Is the full stop rude?
 

How would you feel if you texted a friend to invite them round for dinner and this reply popped up on your phone?

Concerned? Offended? Or would you not give it a second thought?

What about if they replied:

sounds good

or even

Sounds good!

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch says more and more people now see ending messages with a full stop as rude because of the way we text and use instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

"If you're a young person and you're sending a message to someone, the default way to break up your thoughts is to send each thought as a new message," she says.

"Because the minimum thing necessary to send is the message itself, anything additional you include can take on an additional interpretation."

A 2015 study by Binghamton University involving 126 undergraduates found they perceived text messages ending in a full stop as being less sincere than the same message without a full stop.

In speech, the full stop is generally accompanied by lowering the voice to indicate the end of a sentence and carries connotations of formality or seriousness, Ms McCulloch explains.

"This can be fine if your message is already serious," she says.

"The problem comes when you have a positive message with the seriousness of the full stop. It's the juxtaposition of those things which creates that sense of passive aggression."

So how can we tell if someone is actually annoyed or just using a full stop in the traditional sense?

Erika Darics, a lecturer in linguistics at Aston University in Birmingham, says it is all down to context.

"If you and your friends don't normally use full stops in a WhatsApp group and then somebody does, they are probably trying to tell you something about how they feel," says Dr Darics.

She says someone's age and how often they use messaging apps can also affect how they use punctuation.

Often these differences are more significant than differences in nationality, Ms McCulloch - who is Canadian - argues. Using a full stop in messages seems to have similar connotations in both North America and the UK, she adds.

However, there can be some cultural differences between countries - Americans and Canadians don't use "x" to denote a kiss at the end of a message, while Brits do, she says.

Use of informal grammar and text slang in messaging can lead to accusations of dumbing down and making people lazy.

But Ms McCulloch points out that using slang or incorrect spellings actually takes more effort in an age of autocorrect and predictive text.

Online messaging also forces people to develop new ways of conveying emotion and meaning without the use of body language or tone of voice.

"Going back to the 1500s there have been proposals for an irony punctuation mark but none of those caught on," says Ms McCulloch.

"But within a few short decades of being online we've come up with so many ways of conveying irony and other meaning."

For example, the acronym "lol" (laugh out loud) can be used sarcastically, as can the upside-down face emoji.

"Things like emojis raise awareness of language and can help us understand subtleties in other types of communication, like politics or propaganda," says Dr Darics.

"It encourages linguistic creativity."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49182824

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Has the world really come to this? :laugh:

Things evolve I guess

I mean, you're kind of proving the last point by using an emoji in your own message :joker:.

I think punctuation could be over-thought, but the use of new language techniques for conveying tone in written communication is essential these days. Bold / italics / other methods of emphasis and emojis are an integral part of making sure something comes across more or less as intended.

Consider:

"Hahaha, you're funny [emoji38] "

"Hahaha, you're funny [emoji19] "


"Wow, he's really clever!"

"Wow. He's really clever. :hehe: "

I once replied "Hey." on a dating site and the person said "oh, **** you then".

I was like, sorry for being grammatically correct.

Using grammar and punctuation is rude? **** off....

.

I mean that's not even what the article says its actually pretty interesting and that's just one example they've used in the title, but OK...

There’s literally nothing ruder than ‘ok.’ And everyone knows it.

Yeah I actually do think this lol, using a full stop makes it seem blunter, more formal and that there's nothing more to say rather than it being a casual ongoing conversation

Not you taking the time to point out where I'm wrong. Again.

This. What a load of tosh.

Totally.
The same goes for formatting to an extend, especially where space is not an issue like in forum posts.

Anything goes if it’s from a friend, you know how to read them.
But I do wish estate agents and solicitors were more formal, even if it was just the use of capital letters at the beginning of a sentence:fist:

I feel like emojis are used where people can't express themselves fully in their mother tongue. And all the theories about how they move language forward is only trying to justify using them.

" :skull: "
" :clap1: "

I don't consider it rude.

Full stop, I mean.