Tone indicator
{{Short description|Form of emphasis for communication}}
{{about|the symbols appended to text to portray intent|phonetic tone representation|Tone (linguistics)#Phonetic notation|other uses|Tone (disambiguation){{!}}Tone}}
A tone indicator or tone tag is a symbol attached to a sentence or message sent in a textual form, such as over the internet, to explicitly state the intonation or intent of the message, especially when it may be otherwise ambiguous. Tone indicators start with a forward slash (/), followed by a short series of letters, usually a shortening of another word. Examples include /j, meaning "joking"; /srs, meaning "serious"; or /s, meaning "sarcastic".
History
Early attempts to create tone indicators stemmed from the difficulty of denoting irony in print media, and so several irony punctuation marks were proposed. The percontation point (⸮; a reversed question mark) was proposed by Henry Denham in the 1580s to denote a rhetorical question, but usage died out by the 1700s.{{Cite book |title=Eats, Shoots & Leaves |last=Truss |first=Lynne |date=2003 |isbn=1-59240-087-6 |page=142 }}
In 1668, John Wilkins proposed the irony mark, using an inverted exclamation mark (¡) to denote an ironic statement. Various other punctuation marks were proposed over the following centuries to denote irony, but none gained popular usage.{{cite book|last=Houston|first=Keith|title=Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols & Other Typographical Marks|year=2013|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.|location=New York & London|isbn=978-0-393-06442-1 |pages=212–217}} In 1982, the emoticon was created to be used to denote jokes (with :-)) or things that are not jokes (with :-().{{cite web|url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm|title=Original Bboard Thread in which :-) was proposed|publisher= cs.cmu.edu|access-date=October 12, 2021}}
The syntax of modern tone indicators stems from /s, which has long been used on the internet to denote sarcasm.{{cite news |last1=Zuckerman |first1=Ori Manor |title=Council Post: The Importance Of Subtext In Digital Communications |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/10/08/the-importance-of-subtext-in-digital-communications/ |access-date=2021-10-12 |work=Forbes |date=2021-10-08 |language=en}} This symbol is an abbreviated version of the earlier /sarcasm, itself a simplification of </sarcasm>,{{cite journal |last1=Khodak |first1=Mikhail |last2=Saunshi |first2=Nikunj |last3=Vodrahalli |first3=Kiran |title=A Large Self-Annotated Corpus for Sarcasm |journal=Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference |date=7–12 May 2018 |page=1 |url=http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2018/pdf/160.pdf |accessdate=8 February 2019 |bibcode=2017arXiv170405579K |arxiv=1704.05579 |archive-date=9 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124222/http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2018/pdf/160.pdf |url-status=live |quote=Reddit users have adopted a common method for sarcasm annotation consisting of adding the marker “/s” to the end of sarcastic statements; this originates from the HTML text delineation <sarcasm>...</sarcasm>.}} the form of a humorous XML closing tag marking the end of a "sarcasm" block, and therefore placed at the end of a sarcastic passage.
Internet usage
On the internet, one or more tone indicators may be placed at the end of a message. A tone indicator on the internet often takes the form of a forward slash (/) followed by an abbreviation of a relevant adjective; alternatively, a more detailed textual description (e. g., / friendly, caring about your well-being) may be used. For example, /srs may be attached to the end of a message to indicate that the message is meant to be interpreted in a serious manner, as opposed to, for example, being a joke (which is commonly represented as /j). Tone indicators are used to explicitly state the author's intent, instead of leaving the message up to interpretation.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/style/tone-indicators-online.html|title=Tone Is Hard to Grasp Online. Can Tone Indicators Help?|work=New York Times|date=December 9, 2020|access-date=23 August 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812104759/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/09/style/tone-indicators-online.html|url-status=live}}
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+List of common tone indicators on the internet{{Cite web |last=Jennings-Brown |first=Felicia |title=A New Way to Communicate Emotion Has Emerged: Tone Indicators |url=https://thesciencesurvey.com/news/2022/03/16/a-new-way-to-communicate-emotion-has-emerged-tone-indicators/ |access-date=2022-05-09 |website=The Science Survey}} !Abbreviation !Meaning !Description |
| /s
|sarcasm |Used to denote sarcasm. |
| /j
|joking |Used to denote jokes. |
| /hj
|half-joking |Used to denote hyperboles or serious underlying intent. |
| /gen; /genq
|genuine; genuine question |Used to denote genuineness, whether in a phrase or question. |