It occured to me that there is an area of modern language which is ungoverned by any rules of grammar; the usage of the smily.
It is an accepted convention of certain modes of digital communication (e.g. e-mail, phone messaging, in certain cases fora) that grammar is allowed to lapse. It it usually through those modes of communication that we have allowed smilies to creep into our language. Just as a reputable newspaper will use serif fonts and maintain a high ratio of text to photographs while a tabloid does the opposite, we generally keep distracting smilies outside of our serious blog posts, websites and public forum posts (especially on a forum like Hatrack, which is naturally text-heavy).
But perhaps there is a legitimate excuse for the use of our abominable animated friends in public discourse. A friendly smily can defuse a tense situation, letting someone know that a statement is intended as a joke, or generally send good vibes around a forum. A smily can economise on words , signal the end of an argument , or avoid the need for censorship .
Is all of this outweighed by the distracting nature of animated gifs peppered throughout otherwise sensible English paragraphs? Can we still take someone seriously if they use them?
Also, should they come after or before the punctuation of the phrase/sentence they are relevant to? Can you start a sentence with a smily? If a smily is to be a paragraph on its own, should it be indented?
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Gah! I wrote this beautiful post almost entirely in smiley, and then it goes and tells me theres a "8 image limit". . Well, let that be a warning to anyone else with the same fun idea.
I am actually interested in this topic and hope there's some good discussion on it. Right now I'm going to though, so goodnight. .
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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We had a smilie thread a while back that was kind of fun (and here is where the anti-smilie brigade roll their eyes at me - non-pictorially, of course).
I can't find the one I mean. But I'm going to bump another one. Heh.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
This was supposed to be a joke but if we can have a philosophical discussion about smilies, it might be interesting.
Maybe.
Marginally.
Personally I think that in a not-so-serious thread, and in a situation where your emotions are not clear, there's something to be said for that one happy smily which lets the other person know you meant know harm. Otherwise I tend not to use them. Unless I'm posting in a thread dedicated to smilies.
To me they contributes to the online pollution of flashing animated banner ads, idle AIM chatter, irrelevant jpgs and spam.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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And here's another question: Under what kind of rare and extenuating circumstance can a person possibly be excused for using the following smilies?
Births Engagements Marriages Chemo completed or end of ordeal of similar weightiness Graduations/passings of the bar Desired jobs attained etc.
And those are definite stand-alone paragraph smilies. As a matter of fact, they pretty much replace text in any given post.
There. Am I treating a flippant question with sufficient seriousness? And would a winking smiley be justified at the end of this paragraph?
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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A smiley can perform not only the same role as a punctuation mark, but it actually allows for far more varied meanings than are possible with conventional punctuation.
THE BAD:
Potentially proffered is precept to properly procedure the punctuation of pictures.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
To be sure, smileys are predated by other symbols. There's no grammar for the symbols we use meaning "no left turn"; "unisex restroom"; "first aid." No grammar for American Sign Language, either, last I heard. Cartoons have symbols: the dollar-signs-in-the-eyeballs meaning greed, floating valentines over the head to mean love (or stars to mean Sylvester just got konked in the head again). We still use them, without wondering if they're corrupting our language.
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
The difference is smileys are interspersed with text when symbols typically are not. So there's no question of them muddying the waters.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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One, they might become so overused that no one actually explains what they mean any more, and
Two, I often see smileys used as the text equivalent of the southern phrase, "Bless her heart." for those of y'all not from around here, you can say ANY snarky comment, but, when followed by "Bless her heart." It is not allowed to be taken as an insult. I see people all the time say something mean and than add a smiley, so that if the person being attacked gets all cheesed off, the attacker can say, "Chill out, man! I was kidding. There was a SMILEY, for crying out loud!"
Posts: 368 | Registered: Dec 2005
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And here's another question: Under what kind of rare and extenuating circumstance can a person possibly be excused for using the following smilies?
Births Engagements Marriages Chemo completed or end of ordeal of similar weightiness Graduations/passings of the bar Desired jobs attained etc.
Really? I was thinking more like:
- Your country is victorious in a war of liberation and successfully declares its independence. - You or your spouse give birth to quadruplets. - Starvation in Africa is eliminated. - Replacement energy sources for oil are discovered in Kansas.
quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: There. Am I treating a flippant question with sufficient seriousness? And would a winking smiley be justified at the end of this paragraph?
Oh, alright. If you must.
Will, I think you know, but I wasn't serious about protecting the purity of the English language (whatever that is). I think that language (as long as it is being altered and amended by the people who use it) will evolve to suit whatever purposes we have for it. When governments alter language to influence our thoughts is another matter - some PC terms for example, or Newspeak in 1984.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
can defuse a tense situation, letting someone know that a statement is intended as a joke, or generally send good vibes around a forum. ![[Group Hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
A smily can economise on words ![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
, signal the end of an argument ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
, or avoid the need for censorship ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
. 
![[Sleep]](graemlins/sleep.gif)
though, so goodnight. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
.
![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
bye for now ![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
![[Party]](graemlins/party.gif)
