Comment on Is there a parenthesis gesture like there are air quotes?
CallMeAl@piefed.zip 3 days ago
No because there is no need. Air quotes indicate that you are quoting someone elss. You are speaking someone else’s words.
A sentence with a parenthetical clause is still gramatically valid without the marks to offset the clause. The is no need to indicate it visually.
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 3 days ago
Air quotes almost never mean literally quoting someone else. I’d say it signifies that the speaker doesn’t agree with the words they are saying. Per Wikipedia: “Air quotes are often used to express satire, sarcasm, irony or euphemism and are analogous to scare quotes in print.”
CallMeAl@piefed.zip 3 days ago
The very wikipedia article you are quoting says that’s exactly what air quotes are right in the opening paragraph. As it says, air quotes are used in speech as quotation marks are using in print. You’re not wrong that its often about the sarcasm, etc but it is primarily in relation to another’s speech.
It also includes this reference which describes the sarcastic use of air quotes as “a snide, easy way to discredit or distance oneself from the other side’s words”