Do smilies count as full stops?

[Shifty Geezer]

Simple question which I'm sure will attract negligable interest. In the emerging world of internet grammar, do smilies count as full stops? What is the proper application of the smilie? Is it :

I know what you're trying to do there. And I'm not falling for it!

...or...

I know what you're trying to do there . And I'm not falling for it !

...or...

I know what you're trying to do there And I'm not falling for it

I feel the traditional period is required, yet its placement after the smilie looks awkward, while the placement before the smilie separates the smilie from the sentence it applies to. I've been posting (far too much) for years now, yet can't see an obvious syntactic solution.

 

[Bludd]

I do the first thing.

 

[AlNom]

Always done it the first way.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Same here. Although thats an exlamation point which certainly needs to go directly at the end of the sentance IMO.

If I'm just using a full stop, I think I use the last one. Although in reality I probably mix and match too much!

EDIT: just checked my MSN history and I definately use the last one unless I'm using an exclamation mark.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I always do it after the punctuation unless I need it in the middle of a sentence to emphasize emotion/emote at that point which may be different than the entire sentence as a whole.

As an example.

You are such an arse , but that driver really was an arsehole.

My whole sentence is angry because some arse of a driver just cut us off or something, but a winky at the front to let my friend know I'm joking for calling him an arse for flipping the bird at the other driver.

Would be different if I did...

You are such an arse, but that driver really was an arsehole.

Friends might know I'm just joking at the start, but on the internet where people may not know me, or may be in a bad mood, it may come off totally the wrong way.

Regards,
SB

 

[3dilettante]

I tend to treat smilies like other non-text information.
Much like I wouldn't put an image in the middle of an unfinished sentence, I usually keep the smilies past the punctuation.

Perhaps for some kind of humorous effect, I might shift things around.

 

[digitalwanderer]

There's no set rules for smilies as they're still too new to have been integrated, but I do the first example of using them after a stop...same way I'd shoot a wry grin at someone after delivering a straight line.

 

[hoom]

Smilies are generally circular like a full stop so they can be read as a full stop with character.
Smilies replace the sentence end punctuation & gives extra precision to your meaning, which you'd otherwise express with tone/expression/body language

You wouldn't write a sentence like this! Or this !
That would be silly

 

[Sc4freak]

Semi-related obligatory XKCD.

 

[hoom]

But thats easy (like this :smile: )

What troubles me is that so many people fail to work out how to follow A) with B) and C) instead of with & © (though I note that this forum has that fixed )

 

[pjbliverpool]

But thats easy (like this :smile: )

Yeah but that doesn't work on a phone were the smile is still just a bracket. I've definatly struggled with this one myself

 

[Simon F]

Yeah but that doesn't work on a phone were the smile is still just a bracket. I've definatly struggled with this one myself

Oh dear. I'm really worried now as I see an obvious solution to the inelegance aspect.

Much like quotation marks or c-style comments*, you just need the equivalent of opening and closing smilies, i.e.

 This looks better ((-8 doesn't it? 8-))

Xemacs will match them up correctly

 

[3dilettante]

Smilies are generally circular like a full stop so they can be read as a full stop with character.
Smilies replace the sentence end punctuation & gives extra precision to your meaning, which you'd otherwise express with tone/expression/body language

You wouldn't write a sentence like this! Or this !
That would be silly

The exclamation point smiley is a special case, where it's just a bitmap version of an already existing punctuation mark.
It's not even a smile.

Smilies don't necessarily impart the needed meaning.

You want to go to the store today :|

What does that mean (particularly since there are like three of those smilies for this forum, another fault of smilies is that they vary and often do not have a defined meaning)?

You want to go to the store today.
You want to go to the store today?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, they aren't a substitute for punctuation. So far I tend to agree with the earliest posters, the standard punctuation comes first with the smilie added as an aside to indicate emotional context, or embedded mid-sentence as appropriate.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Aye, I've never used a smiley/emoticon as a replacement for punctuation. For me they exist outside of grammar and are more there to add flavor or denote subtle nuances of meaning that cannot be imparted through text easily.

Telling someone...

God, you are such a dickhead.

Would be taken as a provocation/insult when typed directly.

God, you are such a dickhead.

Comes closer to what you mean when you are using it among friends. Like say after someone curb stomped you in a game of Gears of War.

I find it contextually jarring when someone uses it in place of proper punctuation.

Did they just end their sentence/thought? Where's the rest of their sentence? What am I missing? Was that a question?

Regards,
SB

 

[kyleb]