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EspañolEXCLAMATION MARK
An 'exclamation mark' or 'exclamation point' is a punctuation mark: '!' It is usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume, and generally marks the end of a sentence. A sentence ending in an exclamation mark is either an actual exclamation ("Wow!", "Boo!"), a command ("Stop!"), or is intended to be astonishing in some way ("They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!").
In typesetting or printing (and therefore when spelling text out orally), the exclamation mark is called a 'screamer' or 'bang'. "Bang" is also common in computer programming slang. Less common names in publishing include "gasper", "startler", and even "dog's cock".[1]
Exclamation marks may be repeated for additional emphasis ("That's great!!!"), but this practice is generally considered unacceptable in formal composition.[2]
History
The exclamation point was introduced into English printing in the 1400, and was known as the "mark of admiration" until the mid 1600s.[3] In German orthography, the sign made its first appearance in the Luther Bible in 1797[4]. The mark may be derived from the Latin word ''Io'', meaning ''joy'', with the ''o'' written under the ''I'' creating the familiar exclamation point symbol.
The mark was not featured on standard manual typewriters of the 1970s; instead, one typed a full stop, backspaced, and then typed an apostrophe.[5]
Natural languages
For use of spaces after an exclamation mark, see the discussion for the full stop.
English advertising and literature
Frequent use of the exclamation mark is common in writing in advertising. Some brand names contain an exclamation mark (examples include the search engine Yahoo! and the game show ''Jeopardy!''). The titles of several musical comedies such as ''Oklahoma!'' and ''Oh! Calcutta!'' also contain exclamation marks.
Overuse of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, since it distracts the reader and reduces the mark's meaning. Some authors however, most notably the American Tom Wolfe, are known for unashamedly liberal use of the exclamation mark.
Place names
The English town of Westward Ho!, named after the novel by Charles Kingsley, is the only place name in the United Kingdom that officially contains an exclamation mark. There is a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, which officially contains two exclamation marks in its name.
Eastern languages
The exclamation mark is also used in Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese (which do not use Latin script).
French
In French, the exclamation mark is used to mark orders or requests: ''viens ici !'' ("English: come here"). Like the question mark (?), colon (:) and semi-colon (;), the exclamation mark takes a preceding space.
German
In German, the exclamation mark has several specific uses for which English employs other forms of punctuation:
★ In the salutation line of a letter, for which English uses a comma: ''Lieber Hans!'' (English: "Dear Hans,") In this case, the first word of the following sentence begins with a capital letter. However, usage of a comma, as in English, is both also acceptable and far more common.
★ On signs, not just those warning of danger as discussed below, the exclamation mark is used to emphasize the sign's content: ''Betreten verboten!'' (English: "No trespassing")
★ At the end of an imperative sentence: ''Ruf mich morgen an!'' (English: "Call me tomorrow.")
Spanish
In the Spanish language, a sentence or clause ending in an exclamation mark must also begin with an inverted exclamation mark (the same also applies to the question mark):
:''¿Estás loco? ¡Casi la mataste!'' (English: "Are you crazy? You almost killed her!")
As a letter
In Khoisan languages, and the International Phonetic Alphabet, the exclamation mark is used as a letter to indicate the postalveolar click sound (represented as ''q'' in Zulu orthography). In Unicode, this letter is properly coded as U+01C3 () and distinguished from the common punctuation symbol U+0021 (!) to allow software to deal properly with word breaks.
Phonetics
The exclamation mark has sometimes been used as a phonetic symbol to indicate that a consonant is ejective. More commonly this is represented by an apostrophe, or a superscript glottal stop symbol ().
Interrobang
Main articles: Interrobang
There is a punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation mark in English called interrobang, which resembles those marks superimposed over one another ("") but the sequence of "!?" is used more often.
Warnings
Warning signs are often an exclamation mark enclosed within a triangle
Exclamation marks are used to emphasize a .
On warning signs, an exclamation mark is often used to draw attention to a warning of danger, hazards and the unexpected. These signs are common in hazardous environments or on potentially dangerous equipment. A common type of this warning is a yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark, but a white triangle with a red border is common on European road warning signs.
Mathematics
In mathematics the symbol represents the factorial operation. The expression ''n''! means "the product of the integers from 1 to ''n''". For example, 4! (read ''four factorial'') is 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24. (0! is defined as 1, which is a neutral element in multiplication, not multiplied by anything.)
Computers
In computer programming, the 'exclamation mark' corresponds to ASCII character 33 (21 in hexadecimal). It is therefore found in Unicode at 0021. The 'inverted exclamation mark' is found in ISO-8859-1, 9 and 15 at position 161 (A1HEX) and therefore in unicode at U+00A1.
Several computer languages use "!" for various meanings, most importantly for logical negation; e.g. A != B means "A is not equal to B", and !A means "the logical negation of A" (also called "not A"). In this context, the exclamation is named the ''bang'' character; other programmers call it a ''shriek'' or ''screech''. Invented in the US, it is claimed that ''bang'' is from Unix and ''shriek'' from Stanford or MIT; however, ''shriek'' is found in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dating from the 1860s. In the BBC BASIC programming language (and BCPL) it is called a ''pling'' and is used to reference a 32-bit word.
Plings are also used in Acorn RISC OS to denote an "appfolder": a folder that when double clicked executes a program file inside called ''!Run''. Other files in the appfolder generally contain resources the application needs to run. The appfolder can be viewed as a normal folder by double-clicking with the shift key held down. In addition, other special resource files such as ''!Boot'' (executed the first time the application containing it comes into view of the filer) and ''!Sprites'' (an icon file containing icon definitions loaded if ''!Boot'' cannot be found) also start with a pling.
Early e-mail systems also used the exclamation point as a separator character between hostnames for routing information, usually referred to as "bang path" notation.
In the IRC protocol, a user's nickname and ident are separated by an exclamation point in the hostmask assigned to him or her by the server.
In the Geek Code version 3, "!" is used before a letter to denote that the geek refuses to participate in the topic at hand. In some cases, it has an alternate meaning, such as ''G!'' denoting a geek of no qualifications, ''!d'' denoting not wearing any clothes, ''P!'' denoting not being allowed to use Perl, and so on. They all share some negative connotations however.
When computer programs display messages that alert the user, an exclamation mark may be shown alongside it to indicate that the message is important and should be read. This often happens when an error is made, or to obtain user consent for hazardous operations such as deleting data.
In UNIX shell and Perl scripting, "!" is usually used after a "#" in the first line of a script to tell the OS what program to use to run the script. This is usually called a "hashbang" or shebang.
Internet culture
In recent Internet culture, especially where leet is used, an excessive way of expressing exclamation in text is seen as ''!!!!!!111''. This notation originates from the eagerness to add multiple exclamation marks but failing to hit the shift key combination properly. Later this behavior has evolved into a sign of recognition for certain Internet cultures who now intentionally add ''1''s after their expressions either to ridicule people who do it without purpose or as a sign of recognition towards others who also are familiar with the behavior. As a further pun to this development of linguistics, some add literal ''one''s such as ''!!!eleventyone!!111one!'' to explicitly state that their use of ''1''s was intentionally typed, since ''eleventyone'' cannot be typed by accident.
Fandom
In fandom, "!" is used to signify a defining quality in a character, as in romantic! Draco from Harry Potter fandom. Almost always the character in question is a canon character, and most often the quality is one that is unusual, or non-canon.
Occasionally, the "!" notation will describe a physical appearance thought to trigger certain reactions, as in shirtless!Vaughn from Alias, or to clarify the current persona of a character, such as armor!Al from Fullmetal Alchemist. The origin of this usage is unknown, although it is hypothesized to have originated with certain Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, for example, "Football Player! Leonardo", "Rockstar! Raphael", and "Breakdancer! Michaelangelo". [1]
Music
A music group, based in Sacramento, California and New York City, NY has utilized the exclamation point to spell its name: !!!. The band's name is pronounced as "any syllable repeated three times"; the most frequent alpha respelling is "chk chk chk", pronounced as "Chick Chick Chick". Other pronunciations include "Pow Pow Pow" and "Bang Bang Bang". It is less often referred to as "Exclamation point exclamation point exclamation point", as that has proven too verbose.
In the popular music game, In The Groove, there is a song called "!", which fans have dubbed 'Bang' rather 'Exclamation Mark/Point'.
Comics
This ''Action Comics'' cover from 1959 ends every sentence with an exclamation mark or question mark. Often, few or no periods would be used in the entire book.
Some comic books, especially superhero comics of the mid-20th century, routinely use the exclamation mark instead of the period, as periods tended to disappear due to cheap printing processes. As printing improved, this technique fell out of favor, but is still sometimes used to invoke a retro feel.
In comic books and comics in general, a large exclamation mark is often used in the proximity of a character's head to indicate surprise. A question mark can similarly be used to indicate confusion. This practice also appears in some computer and video games.
Chess
Main articles: Punctuation (chess)
In chess notation and . Likewise, in some chess variants such as large board Shogi variants, "!" is used to record pieces capturing by stationary feeding or burning.
Baseball
Exclamation marks or asterisks can be used on scorecards to denote a "great defensive play." [2]
Sarcasm
In writing, especially in British English, a '(!)' symbol (an exclamation mark within parentheses) implies that a character has made an obviously sarcastic comment eg: "''Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a'' really useful'' invention.(!)''"
Gender and the Use of Exclamation Marks
Research has shown that women use the exclamation mark more than men. [3]
See also
★ Question mark
★ Interrobang
References
1. Truss, Lynne. ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', 2003. p. 136. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
2. http://www.e-strategyguide.gov.au/make_email_work/effective_email.
3. ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', p. 137
4. Wolfgang Mathias, Cologne University (2002)
5. Truss, Lynne. ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', 2003. p. 135. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
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