Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here. Not too long ago, exclamation
Speaker 1: points were scorned as silly punctuation marks, largely employed by
Speaker 1: excited teenage girls or inexperienced novelists otherwise having trouble conveying emotions.
Speaker 1: But today exclamation points are everywhere. Just check your email,
Speaker 1: text messages, or social media accounts. Exclamation points abound. What
Speaker 1: accounts for this explosion and is it a good thing?
Speaker 1: No one knows for sure who invented the exclamation mark,
Speaker 1: although it was introduced into English as far back as
Speaker 1: the late fourteenth century, whereupon it was poetically called the
Speaker 1: point of admiration. One common theory is that it was
Speaker 1: derived from the Latin exclamation of joy, which was EO,
Speaker 1: with the E written above the oh. The look of
Speaker 1: today's exclamation point. Dr Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth century lexicographer,
Speaker 1: was the person who coined the word exclamation for sentences
Speaker 1: that were pathetical meaningful of emotion. Grammatically speaking, an exclamation
Speaker 1: point is supposed to be used in just one of
Speaker 1: two ways to punctuate an exclamatory sentence I can't find
Speaker 1: my wallet, or to punctuate an interjection hooray. While exclamation
Speaker 1: marks have long been scorned in formal writing, throughout the centuries,
Speaker 1: people regularly used them in personal correspondence, and in the
Speaker 1: late nineteenth century, tabloid journalists and sensationalists often incorporated the
Speaker 1: startling marks, which printers called screamers, shrieks, or bangs. During
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, use the exclamation point calmed down. In fact,
Speaker 1: while the typewriter was invented in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: the exclamation point wasn't given its own key until nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: the reason being that people weren't expected to use it.
Speaker 1: In professional writing, an exclamation point could be created by
Speaker 1: typing a period backspacing and then to hyping an apostrophe
Speaker 1: on top of it. But around the end of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, when the Internet and texting became widespread, followed
Speaker 1: by social media a decade later, exclamation points began popping
Speaker 1: up everywhere and in great numbers. Experts say the reason
Speaker 1: for the increase is that people began communicating predominantly through
Speaker 1: electronic means versus personal encounters. When we speak with people
Speaker 1: face to face, we use visual and audio cues to
Speaker 1: help determine the meaning behind their words. Think of the
Speaker 1: difference when someone says great idea with sincerity and a
Speaker 1: smile versus great idea with sarcasm and an eye roll.
Speaker 1: When these cues are lost, as happens during text based
Speaker 1: electronic communication, something else must be used to help determine intent,
Speaker 1: like the exclamation point. Linguist Gretchen Maccolic noted in an
Speaker 1: article in the Atlantic that the exclamation point today is
Speaker 1: used as a sincerity marker, not an intensity marker. She said,
Speaker 1: if I end an email with thanks exclamation point, I'm
Speaker 1: not shouting or being particularly enthusiastic. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: convey that I'm sincerely thankful, and I'm saying it with
Speaker 1: a bit of a social smile. This is especially true
Speaker 1: for women. Research shows women use exclamation marks more than
Speaker 1: men in online communications, ostensibly to demonstrate friendliness, leave one off,
Speaker 1: and message recipients may view a female writer as rude, cold,
Speaker 1: or harsh. We spoke with Rachel George, and assistant professor
Speaker 1: at Washington's Whitman College who teaches courses in linguistic anthropology.
Speaker 1: She says the rise in the usage and possible overusage
Speaker 1: of the exclamation point isn't surprising because all punctuation is
Speaker 1: flexible when it comes to social media, and being grammatically
Speaker 1: correct can't always get your whole point across, she said.
Speaker 1: Because of the way electronic communication represents a combination of
Speaker 1: the written and spoken word, punctuation becomes much more about
Speaker 1: the esthetic and the emotional. She also notes that the
Speaker 1: rise of the exclamation point may be tied to the
Speaker 1: fact that research indicates young women and young people of
Speaker 1: color are linguistic innovators. During the linguistic innovation process, aspects
Speaker 1: of a new speaking style are initially vilified. Recall how
Speaker 1: people made fun of Valley Girls speech in the nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties with its overuse of the word like and it's
Speaker 1: rise and pitch, the end of sentences, and use of
Speaker 1: vocal fry. Yet today aspects of value speak are widespread.
Speaker 1: So if young women began peppering their texts, emails, and
Speaker 1: social media posts with exclamation points a decade ago, that
Speaker 1: may help explain their ubiquity. Now. Another possible reason we're
Speaker 1: seeing so many screamers maybe the need for speed. According
Speaker 1: to researchers, we are communicating via the written word more
Speaker 1: than ever before. And in short bursts. Sometimes an exclamation
Speaker 1: point comes in handy is shorthand for a few words
Speaker 1: or sentences we don't have the time to write. While
Speaker 1: exclamation points are still frowned upon in some contexts like
Speaker 1: college term papers, for example, one study showed that company
Speaker 1: these using exclamation marks on their LinkedIn messages received more
Speaker 1: clicks on their business to business channels and twenty seven
Speaker 1: percent more clicks on their business to consumer channels. Despite
Speaker 1: all of this exclamation point positivity, there is a limit
Speaker 1: to their usage in the business world. People who use
Speaker 1: a lot of exclamation points and messages are more likely
Speaker 1: to be seen as underlings than supervisors, one study found,
Speaker 1: and when it comes to posting negative online reviews, another
Speaker 1: study found that using too many exclamation points causes people
Speaker 1: to discredit your review. Unless you're an expert in the
Speaker 1: subject batter, then exclamation points carry more weight. In the end.
Speaker 1: Time will tell whether high exclamation point usage is here
Speaker 1: to stay, linguistic innovation or just a passing fad. So sorry.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Melanie Red Zekie McManus and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clay. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radios.
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