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Verbal Emoticons Example
After writing the Verbal Emoticans page, I read Two Nights by Reich. I think these are examples of language moving in the direction I am suggesting.
"Somethings got to be wrong for me to drop by?" Gravely. Gruffly.
Actual emoticons tend to be confined to visual expressions. But there is no reason why verbal emoticons cannot also be about sound. Reichs has no fear of fragments. But the fact remains, she did not write "he said gravely. Gruffly."
But they would have been more emoticonish as adjectives: "Gruff. Grave." I would have preferred that choice.
"I'm as happy as a clam out here." Arms uplifted to emphasize the level of my joy
This is expressed as a visual picture, which is one step towards verbal emoticon. What's missing is shortening of the expression.
"She was only fiften." A beat, then "Opaline thinks ..."
A beat qualifies in almost every respect except nothing is happening. It implies an intentional wait, right?
"Good one." Finger pistol point.
"Or best." I flicked Groucho brows.
And from a sober article in The Atlantic:
I wrote a book arguing that the proper U.S. response was not to try to be more like Japan but instead to be “more like us” — which was the book’s title. (Its subtitle was Making America Great Again. Sigh.)
Verbal Emoticons
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