The Punctuation Effect Definition and Examples

The use of laughter as the oral equivalent of punctuation at the end of a spoken phrase or sentence. The term punctuation effect was coined by neuroscientist Robert R. Provine in his book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation (Viking, 2000). See Examples and Observations, below. Examples and Observations [Uncle Emil] was a big, rough, hearty man who was missing one whole finger and part of another from accidents in the steel mill, and his language was goodhearted, loud, punctuated by laughter, and not at all suited for Sunday school. (Michael Novak, Controversial Engagements. First Things, April 1999) During conversation, laughter by speakers almost always follows complete statements or questions. Laughter is not randomly scattered throughout the speech stream. Speaker laughter interrupted phrases in only 8 (0.1 percent) of 1,200 laugh episodes. Thus, a speaker may say, You are going where? . . . ha-ha, but rarely You are going . . . ha-ha . . . where? This strong and orderly relationship between laughter and speech is akin to punctuation in written communication and is termed the punctuation effect. . . .The punctuation effect holds for the audience as well as for the speaker; a surprising result because the audience could laugh at any time without speech-related competition for their vocalization channel. No audience interruptions of speaker phrases were observed in our 1,200 laugh episodes. Its unclear whether the punctuation of speech by audience laughter is cued directly by the speaker (e.g., apostphrase pause, gesture, or laughter), or by a brain mechanism similar to that pr oposed for the speaker that maintains the dominance of language (this time perceived, not spoken) over laughter. The brains of speaker and audience are locked in a dual-processing mode.(Robert R. Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. Viking, 2000) [The] punctuation effect is highly reliable and requires the coordination of laughing with the linguistic structure of speech, yet it is performed without the conscious awareness of the speaker. Other airway maneuvers, such as breathing and coughing, also punctuate speech and are performed without speaker awareness. (Robert R. Provine in What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Todays Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Uncertainty, ed. by John Brockman. HarperCollins, 2006) Glitches in the Punctuation Effect The shared rhythm of laughter-inducing comments and responses--comment/laughter . . . comment/laughter, similar to a call-response pattern in gospel music--suggests a powerful, neurologically based attachment/affiliation dance in action, such as that described by Stern (1998).Others have noted, and Temple Grandin has described in her autobiography on dealing with her own autism, what happens when there is a glitch in this processing mode. Grandin says that being autistic has meant she is not able to follow the social rhythm of laughter. Other people will laugh together and then talk quietly until the next laughing cycle. She inadvertently interrupts or starts laughing at the wrong places . . ..(Judith Kay Nelson, What Made Freud Laugh: An Attachment Perspective on Laughter. Routledge, 2012) Filler Laughs When paying for food in Leipzig, I was struck by how much of my daily interaction was punctuated by laughter that was totally detached from what I was doing. I would buy some beer and cookies and give the clerk a twenty-euro note; inevitably, the clerk would ask if I had exact change because Germans are obsessed with both exactness and money. I would reach into my pocket and discover I had no coins, so I would reply, Um--heh heh heh. No. Sorry. Ha! Guess not. I made these noises without thinking. Every single time, the clerk would just stare at me stoically. It had never before occurred to me how often I reflexively laugh; only in the absence of a response did I realize I was laughing for no reason whatsoever. It somehow felt comfortable. Now that I’m back in the U.S., I notice this all the time: People half-heartedly chuckle throughout most casual conversations, regardless of the topic. It’s a modern extension of the verbalized pause, built by TV laugh tracks. Everyone in America has three laughs: a real laugh, a fake real laugh, and a filler laugh they use during impersonal conversations. We have been trained to connect conversation with soft, interstitial laughter. It’s our way of showing the other person that we understand the context of the interaction, even when we don’t. (Chuck Klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur. Scribner, 2009) Victor Borges Phonetic Punctuation [T]his punctuation effect is not nearly as strong as Provine has stated above. But his usage points out the possibility of other intrusions as well into spoken discourse, e.g., as in a statement such as The church bell just outside the window punctuated the pauses in their conversation. For the most part, however, punctuation remains part of the silent world of the written. The only exception to this that we know of is the extraordinarily idiosyncratic system of oral punctuation for spoken discourse devised by the comedian/pianist Victor Borge (1990), his so-called Phonetic Punctuation. His facetious explanation was that his system would prevent the frequent misunderstandings in oral conversations. He used brief vocalized sounds as intrusions into the speech stream for each of the types of punctuation as he read aloud. The effect was a cacophonous and unusually humorous chain of sounds that truly intruded upon the stream of spoken discourse and hacked it into small pieces. The extrao rdinary redundancy had the effect of reducing the message itself to background noise--for the sake of the humorous. And in the course of time, this presentation has become one of Borges most popular routines. (Daniel C. OConnell and Sabine Kowal, Communicating with One Another: Toward a Psychology of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse. Springer, 2008) Each of the pause markers we customarily use--commas, periods, dashes, ellipsis, exclamation points, question marks, parentheses, colons, and semicolons--suggests a different kind of beat. Victor Borge built a career on illustrating the differences among them with a comedy routine he called phonetic punctuation. As he spoke, hed sound out the punctuation marks we usually glide over silently. A period was a loud thwok, an exclamation mark was a descending squeak followed by a thwok, and so on.Maybe you had to be there. But from a writers point of view, Borge made an important point. Try following his lead and sound out each punctuation mark in your mind. Periods create the sharp, crisp break of a karate chop. Commas suggest the smoother rise and fall of a speed bump. Semicolons hesitate for a second and then flow forward. Dashes call a sudden halt. Ellipses ooze along like spilled honey. (Jack R. Hart, A Writers Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies That Work. Anchor Books, 2007)

Nature Vs. Nurture And Issues That People Pass Thought...

In the movie directed by Tyler Perry there is a story that begins in an elegant weeding for Alice’s daughter named Andrea. Charlotte a wealthy woman organized the weeding because of her friendship with Alice. In reality, the problem begins at this point because Andrea was complaining about how she looks, for her the dress of her mother didn’t have any special meaning. She wanted to have an elegant and expensive dress. She was an ungrateful and selfish person because at this point she looks ambitious. She wanted to have more than the love of a family, the people in your life that will be always there for you. In addition, some of the issues show in this movie are infidelity, poverty, unemployment, deception, and the disease of Alzheimer. Consequently, I believe that nature vs. nurture and issues that people pass thought affects how people are. Primary, nature refers to all of the genes and hereditary factors that influence why we are the way we are from our physical appe arance to our personality characteristics. For example, the characteristics that people have like, eyes color; hair color, skin color and height are some factors that form the personality of each individual. In others words, that sometimes people feel special when they have something different such as eyes color. In addition, being kind is another nature factor that influences the personality of every person. For instance, in the movie â€Å"The family that preys together† Charlotte shows kindness with her friendShow MoreRelatedNature Vs. Nurture Debate2114 Words   |  9 PagesNature vs. Nurture Albert Camus once said, â€Å"Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.† But what makes man what he is? Is it his sheer genetic makeup, or is it the way he was raised? 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According to the nature stance, who we are as individuals, that is, our physical characteristics, personality, intelligence, and how we behave, is biologically inherited, now known through our genetics. Hippocrates for instance, posited that humanRead MoreEssay about Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism2627 Words   |  11 Pageshas heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written. 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Unfortunately as history shows, it was once believed that human biology was unchanging and therefore those diagnosed with a mental illness could not be helped so social workers or psychiatrists wouldRead Moreis poverty the main factor affect crime5090 Words   |  21 Pagesand poverty is the state of being extremely poor and being without things, having little money, not many material possessions and the need of essential goods. Being poor means people have nothing and struggle to survive every day. Some sociologist have suggest that being tortured with poverty after a while leads to evil t houghts and the struggle of being in the poverty cycle committing crimes gradually becomes a new way of them wanting to break out of the poverty cycle some say there a high correlationRead MoreThis is an chapter by chapter summary of the book Becoming Attached, did it for extra credit11157 Words   |  45 PagesChapter 1: Mother-Love: Worst-Case Scenarios The human need to have our mother near is the theory that is expressed in chapter one. Chapter one goes through a time line of how we, as humans, came across this theory. The author tends to talk about and describe how as babies the basic need to have mother around is just as important as having food, water, and clean diapers. The author gives examples of children who were adopted after infancy and children whom had to spend significant amounts of timeRead MorePsychology Workbook Essay22836 Words   |  92 PagesPsychologists study emotions and mental processes. _____ Psychology and common sense lead to the same conclusions about behavior and mental processes. _____ Psychology is not a science. Objective I.2 Define the scientific method, and explain how it is used in psychology? Psychologists use the scientific method to evaluate competing ideas; find relationship of variables by collecting data |Margin Learning Question(s) (if applicable)

Comparison of Baroque and Rococo Styles - 1561 Words

HUM – 121 March 5, 2012 Comparison of Baroque and Rococo styles Introduction Premises and characteristics of Baroque Caravaggios Amor Victorious Emergence of Rococo Bouchers Nude on a Sofa Comparison of Baroque and Rococo styles Bibliography There have been different artistic peaks throughout the history of humanity influenced by specific social, political or religious situations of the time. Those peaks shaped by certain styles had an important impact on art as we know it today. One of the most recognized styles of art of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe were Baroque and Rococo styles.†¦show more content†¦After Louis XIV died in the year 1715 the social situation in France somewhat change. Political life and private morals relaxes as five years old Louis XV comes to throne. Many aristocrats move from the court of Versailles to Paris. Reaction against the formal style centered at Louis XIV Versailles provide basis for a new style to develop. Baroque designs that were in style before, gave way to lighter elements with more natural patterns. Rococo reflected the new taste for more delicate decoration for smaller, more comfortable interiors of town houses in Paris. First as interior decoration and d esign Rococo style would later expand and influence the other parts of art. It also spread around the Europe but its acceptance was tied to religion and class. First, Rococo style appears in interior decoration and design. It took pleasure in asymmetry by leaving elements unbalanced. Design elements as ornaments, leaves, flowers and curving lines were used to decorate the walls and ceilings and would made them look like fleeting illusions. That taste was new to European style. Though Rococo originated in the decorative arts, the style showed clearly in painting. Painters used delicate colors and curving forms, decorating their works with myths of love. The soft colors and elegant forms, provided a perfect accompaniment to the Rococo interiors for which they were intended. The asymmetrical compositions, pastoral landscapes and aristocracy inShow MoreRelatedPà ©rola Barroca the Imperfect Art : Baroque Essay813 Words   |  4 Pages‘pà ©rola Barroca’ , this word means Art works of Baroque which is came from Portuguese. In English, pà ©rola Barroca means distorted pearl. Although, the name of Baroque’s origin is not uncertain, people who lived in late 17c to early 18c might named for Baroque Arts pà ©rola Barroca for its imperfection and roughness. The age of late 17c to early 18c was very chaotic and contradictory society. Absolute Monarch and Revolutions for free and right were co-existed. In most countries, Absolute Monarch wasRead MoreGertrude Stein By Pablo Picasso And The Toilet Of Venus898 Words   |  4 Pagescontrast to the brightly colored image provided by Boucher of Madame de Pompadour. 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Character Analysis Abigail Kirk Beatie Bow free essay sample

Abigail Kirk This character is Abigail Kirk, who is the protagonist of the story. For the first ten years her life, she was Lynette Kirk, â€Å"happy as a lark†, and â€Å"hot-headed rag of a child†. She â€Å"vibrated with devotion† for many things, and was wrapped around her father’s fingers until he left her and her mother, Kathy, for another woman. She then stopped answering to Lynette, or any of the nicknames that reminded her of the betrayal that she suffered. One day, just to spite her grandmother, who incidentally has a spooky habit of speaking to her perm, and whom she shares an unspoken agreement to hate each other, she decided she wanted to adopt a name that was associated with witches, thus Lynette became Abigail, â€Å" from now on I’m Abigail Kirk and as soon as I am old enough, I will change the Kirk too†. Abigail is a private child, a reserved girl, keeping everyone at arm’s length. We will write a custom essay sample on Character Analysis Abigail Kirk Beatie Bow or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She is considered an outsider, and she didn’t care for friends. She was hurt after her father’s betrayal, and started pushing everyone away for fear of being hurt again. â€Å"She carefully laid false trails into her secret heart†, â€Å"yet when she grows older, she longs for someone to laugh at the false trails with†. Even though she hates her father, she still loves him. She misunderstands her parents’ situation, being only fourteen, and holds a grudge against her mother for going back to her father and agreeing to move to Norway, â€Å"he whistles and she goes back like a well trained dog†. Abigail is close to Natalie as she reminds Abigail a little of what she used to be when she was younger. She is protective of Natalie, who adores Vincent without restraint, therefore allowing her to be hurt by him. Beatie and Abigail have a love-hate relationship due to Abigail blaming Beatie for bringing her to the 18th century Sydney, and Beatie’s refusal to help Abigail get home, and Abigail threatening to tell Granny that Beatie has the gift. Abigail dislikes her Grandmother, who wears glittery scarves and high heels, who picks on Abigail on every opportunity, and bullies Kathy. Apparently, Grandmother also used to pick on Weyland Kirk, Abigail’s father, and talks to her perm. Abigail is portrayed as a fourteen year old girl for most of the story, who keeps everyone away for fear of being hurt, and conceals her heart beneath a layer of impenetrable ice. She doesn’t understand the true meaning of love, and she has, according to her, â€Å"missed her mother’s winning quaintness, and her father’s ash blond distinction. † She despairs of her figure ever arriving, â€Å"she is as thin and flat as a board† with a narrow brown face, and coffee black eyes.