Quote:
Originally Posted by Prototype
As I stated in the Clay thread, text, be it email, forum, website, what-have-you, does not give the audience the benifit of inflection, to which sarcastic tone is the main difference in common vocal communication. Green, or oragne, or whatever colour font, is to imply that sarcastic tone.
Someone pointed out that they thought it was more to say, "hey, look over here, I'm being sarcastic". This is not the case, at least not when I use it, but I can understand why it would be in a visual only medium.
I would hate defend a stance I don't actually have, because someone thought that something I said was taken litterally, and I didn't use some colour to show sarcasm.
Would italics work better? (notice no colour nor italics)
Sometimes in a visual only medium, it is next to impossible to tell sarcasm, period.
|
I think this is my comment that your referring to, but if so, you missed my meaning a little. I'm not suggesting that the person who uses green is grandstanding, and I can appreciate that they're being careful to make sure that nobody misinterprets them. What I was getting at is that sarcasm is effective because our minds enjoy the puzzle of contextually realizing that an otherwise normal sentence is being delivered here with a reversed meaning. When I read a passage highlighted in green, my mind thinks, "Ah, the passage I'm about to read actually means the opposite of what it says." When I read an unmarked sarcastic passage, my mind has no preconceived notions, and then gets part way through and thinks, "What? But... Ah, I see what you did there!"
And you're right that a certain amount of irony is in visual clues and vocal inflection, but there are a lot of grammatical clues that can be used to denote sarcasm. The use of intensifiers, hyperbole, or bluntness can all help deliver an ironic message more effectively. But most of the green posts are obvious enough as sarcasm without the green.
Besides, it's always fun when everybody gets the hidden sarcasm and plays along, and then one poster misses it and angrily disagrees, and we all get to laugh at that poster. Fun times.