Short Stuff: Exclamation Points!

one minute too soon. Stand up videos, Yeah, I sort of do. We've done so many dumb videos over the years. I think the only thing that was worth anything was don't be dumb, You're sweet. But also Internet Roundup was pretty great, and again this day in history was wonderful. Wonderful. Anyway, I think we talked about this, but it is super interesting and I love it. Yeah. I think it's interesting

because there's a lot of ten drils. We're talking about the exclamation point, and there are just lots of weird and interesting facts about this. Uh. No one knows where it came from exactly. It was introduced in English as far back as the fourteenth century, where it's called the point of admiration, that's pretty sweet. I like that. And the theory of what it how it came about was that it was used for the Latin exclamation of joy, which was capital I, capital oh I oh and I

above that Oh looks like the exclamation point. Yeah. Like they think that somebody was using that and started just I guess saving space, I don't know, but instead of putting I than oh as I above oh and yeah, that looks a lot like an exclamation point. Yeah. They also think the question mark came from that to q o quo to question somebody, that they just put the que above the oh, and that's where that came from. It's pretty pretty good explanation if you ask me. Yeah.

And so if you want to talk about like the actual rules of grammar, because it's different than how we use it today in some ways, you can also still use it this way. But is is obviously an exclamation to exclaim something in a sentence or an interjection, right, So, like if you're like, um, I stubbed my toe, that would be an appropriate place to use an exclamation point without people making fun of you or saying like, um,

there you go. If you say that without an exclamation point, you just look kind of like a jerk, a cowboy who's dead inside, right, exactly. So people kind of long understood like these are the two instances that you could use an exclamation point, and that was that, Um, everyone just knew, like you just don't use it unless you are, say,

like bad at writing. Like if you come across a book written in like the twentieth century and there's a lot of exclamation points, that book was roundly laughed at. Because one thing that you will find if you start to dig into the history of exclamation points is we used to use them way less than you see today. And they were used in the nineteenth tree. I think yellow muckraker journalists used them a lot to kind of get people on the edge of their seat or whatever. Um,

it's kind of a poke. It's like a it's an emotional poke, and so it can get kind of worn out very quickly. And it was so people used them sparingly, um, starting around the twentieth century. Yeah, and here's another super cool little fact. I'm an old typewriter in my room and I've never noticed, but there is not an exclamation point, because up until about nineteen seventy they didn't have. It didn't have its own key as a as a punctuation mark. You had to retrofit it. Yeah, I didn't know how

to make one, um, and this is pretty interesting in it. Yeah. So what you do is you type a period, step one, backspace two, and then you type an apostrophe on top of it, and that would be the third and final step. Yeah. Not bad. It's a good little solve. But your your exclamation point looks a little like lazy or crooked. Yeah, agreed,

you know, I guess it gets the point across. I mean, you could you wanted to try and get tricky, you could roll the thing down a little bit and try and type an L. I suppose, sure, But that's you're really gambling there. Yeah, but think about the trouble that people went to type an exclamation point back then, Like you really needed to mean it, that's true, you know, like wanted exactly so um back in the day. Apparently they didn't call them exclamation points as recently as the fifties, Chuck,

They called them bangs. And that's a longstanding tradition. I think in the nineteenth century, um printers like where they actually spelled out like each letter of every word in a newspaper. They called them bangs back then. Pretty cool, It is pretty cool. You want to take a break, Yeah, we'll take a break and talk about how things have changed.

Exclamation as sk should Okay, Chuck, we're back. It's kind of funny if you listen to this episode and just imagine an exclamation point at the end of every one of our sentences. I'll bet it be a little more enjoyable than normal. Yeah, I mean, surely we'll call it something exclamation point and use an exclamation point. I don't know. I don't know. We could also zig instead of zagging, go for the subtle joke. So, if you are aware of the world today in the West at least, um,

you are aware that exclamation points are everywhere. They're dripping from the ceilings, the walls, They're in your um, your cereal. Everywhere there's exclamation points. And this is a fairly new thing. And for a little while, especially when it really started to take hold and say, like the odds the two thousand odds, people made fun of these. I remember distinctly writing a blog post saying like this is ruining the war old basically, you're a I was um. Now, and

I warned against this in my blog post. Now you can't not use an exclamation point or else you seem like you're being mean. That was the ultimate problem that I foresaw way back in the day. Yeah, so that that is what has changed. Everything is ecommunication. Uh. And there's a linguist named Gretchen McCullough who really, very sustinctly ties a bow on exactly what this is, and that is this it isn't It is a sincerity marker, not an intensity marker. Now, yeah, which makes a tremendous amount

of sense. Yeah, I mean it can be both. You can still obviously say get out of my way exclamation point. But if you're communicating with someone via text via email and you say, you know, thanks a lot for helping, if you'd say thanks a lot for helping with just a period, it comes across as not too friendly. It just does. Now, it does. And it's sad because there's a very cool way of putting it that's not excited or anything like that. And if you I feel like

we've also gotten a lot more insecure. At the same time we started to use electronic communication, and so that those two have kind of cohabitated or coexisted or co evolved, and we now require that exclamation point to say to

say I mean this, like I'm being serious. Yeah, which because when we communicate electronically, email, chat, text, what have you, um, we're missing like all of the verbal, the audio, and the visual cues that come through when you're talking to somebody or you can hear someone talking or see them talking. So we have to kind of adorn our communication now with these other cues to let people know like I'm not being sarcastic, which makes people who use exclamation points sarcastically.

They are basically undermining the very fabric of the new society that we're building, Like we're holding on by our fingernails on this new system, like please don't pull the rug out from unders, you know, like give it another fifty years maybe before you really start doing that. But it is an interesting thing with the sarcasm or genuine quality, and that's the differentiator. Like if someone gives you a lot of help, you could say thank you so much

exclamation point. If someone doesn't really help you that much, you could also say thank you so much, and like you can hear my voice and clearly know what's going on. But in an email or a text, that period is a signifier. I think it's a message. Yeah, it is. It is so exactly how you take it, I think largely depends on the type of person you are. But I think what Gretchen mccullus said was, it's a it's a um sincerity mark, sincerity marker, beautiful over an intensity marker.

The other thing, too, is that they have found through research that women use them more than men. Uh, if you're communicating online to show friendliness. And they've also found that young women and people of color, young people of color especially are linguistic innovators. They are often vilified in the early processes. Uh. And one thing they mentioned in this House Stuff Works articles is like Valley Girl speech,

where as people say like all the time. Now some people pointed out and make fun of it, and I guarantee of those people use it all the time too. But uh, that stuff was really derided in the eighties, but now it's kind of widespread in a lot of ways. Yeah. I remember, I think it was it was his Moon Unit,

Frank Zappa's daughter. Okay, remember she had that song Valley Girl that hit making fun of valley girls, and like the whole world was making fun of value girls and now everyone talks like a valley girl to a certain degree,

that is true, I think. So. The idea behind this, according to linguists UM, is that starting about in the two thousand odds again two thousand five, six seven, and around the time when texting really became a big thing in America, UM, younger UH women started using exclamation points a lot, and it just became a an innovation that

spilled over into the rest of culture. Yeah. And there are a couple of other theories that it It says a lot in a short amount of time, and people are communicating so quickly these days and shorter bursts, that it kind of plays a valuable role, which it really it does because if you if you add an exclamation point, it keeps you from having to say like and I couldn't believe it, Are I really meant it? Or I was very surprised. Yeah, it says it all right there,

Yeah for sure. Um. The other interesting thing too, is that they've done UH studies and they have shown that if you use exclamation points in the business setting, that it is more likely that you're not a supervisor or hire or perceived as such. Right, and that is true. Man, when I think about like our bosses think there's a lot of exclamation points. That's for the kids. Yeah, nary

an exclamation point among them. There is one person that I won't name on the air in our company that we exchange emails with that does the like two or three exclamation points. Oh, I have a notice, I'll have to pay attention. Don't tell me. Okay, okay, I'm gonna see if I can figure it out. I'll email you

in the next few days about it. I always draw the line with one, and I tried to use them as very much as sincerity markers to display that, like I mean, they're genuine about something or sincere about something anything I don't do too. You don't use them much at all. I've noticed I use them, but I will. I have very frequently gone back and read an email for I sent it and removed an exclamation point, replaced

it with the period. Not because I was coming on I didn't mind to like toned down my sincerity or anything like that, but because I don't want to over use them so that it does mean something or that does come through clearly when I do use them, right, uh, And tying into this the other kind of interesting thing how these um sort of it's not really grammar, but how these things evolve over the years. Is the all

caps thing now means like you're yelling at somebody. And it's always funny to see in some sort of thread or forum where there maybe people of a certain age accidentally get that caps lot going right, and it just is like this angry old person it's just yelling at everybody. That's right, it is. It's funny that they don't mean that, they just didn't know how to turn it off. Yes, And if you have all caps and multiple explanations, you're

either super excited are really ticked off. Yeah. Um, so, Chuck, I have to ask you something because I don't use exclamation points. From an outsider perspective, does it seem like I'm being tepid or cold or a jerk or mean? No, I mean you and I communicate and as short a hand as possible at this point. Yeah. Yeah, but like you're you're see seed on just about every email at work to other people. Yeah, so to other people, doesn't how does it look? I think managerial and refined. Oh,

that's exactly what I'm going for. I have a computer monocle that I wear when I send emails so that it comes through. That's what I'm trying to get across. Yeah, you're doing fine, don't worry. Thanks, managerial, in, serviceable and workman like. Oh you got anything else? I got nothing else? I don't either, So that means that short stuff is away. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeart Radios

How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.