the understatement point. It is at the beginning of sentences and looks like an upside down exclamation point. It means the sentence should be read, mentally that is, sotto voce, as if it does not matter, but really it does.
the disclaimer mark. It looks like a squiggly verticle line. It comes after subordinate clauses and it means the author seriously doubts his or her own logic. For example
If the President continues his current fiscal line (DP) then we will all end up with microchips in our right arms.
This allows the writer greater leeway and undermines opponents. Could also be called, affectionately, the humility mark.
What punctuation marks do you feel are currently unavailable and this is sinful?
The sarcasm mark. No one ever gets when you’re being sarcastic on a message board - and one can never find the exact smiley to represent the fact.
AND
a rhetorical question mark. Not for me to use - but for other people so I can tell when it is that they don’t actually want an answer to the question they are asking.
I think my last declarative sentence pretty much demanded a full stop. On the other hand I think ‘full stop’ is just fine without the hyphen. On the last, third hand…this thread was meant to be fun and silly. So I don’t care if, for example, your last sentence implies that our inability to use existing punctuation correctly is caused by your being asked about it.
On the declarative, techinically speaking this would be right, but if you’re going to make inflammatory accusations about my hypothetical wife I’m going to want to see the evidence forthwith.
On the hyphen, you’re absolutely right.
On the thread, I quite accept your point, but I’m just in a particularly cheeky mood this evening so thought I’d be a contrary shit…
I frequently find myself failing to finish my sentences in the real world and wonder whether the deployment of too many ellipses has spilled over into some strange Lewis Carroll-esque waking nightmare.
Either that, or the Alzheimer’s is setting in really early…
To be honest, Pav, I’m really not in favour of any kind of grammatical shortcut (other than shortening your username in order to develop a friendly tone, obviously); if you can say something three different ways, you really ought to be doing so all at once.
