Irony & Sarcasm marks, part 3: a short delay, and a request for help

I’m afraid the third article in the series on irony and sarcasm marks will have to be be delayed until next weekend. I’ll be discussing modern irony and sarcasm marks — chiefly those which have been proposed and promoted via the Internet — but unfortunately I’m having trouble reaching the creators of the SarcMark. If any Shady Characters readers have had any success in contacting them in the past, it would be great if you could put me in touch with them!

Look for the next article on the 9th of October, but while you’re waiting, why not have a look through some previous articles? And if you like what you read, maybe you’d consider voting for us as Grammar.net’s Best Grammar Blog of 2011!

Sorry for the delay, and see you all again in a week’s time.

Irony & Sarcasm marks: intermission

Adam Rice wrote in response to the discussion of ‘ironics’, or backwards-slanting italics, in Irony & Sarcasm marks, part 2:

I’ve occasionally seen reverse-italics on headstones dating from the 1800s, but I’m confident they’re not being used in a tongue-in-cheek manner.1

Adam was good enough to provide some examples; one can be seen below, and more are available in this photo set and others at his Flickr account. I have to agree with him — this is very definitely not an ironic use of ironics. Read more →

Nominate Shady Characters for Best Grammar Blog of 2011

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Shady Characters has been longlisted for Grammar.net’s Best Grammar Blog of 2011. The nomination process closes on September 25th so if you think we should make the shortlist, vote for Shady Characters at the nomination page soon! and Shady Characters has now made the cut. Voting begins on 26th September — thanks to all those who voted to nominate us, and I hope you’ll vote for us again on the 26th!

Irony & Sarcasm marks, part 2 of 3

The irony marks proposed by John Wilkins, Alcanter de Brahm and Hervé Bazin proved stubbornly resistant to putting down roots, and Bazin’s 1966 point d’ironie would be the last to be publicly promoted for some decades. Before the Internet reinvigorated their cause, though, the hunt for a foolproof method of conveying verbal irony took an abrupt detour: if a self-contained irony mark was not enough, perhaps an entire alphabet was the answer. And whereas the concept of an irony mark had exerted a strange pull on a select few French writers, the idea of signalling verbal irony with a different typeface altogether was instead the preserve of English-language journalists. Read more →