Irony mark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Irony mark (؟) (French: point d’ironie) is a punctuation mark that purports to indicate that a sentence should be understood at a second level. It is illustrated by a backward-facing question mark. An irony mark may sometimes be referred to as an irony point, snark or zing. Its usage is extremely rare.
In March 2007, the Dutch Foundation Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book (CPNB) introduced an altogether new irony mark: a thunderbolt-shaped exclamation mark. Its usage has not caught on.
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[edit] History
This mark was proposed by the French poet Alcanter de Brahm (alias Marcel Bernhardt) at the end of the 19th century. It was in turn taken by Hervé Bazin in his book Plumons l’oiseau (1966), in which the author proposes several other innovative punctuation marks, such as the doubt (
), certainty (
), acclamation (
), authority (
), indignation (
) and love (
) marks. It was also featured in the art periodical Point d’ironie by Agnes b. in 1997.
[edit] Examples
- If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular
- I'd give you a taste but your tongue's in the stew
[edit] Usage
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This mark has never really been used beyond occasional appearances in artistic or literary publications. There are several possible explanations for the irony mark’s lack of success as a punctuation mark:
- Marks such as the question mark or the exclamation mark are generally sufficient to indicate irony.
- In some cases a whole text may be ironic, rather than individual sentences. Then it would either be the case that the irony mark cannot be applied to a single sentence or that it would have to be applied to too many sentences.
- Irony is often intended to be misunderstood by a certain proportion of its audience, either to enforce close attention or to create a boundary between those "in the know" and those who miss the point. Explicit use of an irony mark in such a circumstance would defeat the purpose.
Certain emoticons, such as ;-) , have a typographical value that approximates that of the irony mark, and which was indeed the function of many of the first smileys.
[edit] In IT and printing
Although this character has never been officially adopted by typographers, it happens to look the same as the backward question mark (؟) found in Arabic.
[edit] 2007 Dutch Irony Mark
At the occasion of the Dutch Book Week 2007, with its central theme The Praise of Folly, the Dutch Foundation Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book (CPNB) introduced an altogether new irony mark.[1] Its appearance is a thunderbolt-shaped exclamation mark. Three digital fonts with this sign included are available.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Foundation Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book. Nieuw: een leesteken voor ironie
- ^ Foundation Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book. Boekenweek 2007. Nieuw: een leesteken voor ironie
