this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Interestingly, no punctuation has become a form of punctuation. Ending your statement with no period has the effect of creating a softer landing for the sentence. With a period might come off too hard.

[–] problematicPanther 7 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'm out of the loop on this one. Are you for real?

[–] frunch 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I can't see why they wouldn't be

See how that sentence got that soft landing as opposed to this one that informs you of the nature of the statement it's at the end of? The first one doesn't direct you to get excited or to take the statement as a question, but it also doesn't give the hard ending of a period. It lets the sentence "breathe"

[–] SkyezOpen 3 points 8 months ago

I don't feel like it extends to long(er) form communication. Texting, absolutely.

Hello

is very different from

Hello.

in text. Or lol is "that's funny" and lol period is more "fuck you." Longer things makes punctuation more necessary.

[–] xhieron 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

yea?

this is an informal sentence

This makes it seem like I'm in a professional environment.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm not a professional linguist, but I can confirm. It's about trying to set a tone for your written sentences. We don't use periods when we talk in real life, you know? Adding them to a text makes it read too serious

[–] makeshiftreaper 3 points 8 months ago

Yup, there's a book called "Because Internet" by Gretchen McCulloch that details intergenerational linguistics. Ultimately a lot of the answers boil down to "because internet" thus the name of the book, but it digs into the various causes of linguistic shifts in generations. Interestingly "written" communication has become much more relevant and so people have developed styles, techniques, and quirks to represent themselves. We see trends like young people not ending their sentences with periods, the use of ellipses, capitalization and more

Remember, linguistics is a descriptive science and not prescriptive. You can't control how people communicate but you can observe trends

[–] SpruceBringsteen 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I find myself doing this to telegraph when I'm being sarcastic or facetious.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah there's a massive difference between "haha" and "haha."

[–] SpruceBringsteen 1 points 8 months ago

Or ROFLCOPTER

vs

roflcopter