-mittal.livejournal.com]

Most helpful! Of course, everyone on the internet knows about the percontation point, and will understand whenever I use it!؟

[joreth]

Well played, sir, well played.

[sumit-mittal.livejournal.com]

*bows*

I aim to please!؟

Thanks

[sumit-mittal.livejournal.com]

I keep coming back to this post to copy the percontation point. Lame, I know.

I do read your journal regularly, but don't respond because I usually don't have much to add, or am plain tired after a long day at work to be of any use. So here's a collective "Thanks" for all the informative posts.