This is something between a question and a shower thought. People use air quotes to stimulate “quoting” a word or short phrase in the middle of a sentence. Are there any other punctuation marks that can be stimulated this way? And in particular, is there a gesture for parentheses (like this)?
If not, then why not? How did quotes get special treatment?
And if yes - how many people would actually understand what those other gestures mean? (I am reminded of that scene from Friends where Joey admits he doesn’t know what air quotes mean)
Image taken from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quotes / commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airquotes.gif
conniemalizia@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
@ steal a brainrot: It will be understood, but I don’t regularly see it being used. I personally see it as a way of disagreeing with a statement that a third person made without explaining why you disagree or even making a statement up that you think a third person could have made, again without explanation. I don’t think it helps with good communication.