ISSN: 2534-5192 (electronic) – 2681-8566 (print)


◀ I. WachendorffProceedingsJ. Bergerhausen & T. Huot-Marchand ▶



ISBN: 978-2-9570549-6-1
e-ISBN: 978-2-9570549-8-5

Download (17.11 MB)

Between the Words. Emotional Punctuation in the Digital Age Communication
Olga Kulish ORCID iD icon
Download (10.92 MB)

Abstract. A hidden, yet very important part of the written language is punctuation. Traditionally, punctuation is primarily used for grammatical purposes, serving to structure a written text. On the other hand, a variety of previously unseen options for using punctuation nowadays give it a new role and a separate meaning, different from what we previously knew. More specifically, an important aspect of using punctuation in digital communication is the tendency to use it as a way of expressing personal emotions and non-verbal signals, similar to facial expressions and gestures in live, face-to-face communication, that are typically not possible to convey otherwise. This article aims to analyze different contemporary ways of using punctuation in the areas of graphic design and digital communication. In particular, the study looks into novel, unconventional punctuation marks, as well as their possible combinations. As a practical contribution, this study also presents a collection of novel signs created by peer students and colleagues, which were combined and assembled into a common system. Each sign represents a specific human emotion, a mood, or a state of mind, and provides written text with a new meaning and/or different phonation. This project is rather an experiment, but despite its seemingly informal and casual nature, it reflects the existing tendencies in modern digital communication.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36824/2020-graf-kuli


Apollinaire, Guillaume (1918). Calligrammes: poémes de la paix et da la guerre, 1913–1916. Paris: Mercure de France.

Bazin, Hervé (1966). Plumons l’oiseau. Paris: Grasset.

Bohatsch, Walter (2018). Typojis: A Few More Glyphs. Mainz: Verlag Hermann Schmidt.

Brahm, Alcanter de (1899). L’ostensoir des Ironies. Paris: Bibliothèque d’art de ńLa Critiqueż.

De Brahm, Alcanter (2018). L’ostensoir des Ironies, Vol. 3 of 3: Essai de Métacritique; Les Étapes de la Pensée Et le Sens de la Vie (Classic Reprint). London: Forgotten Books.

Feliz, Un Mundo (2015). Patriotism(o) / Arial Symbol. url: http://unmundofeliz2.blogspot.com/2015/10/el-patriotismo-arail-symbol.html.

Frutiger, Adrian (1989). Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning. New York: Watson-Guptill.

Gudehus, Juli (1997). Genesis. Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers.

Gunraj, Danielle N et al. (2016). “Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging.” In: Computers in Human Behavior 55, pp. 1067–1075.

Hadley, Paul (1948). “Keyboard Art.” In: Popular Mechanics 10, p. 181.

Houston, Keith (2013). Shady characters: The secret life of punctuation, symbols, and other typographical marks. New York: WW Norton & Company.

Jiménez, M. Sonia Diaz, J. Gabriel Martinez García, and Isabel M. García Fernández (2011). “Bastard Pop Design, Visual Remix and Mashup (by Un Mundo Feliz).” In: Design History Society Conference. Design activism and social change.

Jobard, Jean Baptiste Ambroise Marcellin (1842). Industrie française: rapport sur l’exposition de 1839. Vol. 2. Paris: Mathias.

Lupton, Ellen and Abbott Miller (1999). Design, Writing, Recearch. London: Phaidon Press.

Parkes, Malcolm Beckwith (2016). Pause and effect: An introduction to the history of punctuation in the West. London: Routledge.

Ruan, Li (2011). “Meaningful Signs—Emoticons.” In: Theory and Practice in Language Studies 1.1, pp. 91–94.

Smith, Jacob (2015). The Sarcmark. url: https://jacobsmithdesign.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/the-sarcmark/.

Stewart, Brian M. (2015). Innovative Punctuation for Innovative Legal Writing‽. url: https://perma.cc/CN5L-DFBT.

“Typographical Art” (1881). In: Puck Magazine 212, p. 65.

Vernooij, Dennis (2018). Vive la différence: Language activists are trying to make French gender-neutral. url: https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/05/17/language-activists-are-trying-to-make-french-gender-neutral.

Xu, Bing (2014). Book from the ground: from point to point. Boston: MIT Press.

Yevstifeyev, Mykyta and Karl Pentzlin (2012). Revised preliminary proposal to encode six punctuation characters introduced by Hervé Bazin in the UCS. Working Group Document. International Organization for Standardization.

Zong, Jonathan (2015). Proposed Punctuation: The Typographic Apocrypha of Hervé Bazin. url: http://jonathanzong.github.io/proposed-punctuation/.

@BOOK{apollinaire1918calligrammes,
   AUTHOR = {Apollinaire, Guillaume},
   TITLE = {{Calligrammes: po\'emes de la paix et da la guerre, 1913--1916}},
   PUBLISHER = {Mercure de France},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1918},
}

@BOOK{bazin1966plumons,
   AUTHOR = {Bazin, Hervé},
   TITLE = {Plumons l'oiseau},
   PUBLISHER = {Grasset},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1966},
}

@BOOK{bohatsch2018typojis,
   AUTHOR = {Bohatsch, Walter},
   TITLE = {{Typojis: A Few More Glyphs}},
   PUBLISHER = {Verlag Hermann Schmidt},
   ADDRESS = {Mainz},
   YEAR = {2018},
}

@BOOK{debrahm1890lostensoir,
   AUTHOR = {de Brahm, Alcanter},
   TITLE = {{L'ostensoir des Ironies}},
   PUBLISHER = {Bibliothèque d'art de «La Critique»},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1899},
}

@BOOK{de2018ostensoir,
   AUTHOR = {De Brahm, Alcanter},
   TITLE = {{L'ostensoir des Ironies, Vol. 3 of 3: Essai de Métacritique; Les {\'E}tapes de la Pensée Et le Sens de la Vie (Classic Reprint)}},
   PUBLISHER = {Forgotten Books},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2018},
}

@MISC{feliz2015arial,
   AUTHOR = {Un Mundo Feliz},
   TITLE = {{Patriotism(o) / Arial Symbol}},
   YEAR = {2015},
   URL = {http://unmundofeliz2.blogspot.com/2015/10/el-patriotismo-arail-symbol.html},
}

@BOOK{frutiger1989signs,
   AUTHOR = {Frutiger, Adrian},
   TITLE = {{Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning}},
   PUBLISHER = {Watson-Guptill},
   ADDRESS = {New York},
   YEAR = {1989},
}

@BOOK{gudehus1997genesis,
   AUTHOR = {Gudehus, Juli},
   TITLE = {Genesis},
   PUBLISHER = {Lars Müller Publishers},
   ADDRESS = {Zurich},
   YEAR = {1997},
}

@ARTICLE{gunraj2016texting,
   AUTHOR = {Gunraj, Danielle N and Drumm-Hewitt, April M and Dashow, Erica M and Upadhyay, Sri Siddhi N and Klin, Celia M},
   TITLE = {{Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging}},
   JOURNAL = {Computers in Human Behavior},
   PUBLISHER = {Elsevier},
   YEAR = {2016},
   VOLUME = {55},
   PAGES = {1067--1075},
}

@ARTICLE{hadley1948ascii,
   AUTHOR = {Hadley, Paul},
   TITLE = {{Keyboard Art}},
   JOURNAL = {Popular Mechanics},
   YEAR = {1948},
   VOLUME = {10},
   PAGES = {181},
}

@BOOK{houston2013shady,
   AUTHOR = {Houston, Keith},
   TITLE = {{Shady characters: The secret life of punctuation, symbols, and other typographical marks}},
   PUBLISHER = {WW Norton \& Company},
   ADDRESS = {New York},
   YEAR = {2013},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{garcia2011bastard,
   AUTHOR = {Jiménez, M.~Sonia Diaz and Garc{\'i}a, J.~Gabriel Martinez and Fern{\'a}ndez, Isabel M.~Garc{\'i}a},
   TITLE = {{Bastard Pop Design, Visual Remix and Mashup (by Un Mundo Feliz)}},
   BOOKTITLE = {Design History Society Conference. Design activism and social change},
   YEAR = {2011},
}

@BOOK{jobard1842industrie,
   AUTHOR = {Jobard, Jean Baptiste Ambroise Marcellin},
   TITLE = {{Industrie française: rapport sur l'exposition de 1839}},
   PUBLISHER = {Mathias},
   ADDRESS = {Paris},
   YEAR = {1842},
   VOLUME = {2},
}

@BOOK{cheng2006designing,
   AUTHOR = {Lupton, Ellen and Miller, Abbott},
   TITLE = {Design, Writing, Recearch},
   PUBLISHER = {Phaidon Press},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {1999},
}

@BOOK{parkes2016pause,
   AUTHOR = {Parkes, Malcolm Beckwith},
   TITLE = {Pause and effect: An introduction to the history of punctuation in the West},
   PUBLISHER = {Routledge},
   ADDRESS = {London},
   YEAR = {2016},
}

@ARTICLE{ruan2011meaningful,
   AUTHOR = {Ruan, Li},
   TITLE = {Meaningful Signs—Emoticons},
   JOURNAL = {Theory and Practice in Language Studies},
   YEAR = {2011},
   VOLUME = {1},
   NUMBER = {1},
   PAGES = {91--94},
}

@MISC{smith2015sarcmark,
   AUTHOR = {Smith, Jacob},
   TITLE = {{The Sarcmark}},
   YEAR = {2015},
   URL = {https://jacobsmithdesign.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/the-sarcmark/},
}

@MISC{stewart2015innovative,
   AUTHOR = {Stewart, Brian M.},
   TITLE = {{Innovative Punctuation for Innovative Legal Writing‽}},
   YEAR = {2015},
   URL = {https://perma.cc/CN5L-DFBT},
}

@ARTICLE{puck1881typo,
   TITLE = {{Typographical Art}},
   JOURNAL = {Puck Magazine},
   YEAR = {1881},
   VOLUME = {212},
   PAGES = {65},
}

@MISC{vernooij2018vive,
   AUTHOR = {Vernooij, Dennis},
   TITLE = {{Vive la différence: Language activists are trying to make French gender-neutral}},
   YEAR = {2018},
   URL = {https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/05/17/language-activists-are-trying-to-make-french-gender-neutral},
}

@BOOK{xu2014book,
   AUTHOR = {Xu, Bing},
   TITLE = {Book from the ground: from point to point},
   PUBLISHER = {MIT Press},
   ADDRESS = {Boston},
   YEAR = {2014},
}

@TECHREPORT{yevstifeyev2012revised,
   AUTHOR = {Yevstifeyev, Mykyta and Pentzlin, Karl},
   TITLE = {{Revised preliminary proposal to encode six punctuation characters introduced by Hervé Bazin in the UCS}},
   TYPE = {Working Group Document},
   YEAR = {2012},
}

@MISC{zong2015proposed,
   AUTHOR = {Zong, Jonathan},
   TITLE = {{Proposed Punctuation: The Typographic Apocrypha of Hervé Bazin}},
   YEAR = {2015},
   URL = {http://jonathanzong.github.io/proposed-punctuation/},
}


Olga Kulish (2020), “Between the Words. Emotional Punctuation in the Digital Age Communication,” in Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Grapholinguistics and Its Applications, Vol. 4, Brest: Fluxus Editions, 417–438.


@INPROCEEDINGS{gla4-kuli,
   AUTHOR = {Olga Kulish},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{Between the Words. Emotional Punctuation in the Digital Age Communication}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020}},
   SERIES = {{Grapholinguistics and Its Applications}},
   VOLUME = {4},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
   ADDRESS = {Brest},
   YEAR = {2020},
   PAGES = {417--438},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2020-graf-kuli},
}