Being unironic in the age of the Web (CS Monitor)
Ruth Walker writes an interesting monthly piece about language use, historical trends in usage and language tidbits for the CSM print edition. Always a good read. ~ pinto
Being unironic in the age of the Web
We all know about signaling a joke when writing, especially online, but sometimes we need to signal that we really mean our words at face value.
By Ruth Walker / October 22, 2013
Much has been made of the need for tools to indicate humor, irony, "just kidding," and other states of nonseriousness in our e-mails, texts, and instant messages.
That's why we have emoticons and shorthands like "LOL," right? The Atlantic published an article by Megan Garber a few months ago headed "How to Tell a Joke on the Internet." In it she traced the classic sideways smiley (colon, hyphen, close paren) to a group of Carnegie Mellon University researchers in 1982. Trading quips on an online message board, they needed a way to signal "just kidding."
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But what do you do when you mean your words to be taken at face value? For instance: "Have I made myself clear?"
That's a line it's easy to imagine the late character actor Gale Gordon harrumphing at Lucille Ball, or before her, at Eve Arden, of "Our Miss Brooks" fame. As he said it, it was meant to convey, "I have said what I feel I need to say to put you in your place."
The Free Dictionary explains this idiom with a little parenthetical: "
Indicates anger or dominance.)"
But at a literal level (and admittedly, probably in a calmer tone of voice than Mr. Gordon's characters used), it's not a bad question to ask. An essential lesson in leadership is learning to ensure that your messages get across.
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Verbal-Energy/2013/1022/Being-unironic-in-the-age-of-the-Web
