The Ever-Evolving ‘Rules’ of Punctuation
Punctuation is essential for fluid communication in any medium. In this essay, I will discuss why the rules of punctuation are important, what happens when those rules begin to break down, and the use of punctuation in hybrid media such as comics.
Why punctuation is important:
In the well-known writer’s adage: Let’s eat Grandma, the lack of punctuation alters the meaning to cannibalistic consequences. The absence of correct punctuation often dramatically alters the meaning of the text and fails to communicate the intended meaning to the reader. As writers, it is our responsibility to communicate ideas clearly and prevent misunderstanding wherever possible. This mostly manifests in the use of mutual understanding. Dictionary.com (2023) defines punctuation as “the practice or system of using certain conventional marks or characters in writing or printing in order to separate elements and make the meaning clear, as in ending a sentence or separating clauses.” But why are those rules so important and where did they come from?
Punctuation is not a fixed rule set. It is in a state of constant flux as use cases and consensus shifts. (Toner, 2011) Humans are constantly seeking ways to understand one another better and punctuation in written text is evidence of this aspiration to be understood and to communicate. Punctuation began as a means of instructing a speaker when to pause, rest, etc. As literacy improved, punctuation began communicating more than when to start and stop; it began to represent tone.
With the proliferation of novels into the consumer public, spatial punctuation assumed greater importance. To quote (Toner, 2011), “Standard definitions of ‘punctuation’ imply punctuation marks and thus fail to acknowledge much broader systems of punctuating, such as spatial features of the text, including the paragraph.” This broadening of the conceptual understanding of what punctuation can be defined as has extended into the digital realm with the creation of emojis, emoticons and comics where the hybridisation of art and text assumes a new symbiotic form in which the placement and spatial arrangement of panels serve as punctuation.
The Digital Revolution: Changing how we communicate.
With the advent of digital communication such as SMS into daily life and the cost-per-character associated with it, creative solutions to communicating complex ideas began to emerge. These have developed into emojis, emoticons and many other forms of punctuation. In the realm of digital communication, even the absence of punctuation has become a form of punctuation.
When communicating via text-based messaging services, adding a full stop is often perceived as a blunt, insincere or rude end to a sentence, typing in all caps is read as shouty or excited, and the use of emojis as punctuation can dramatically alter the perception of the reader.
Celia Klin, a researcher at Birmingham University, claims that “Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations. When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on.” Because of this, people have begun to invent new social constructs regarding etiquette in these formats.
Texting as a format relies on a limited set of tools for the texter and reader to communicate with and requires pragmatic and relational information to inform comprehension of the intended message. Utilising these tools in texts is highly context-sensitive and hugely impact the perception of the message for the reader.
The use of letter and punctuation repetition in texts creates a fundamental error in technically correct spelling and grammar that creates new meaning. (Darics, 2013) Darics argues that this use of repetition imparts complexity and pragmatically answers an inherent linguistic challenge of the medium: the lack of tone in text.
Another example experienced by many is the use of a period after a single-word reply. “No” says something very different to “No.” when received after saying “Do you wanna come hang tonight?”. One of these indicates a refusal but the other implies a stern and absolute answer. I believe it is this absolutism that creates this perception, as noted by Gretchen McCulloch in an interview with Elizabeth Yuko on May 25, 2021, the Internet Linguist says “The confusion comes when we use periods on single-utterance messages that don’t require periods to perform that function.”. She goes on to say “(a) message that ends with the exclamation mark conveys that the person sending the message is excited about addressing the recipient.” This contributes to the argument that not only is breaking the rules of punctuation necessary but also contributes to the evolution of written language.
Due to the highly conversational nature of text-based messaging, adding punctuation to the end of a message is often perceived as unnecessary because the end of the message is often marked by the end of the ‘bubble’ it appears in. The creation of Textisms such as emoticons, emojis, letter repetition (e.g., sooo), abbreviations, intentional misspellings, nonstandard capitalization, and nonstandard use of punctuation has emerged to serve as extra-linguistic cues. (Kalman and Gergle, 2014) These cues rarely comply with the established rules of punctuation and grammar yet nevertheless increase understanding by the recipient. In these instances, breaking punctuation rules adds clarity, rather than diminishing it.
With the rapidly emerging and shifting social rules around the use of punctuation one could argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new language or dialect altogether, wherein the expected use case for any given character is changed. “It is hard to make a distinction between languages and dialects, even harder than to make a distinction between species and races.” (Crystal, 2007) I argue that the use of punctuation in digital mediums is in fact the emergence of a new dialect, shared by a decentralised community of individuals spontaneously contributing to its development.
Punctuation and pictures: The use of punctuation in comics.
A comic is defined by its high-context symbiosis between art and text. The artwork of a comic is incomplete without the context offered by the text and vice versa, with each serving as a function of punctuation. (Dürrenmatt, 2011). The use of punctuation in comics presents unique challenges for readers and scholars due to the lack of defined use cases for punctuation within comics. Dürrenmatt (2011) and Romero-Jódar, (2013) argue for the establishment of a more robust set of definitions to help categorise the typographical and artistic forms of punctuation in comics.
In Figure 2, McDonnell illustrates the playful nature of punctuation in comics, using the form to satirise the established rules of punctuation and comic formatting. To a Manga reader, however, this comic would appear normal given the reading process is reversed. Because of this, the formatting is both correct and incorrect simultaneously. Manipulating the expected formatting for artistic effect is an area of aggressive innovation in the comic industry, in particular the Manga industry.
In Figure 3 we can see the ‘punctuation’ used in comics to denote a whisper, the broken line speech bubble. This technique is used the world over to communicate whispered dialogue.
There are several terms emerging within the Manga industry that have been gaining traction as definable qualities of punctuation within Manga. Three punctuation marks worthy of discussion as emerging points of classification in the model of Romero- Jódar area Manpu (symbological graphic elements), Fukidashi (speech bubbles) and Gitaigo / Giongo / Giseigo (onomatopoeic graphic elements). (Osmond, 2019)
Manpu are symbols typically communicating sadness, anger, embarrassment or strain and are represented by a series of lines applied to the character or their background. These are contextually sensitive punctuation marks that accentuate the artwork.
Fukidashi are speech bubbles designed to convey mood and volume. These are exceptionally useful for speakers not illustrated within the panel such as off-screen interruptions.
Gitaigo, Giongo and Giseigo are the names of the various types of onomatopoeic words employed in the Japanese language; which has roughly three times as many onomatopoeic words as English. These are often used as secondary punctuation outside of the body text as an artistic element for emphasis or to interrupt an action.
In Figure 4 (Kishimoto, 2003) we can see examples of all three of these punctuation forms. In panels 4 and 6 we can see Naruto’s dialogue in different formats of Fukidashi that immediately communicate internal monologue and volume respectively. In panel 1 the subject is flanked by enormous characters denoting the sound of his actions. In panel 6we can see the Manpu applied to Naruto’s outline accentuating his strain.
In figure 5 we can see an example of spatial punctuation at work. In this double-page spread Kishimoto positions the text around the central figure, the enemy that the protagonist Naruto is fighting. In this panel the art is governed by Japanese aesthetic sensibilities regarding balance and harmony, (Kress, 2006) the text is pushed to the margins resulting in the reader’s engagement with the art first, establishing context for the text that names the action on screen.
The use of emboldened font (overlaying the Japanese characters in the English translation shown) draws the eye after the initial realisation, creating a hierarchy of events. According to Kress (2003) and Dawkins (2003), all writing is governed by a linear logic in which we understand what information is being parsed first to last. Meaning is then attached to this hierarchy of information accordingly. The placement of text on a page within a comic panel offers context to its importance. In placing an element centrally, it is given a higher place within this hierarchy and imparts an inherent semiotic meaning to the reader. (Huang, 2014)
Conclusion:
The conventions of language we call punctuation are essential for organising texts of all forms. They provide a hierarchy of information and organise clauses into ordered structures that convey greater specificity to the reader. Emerging technologies and art forms necessitate the development of new language and tools to categorise these texts and the new forms of punctuation within them. The most major factor in the creation of new punctuation is the need for humans to communicate clearly and effectively with one another for our happiness, prosperity and survival. The proliferation of literacy of these fundamental rules leads to increased competency and collaboration; as well as greater artistic experimentation. The development and contribution of new punctuation techniques born from SMS messaging and comics can be adapted into usage within more traditional prose to produce new texts and ever more complex ideas.
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