Do we need a punctuation mark to denote irony or sarcasm? John Wilkins, bishop of Chester, founder of the Royal Society and polymath, thought so, and in An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, proposed use of the inverted question mark (¿) as such. That was in 1688. In 2014, Firefly actor and sometime grammarian Nathan Fillion revived Wilkins proposal, and the result is that use of the ¿ to indicate sarcasm has become a minor sensation on social media. It takes copy-pasting the inverted question mark, using alt 0191 (or other numbers) on a number pad or conversion to a Spanish-language keyboard. Would you use it? Enquiring minds want to know, so to speak.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 09:18:36 +0000
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