Put this in the column of humorous articles on grammar and punctuation: Josh Greenman has an article in Slate proposing the adoption of the sarcasm point (which looks like this: ¡).To quote Greenman:
I’m serious¡ See, there are people who are relentlessly sincere. So, what are they supposed to do when they’re trying to sound a bit bitter? Suppose you’re IM’ing that oft-earnest friend you have, and he writes: “I need to go to church tomorrow and confess the jealousy in my heart.” You forget– have you ever heard him say nice things about God or do the opposite? “Wait… do you really?” “Sorry. I mean, I need to go to church tomorrow¡ To confess my jealousy¡ And the fact that I just renewed my subscription to Maxim¡” “Oh. Me too. Only as a Jew, I must do these things in synagogue¡”
A lot of my students could certainly use this; I’m sure it would clear up all sorts of confusing writing problems¡
I love the idea. We need more than one new punctuation mark. There is no appropriate punctuation in English to denote a feeling or expression between “matter of fact�/finality and excitement/high emotion. Hence, the pomma point.