From: le@main.lekno.ws   
      
   Louis Epstein  wrote:   
   > bryan_styble  wrote:   
   >> Thantks for your prompt response, Adam.   
   >>   
   >> With over four decades in print and broadcsat journalism, I'm well   
   >> acquainted with how to quote sufficiently yet not excessively (much less   
   >> redundantly)...but those greater-than math symbols are decidedly NOT   
   >> punctuation.  Rather (as I touched on above), they are symbology   
   >> carelessly borrowed from mathematics, and thus HAVE no name, at least as   
   >> punctuation marks.  (I've heard them called "angle brackets" when used   
   >> in an internet-posting context, but I'm not sure that term has reached   
   >> currency.)   
   >>   
   >> Whereas all the various familiar TRUE punctuation marks DO have their   
   >> proper names.  But again, the digital wizards stole a bunch of them them   
   >> for their own semi-illiterate purposes, and added wrong and sometimes   
   >> even nulgar names for them.  The niumber-one example of this, of course,   
   >> is "dot".  No, internet companies are NOT "dot-coms"!  Rather, they're   
   >> "point-coms".  (I've talked to many cyber engineers about this, and   
   >> EVERY single one, once alerted to this, says "Yeah, you're right--that   
   >> "dot" in URLs are DECIMAL points!"   
   >   
   > "dot" is correct for Morse code...I can see "period" employed,though   
   > I dislike the use of the Britishism "full stop" for that particular   
   > mark rather than of the general class of punctuation marks that end   
   > sentences,which includes exclamation points and question marks.   
   >   
   > I do recall someone's effort at indirectly explaining an email address   
   > without stating it in an automatically harvestable form where the "@"   
   > was expressed as "(price per unit)" and the "." before the TLD as   
   > "(end of sentence)".   
   >   
   >> (I shan't cite any other cases in the interest of politiness except this   
   >> one:    What early on in the digital era they dubbed it the "slash",   
   >> even though grammarians know it well and properly as the virgule.   
   >> (Despite some (un)successful research, I've not yet been able to learn   
   >> the proper term for what those digital guys choose to call a   
   >> "backslash".)   
   >>   
   >> Meanwhile, what they so inelgantly call a "hashtag" is actually named   
   >> the octothorpe (though not all sources classify it as punctuation per   
   >> se).   
   >   
   > The "number" mark to me,the "pound sign" to others.   
   >   
   >> And what these semi-literate types PERSIST in SO obnoxiously calling   
   >> "three dots" (or even more harshly on the ear, just "dot dot dot")--EGAD   
   >> how I detest the sound of either!--in fact has TWO quite distinct names,   
   >> depending on their function AND placement.   
   >>   
   >> When they reside in the middle of a sentence or quote, as you know, they   
   >> function as either (1) signifying words omitted for some reason or (2) a   
   >> pregnant pause, and in both such cases are termed an "ellipsis" in the   
   >> singular or "ellipses" in plural.  As it happens, that mark came up in   
   >> an unanswered Jeopardy! clue JUST LAST EVE, Adam!  Quite serendipitous,   
   >> no?   
   >>   
   >> (Meanwhile, I sure wish "ellipsis" would have been a $2000 clue on the   
   >> Double Jeop! board when Final Jeop! loser Styble--I was winning most of   
   >> my match, but sadly for my bank account met my Waterloo in Final (whose   
   >> correct response included Iowa, but just the state name, not Waterloo,   
   >> Iowa)--was doing my pinstripe-suited best that fateful day behind the   
   >> center lectern.*  (Actually, there WERE no $2000 clues back in 1985;   
   >> that first Trebek season when I was on, the DJ board maxed out with   
   >> paltry $1000 clues.)   
   >   
   > I don't think I've watched since they topped at $600.   
   >   
   >> But back to lesser-known punctuation:   
   >>   
   >> Those three POINTS--they most assuredly are NOT "dots", no matter WHAT   
   >> the San Fran Bay Area brainiacs say--however are NOT called ellipses   
   >> when appended to the END of a sentence, such as, "Gee, sometimes I   
   >> wonder if I'll EVER find love..."; in THAT usage, that punctuation is   
   >> called "suspension points".   
   >   
   > I'd never seen that grammatically...sounds to me like an engineering   
   > term.   
   >   
   >> (Merriam-Webster's wonderful--it's the Styble Bible!--Collegiate "'Big   
   >> Red Book" dictionary has a thorough punctuation explication near the   
   >> back of the tome, plus an amazingly-informative, lengthy history of the   
   >> English language (from the early Middle Ages right up to our era) up   
   >> front before all the A-words start getting defined and grammatically   
   >> categorized...but Adam, I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person who   
   >> has bothered read, much less actually ABSORB, either!   
   >   
   > I have several Collegiate editions...but is this then   
   > omitted from their unabridged "New International"?   
   >   
   >> I mean, it's hard enough to get most people to take the trouble to look   
   >> up, say, whether, the adjective "infelicitous" has two Ls or just one.   
   >> (Yeah, yeah, I know:  nobody but insufferable guys like me and George   
   >> Will--from whom I learned it one Sunday morning circa 1985 on "The Week   
   >> with David Brinkley", not incidentally--even USE that word, so why worry   
   >> about HOW many Ls are in it?!  (Great place for an interrobang,   
   >> agreed?)   
   >>   
   >> Oh, so sorry--many folks aren't acquainted with that most exotic of all   
   >> punctation:   
   >>   
   >> It so happens, the interrobang is my fave punctuation mark, Adam.  Alas,   
   >> it never much caught on during the last period in which some printers   
   >> were trying to introduce it into textual currency--the mid-'60s, when   
   >> Esquire magazine awarded it a Dubious Achievement Award as Worst New   
   >> Punctuation Mark of 1966)--though I believe it actually dates to the   
   >> second decade (or so) of the 20th Century.   
   >>   
   >> Indeed, precious few folks anymore use it besides me--and I only use it   
   >> in hand-written communication, and only rarely because so few sentences   
   >> call for it.  But it DOES save a printer's space--something Louis   
   >> Epstein will surely appreciate--whenever employed to conclude an   
   >> exclamatory question, such as "What on earth are you doing at my front   
   >> door today, after we broke up once and for all just last night?!"   
   >>   
   >> As I'm sure you've figured out, an interrobang (properly formed or   
   >> inscribed) is an exclamation point superimposed over a question mark.   
   >> Most computer keyboards CAN generate them, but ONLY via some   
   >> alternative-setup function, and I've never figured out how to do that on   
   >> this or any of my previous computers.  Meanwhile, my wonderful Corona   
   >> electric--remember typewriters?--can easily fake one, by first typing a   
   >> question mark, and then backspacing once and just striking an   
   >> exclamation point over it.  (How nifty is THAT?!)   
   >   
   > Personally,I prefer the (distinct in meaning) uses of "!?" and "?!"   
   > with no superimpositions involved (they have a place in chess   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)