The Zero Period Rule or the Sing Communicative Potential in Digital Punctuation
https://doi.org/10.25205/1818-7919-2024-23-6-98-107
Abstract
The article discusses the communicative potential of the period (and its absence) in personal messages. The research is based on the results of a survey of NSU students as well as scientific works on the theory and practice of punctuation. It has been observed that many internet users believe that using a period at the end of a text can convey aggression, and therefore avoid using it. To study the persistence of this stereotype a questionnaire survey was conducted amongstudents. The reasons for the absence of a punctuation mark in personal communication can be attributed to several factors: 1) saving time; 2) forgetfulness; 3) disregard of punctuation norms; 4) meaninglessness of the action; 5) force of habit and laziness. One of the most common reasons is communicative in nature, which involves accommodating the interlocutor who might perceive punctuation as negative. According to the respondents, the omission of the end- point is seen as a marker of informality in communication, and the period is primarily perceived as a dividing sign rather than a signal of sentence completion: the empty end-of-line space swallows up the sign. The action of «completing a thought» that the period sign expresses is replaced by another action, where the addressee gives the command to send a message instead of typing a punctuation mark. The punctuation system thus includes linguistic and discursive units. In addition, in the context of Internet communication, the period acts as a signal of the end of communication.
About the Author
I. V. Vysotskaya
Novosibirsk State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Irina V. Vysotskaya, Doctor of Sciences (Philology)
Novosibirsk
References
1. Androutsopoulos J. Digital Punctuation as an Interactional Resource: The Message-Final Period among German Adolescents. Linguistics and Education, 2020, vol. 62 (3): 100871. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346747286_Digital_punctuation_as_an_interactional_resource_the_message-final_period_among_German_adolescents (accessed 30.03.2023).
2. Baron N. S., Ling R. Necessary Smileys & Sseless Periods. Redefining Punctuation in Electronically-Mediated Communication. Visible Language, 2011, vol. 45 (1/2), pp. 45–67.
3. Bertiakova A. N. Punktuatsionnye znaki v kontse zagolovka kak marker interpretatsionnogo kharaktera ego grammaticheskoi sushchnosti [Punctuation Marks at the End of the Heading as a Marker of the Interpretive Character of Its Grammatical Essence]. Cross Cultural Studies: Education and Science, 2022, no. 7 (1), pp. 28–34. (in Russ.)
4. Busch F. The Interactional Principle in Digital Punctuation Discourse. Context & Media, 2021, vol. 40: 100481. URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695821000180?via%3Dihub (accessed 31.03.2023).
5. Drugoveyko-Dolzhanskaya S. V. …I tochka! (O semantizatsii znakov prepinaniya v khudozhestennykh tekstakh i frazeologii) [FULL STOP! (The Semantization of Punctuation Marks in Literary Texts and Phraseology)]. In: Koshkareva N. B. (ed.). #TOTSBORNIK. Collection of Scientific Works Based on the Materials of Total Dictation. Novosibirsk, 2016, iss. 1, pp. 100–113. (in Russ.)
6. Ginzburg L. Ya. Chelovek za pis'mennym stolom [The Man at the Writing Desk]. Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel' Publ., 1989, 605 p. (in Russ.)
7. Golev N. D. Russkaya pismennaya razgovornaya rech' i ee otrazhenie v obydennom metayazykovom soznanii uchastnikov virtual'noi kommunikatsii [Russian Colloquial Written Speech and the Reflection of Its Modern State in the Ordinary Metalanguage Consciousness of Virtual Communication Participants]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya [Tomsk State University Journal of Philology], 2013, no. 5, pp. 12–30. (in Russ.)
8. Gunraj D. N., Drumm-Hewitt A., Dashow E. M., Upadhyay S. S. N., Klin C. M. Texting Insincerely: The Role of the Period in Text Messaging. Computers in Human Behavior, 2016, no. 55, pt. B, pp. 1067–1075.
9. Ishchuk E. N. K voprosu o strukture sovremennoi punktuatsionnoi sistemy [To the Question of Modern Punctuation System’s Structure]. In: Koshkareva N. B. (ed.). #TOTSBORNIK. Collection of Scientific Works Based on the Materials of Total Dictation. Iss. 1. Novosibirsk, 2016, pp. 89–99. (in Russ.)
10. Ivanova S. A. Razlichiya v vospriyatii zhenshchinami raznykh vozrastov internet-soobshchenii, zakanchivayushchikhsya tochkoi [Differences in the Perception of Women of Different Ages of Internet Messages Ending with a Full Stop]. In: Paradigma DV 2019: Materialy Regional'nogo konkursa nauchnykh rabot v sfere psilhologo-pedagogicheskoi profilaktiki negativnykh yavlenii sredi molodezhi [Paradigm Far East 2019: Materials of the Regional Competition of Scientific Works in the Field of Psychological and Pedagogical Prevention of Negative Phenomena among Young People]. Collection of Scientific Articles. Komsomolsk on Amur, AmSPU Press, 2019, pp. 39–41. (in Russ.)
11. Kalinina M. V. Punktuatsionnye priemy vyrazheniya ekspressii (na materiale sovremennykh setevykh zagolovkov) [Punctuation Techniques to Convey Expressiveness (Based on Modern Network Headlines). Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya seriya. Seriya: Filologiya, Zhurnalistika [Izvestiya of Saratov University. Philology. Journalism], 2020, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 257–261. (in Russ.)
12. Kim I. E. Punktuatsiya “govoryashchego” i punktuatsiya “slushayushchego”: onomasiologicheskii i semasiologicheskii podkhod v punktuatsii [Punctuation of the “Speaker” and Punctuation of the “Listener”: Onomasiological and the Semasiological Approach in Punctuation]. Trudy Instituta russkogo yazyka im. V. V. Vinogradova [Proceedings of V. V. Vinogradov Institute of Russian Language], 2021, no. 3, pp. 252–260. (in Russ.)
13. Kim I. E. Teoriya russkoi punktuatsii: prostranstvo znaka i prostranstvo teksta [The Theory of Russian Punctuation: The Space of the Sign and the Space of the Text]. Novosibirsk, NSU Press, 2019, 120 p. (in Russ.)
14. Koshkareva N. B. Kakikh pravil ne khvataet v spravochnikakh po punktuatsii? [What Rules are Missing from Spelling Guides?]. In: Koshkareva N. B. (ed.). #TOTSBORNIK. Collection of Scientific Works Based on the Materials of Total Dictation. Novosibirsk, 2018, iss. 3, pp. 112–124 (in Russ.)
15. Kuznetsova N. V. “Pereosmyslenie tochki” kak iavlenie onlain-kommunikatsii [“The reinterpretation of the Period” as a Phenomenon of Online Communication]. In: Koshkareva N. B. (ed.). #TOTSBORNIK. Collection of Scientific Works Based on the Materials of Total Dictation. Novosibirsk, 2016, iss. 1, pp. 113–125. (in Russ.)
16. Radbil T. B. Norma kak anomaliya [The Norm as an Anomaly]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N. I. Lobachevskogo [Vestnik of Lobachevsky University of Nizhni Novgorod], 2007, no. 3, pp. 229–233. (in Russ.)
17. Severskaya O. I., Selezneva L. V. O biznes-punktuatsii: znaki prepinaniya ili pretknoveniya? [Some Notes about Business Punctuation: Punctuation Marks or Stumbling Blocks?]. Russkaya rech' [Russian Speech], 2021, no. 2, pp. 44–53. (in Russ.)
18. Shvartskopf B. S. O punktuatsionnom nulevom znake [On the Punctuation Null Sign]. In: Semiotika. Lingvistika. Poetika. K 100-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya A. A. Reformatskogo [Semiotics. Linguistics. Poetics. To the Сentenary of Reformatsky's birth]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul'tury Publ., 2004, pp. 366–370. (in Russ.)
19. Sturikova M. V., Kirpichikova M. E. Punktuatsiya v tekstakh sotsialnykh setei [Punctuation in the Texts of Social Networks]. Sotsiokul'turnoe prostranstvo Rossii i zarubezh'ya: obshchestvo, obrazovanie, yazyk [Sociocultural Space of Russia and Abroad: Society, Education, Language], 2014, no. 3, pp. 154–159. (in Russ.)
20. Yakovleva Yu. V. Graficheskie sredstva vyrazheniya rechevoi agressii v gazetno-zhurnalnoi polemike 1917–1932 gg. [Graphic Means of Expressing Verbal Aggression in Media Polemic in 1917–1932]. In: Koshkareva N. B. (ed.). #TOTSBORNIK. Collection of Scientific Works Based on the Materials of Total Dictation. Novosibirsk, 2017, iss. 2, pp. 186–190. (in Russ.)
21. Vysotskaya I. V. Tochka v lichnom soobshchenii kak znak tsifrovogo raskola pokolenii? [A Dot in a Personal Message as a Sign of a Digital Generational Split?]. In: Kommunikativnaya kul'tura: istoriya i sovremennost' [Communicative Сulture: History and Modernity]. Materials of the 13 th All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference with International Participation. October 26, 2023. Novosibirsk, NSU Press, 2023, pp. 145–152. (in Russ.)
Review
For citations:
Vysotskaya I.V. The Zero Period Rule or the Sing Communicative Potential in Digital Punctuation. Vestnik NSU. Series: History and Philology. 2024;23(6):98-107. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25205/1818-7919-2024-23-6-98-107
Views:
176
Email this article 