The interrobang and me

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. I’ve previously written that ‘The older I get, the less I know. Or maybe…the more I don't know’ [1]. This applies to literally everything – including the English language. In three days time I’ll be 63¾ years old. You’d think in that not inconsiderable time I’d have learnt all there is to learn about my mother tongue. Maybe not its words and grammar, but at least its punctuation marks. Conventionally it has 14 punctuation marks [2, 3]. I thought 14’s all there were. Until last week when in her weekly podcast [4] Grammar Girl dropped what to me felt like a bombshell. (A figurative one, anyway). A fifteenth. Indeed a combination of two of the 14, i.e. an exclamation mark and a question mark superimposed over each other. It signifies the simultaneous meaning of both, i.e. an interrogative exclamation mark, or an exclamatory question mark. Its name? Interrobang (or interabang). Grammar Girl says that you shouldn’t use the interrobang in formal writing, but it’s suited for blogs and other informal communication. She adds that you can insert an interrobang as a special character from the ‘Wingdings 2’ font in your word processing program. And she provides unicode values for adding the interrobang to your website. So there you have it. Not for the first [5] but for the second time, I’ve devoted a Sunday Farmdoc’s Blog post to something Grammar Girl’s taught me. Given my venerable age, how positive and optimistic is that.

An old dog learns a new word

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. Without wanting to blow my own trumpet, I think I know a fair bit about the English language. Including its idiocyncrasies and grammatical nuances. I’ve read Don Watson’s books [1] Weasel Words and Death Sentence [2]’ also Lyn Truss’s book Eats, Shoots and Leaves [2]. I own a copy (albeit superseded) of the Australian Government’s Style Manual [3]. I frequently consult my 2,129-page copy of Webster’s Dictionary. I have a dictionary and thesaurus on my iPod Touch. I listen to the podcasts and receive email bulletins from Grammar Girl (pictured) [4]. I often discuss grammar with Sweetheart Vivienne. And we frequently tackle crosswords. So last Thursday I was nonplussed by this email from my darling sister Sue [5]. Paraprosdokian sentences? Never heard of them. A quick google search [6] revealed much. Coming from the Greek words meaning ‘beyond expectation’ [7], a paraprosdokian’s exactly as Sue’s email defines it. I’ve heard many of them in my lifetime; but until last Thursday I didn’t know their category name. Of course I should’ve been more humble about my knowledge of English. Indeed the more I know, the more humble I should be, e.g. Wikipedia says some paraprosdokians create a syllepsis [8] – also known as a symantic zeugma [9]. Yikes. At least I know more about English now than I did last Wednesday. A positive and optimistic notion? Sure.
P.S. h/t darling sister Sue.

The Ig Nobels: Making people laugh and then think

Today’s ‘Positive and Optimistic Sunday’. My mother language’s English. I feel profound sympathy for everyone trying to learn English as a second (or subsequent) language. For them, English’s grammatical and constructional idiosyncrasies must be hugely frustrating. An example? The opposite of ‘noble’. It’s ‘ignoble’. I can’t find any other word which converts to its antonym via the prefix ‘ig’. If you want to parody the Nobel Prizes, what would you name the parody prizes? The Ig Nobel Prizes, of course [1]. Ig Nobels are awarded in early October each year by the humorous journal Annals of Improbable Research [2]. The Ig Nobels were inaugurated in 1991 – at that time for discoveries ‘that cannot, or should not, be reproduced’. Ten prizes are awarded each year, in the five Nobel categories (i.e. physics, chemistry, physiology/ medicine, literature and peace) plus others. The Ig Nobels are for genuine achievements ‘that first make people laugh, and then make them think’. The 2010 Ig Nobels were announced last week [3]. The range of its Prize topics is astounding. And wondrous. Every Ig Nobel winner from 1991 to 2010 is here [4]. And I must congratulate Andre Geim [5] who won an Ig Nobel in 2000 and a Nobel in 2010 [6]. Finally I love it that the Ig Nobel ceremony, held at Harvard each year, ends with the admonition: ‘If you didn’t win a prize – and especially if you did – better luck next year!’