florence hazrat

Perhaps the most provocative of punctuation marks, ! has long elicited the love and hate of writers. It's now under threat from the more expressive emoji and teachers who strive to stamp out social media speak in the classroom. Can ! be resuscitated and redeemed? 

Guest:

Dr Florence Hazrat, researcher, wordsmith, podcaster. Author of An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark! Published in Australia by Allen & Unwin 

Originally broadcast on 14 February 2023

On this episode we learn about the history of the exclamation point, the question mark, and the semicolon (among many other aspects of language) with Florence Hazrat, a scholar of punctuation, who, to my great surprise, informed me that while a lot of language is the result of a slow evolution, a gradual ever-changing process, punctuation in the English language is often an exception to this – for instance, a single person invented the semicolon; they woke up and the semicolon didn’t exist, and then went to bed that night, and it did!

Florence Hazrat's Website

An Admirable Point

How Minds Change

David McRaney’s Twitter

YANSS Twitter

Show Notes

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