|
|
Article: sideways glance; Emoticons add personality to e-mail messages
- Article from:
- Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque)
- Article date:
- August 5, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 Telegraph - Herald (Dubuque). Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Had he been well-versed in the use of emoticons, it is quite
possible epic poet Dante would have penned the following memorable
line:
"There is no greater :-( than to recall a time of :-) when in
):..-(o)"
Unfortunately, the giant of Italian literature missed using
emoticons - small punctuation marks arranged to convey emotion - by
about 600 years.
So the author of "The Divine Comedy" had no :-( for sorrow, no :-
) for happiness and no ):..-(o) for misery when describing imagined
visits to Hell >:( and Purgatory :-/ and Paradise 0:-) .
Indeed, for centuries theologians, +-(:-) philosophers, :?)
statesmen 4:-) and scholars :8-) have missed the opportunity to
convey emotional content ...
<:-)>