eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)

QotD

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:26am on 2008-05-17

From a conversation regarding the reasons some people use multiple question marks (locked entry, May 2008, quoted with the permission of each speaker):

[info] hematopoetic:  

Why???????????????
is the equivalent of
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Would you rather people use lots of extra letters?

 

[info] sabotabby:   Well, if they must. The extra letters mimic the sound, while the extra punctuation marks do nothing.

 

[info] marnanel:   I see them as wild hopeless gesticulations of increasing despair.

 

[info] beeblefish:  

See, I also see them as this, but there is a matter of degree, and the combination ?! need mentioning [too].

For example:

wtf? -- a question as to what, indeed, the fuck is going on

wtf?? -- a question, but with added confussion

wtf?! -- a question, but with some anger behind, maybe incredulity

wtf!? -- similar, but with anger in the front seat maybe, this might also be bad form, I'll have to ask Lynn Truss...

wtf??!! -- this is, I think, total exasperation, bewilderment and probably also a lot of disappointment.

(anything beyond this, of course, and the person needs to be shot...)

[When I saw "wild hopeless gesticulations of increasing despair," I knew I needed to quote the thread.]

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