Loyal readers,
I have written about emojis (or emoticons) before, and the implications they have for linguistics. Needless to say, as a language convention I find them quite fascinating.
So what’s new in the world of the emoji? There’s been a lot happening recently around the creation of new, more representative and inclusive emojis.
Read this super great web comic/article by Sam Wallman on the legitimacy of Emojis as a form of language.
Published as part of the Wheeler Centre’s ‘Interrobang‘ series – the concept being simply that it was a ‘festival of questions’. Anyone could submit a question and it may be discussed by “the world’s most inquisitive thinkers”. Described as a “feast of frequently unanswered questions” the most controversial, revealing, funny and insightful ideas were chosen.
This question was asked by ‘@toastfor_dinner.’
I was especially fascinated by the quote from Vladimir Nabokov in 1969 regarding the ‘smiley’, as well as what the most used emoji in the world was. A truly interesting discussion, I know I love using emojis to add certain ‘vibes’ to my writing 😉 :P.
Enjoy,
Michelle De Aizpurua
Well how about this – punctuation to denote sarcasm called the snark! What an interesting idea.
[I]t’s one of the coolest, most utilitarian, but least-used punctuation marks around…
The easy-to-write—and type—symbol is simply a period followed by a tilde [.~]. It was created around 2007 by American typographer Choz Cunningham as an end-of-sentence mark that could denote verbal irony in writing. Its intended use is to help readers understand when the meaning of a sentence is actually very different to what the sum of its words seem to mean.
Authors wouldn’t have to write ‘(S)he said sarcastically’ every time, and instead allow for more flow and intuitive recognition of the style of speech. I think we need to spread the use of the snark! Or rather; “this is totally a terrible idea.~” 😛
Read more in the article below 😀
I love to learn new things about linguistics, language can be such fun!
Today I learnt that some dictionaries have recently added the ‘informal, non-literal version of literally’ – where individuals use it as a statement for something that is only figurative. i.e. “It literally blew my head off”.
Read a short article about it here.
It turns out this is called an ‘auto antonym’ – and there are a lot more of them! How interesting.
There is a bit of list on Wiktionary which is lots of fun to read and gasp at. I also noticed one myself while working recently – ‘apparent’. This can mean clear as in ‘for no apparent reason’ or unclear, as in ‘his apparent lack of concern’. It really is a wonder we manage to understand each other sometimes 😉
That’s my musing for the day, please do comment with any linguistic fun facts you know of.
Happy reading!
Michelle De Aizpurua
Miss Library Grrl 