Is generational punctuation still a thing?
Language Log 2026-07-19
Apparently so, though it's continuing to evolve. Reviewing Florence Hazrat's forthcoming book On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World, Judith Shulevitz focuses on the current generational and contextual differences in English punctuation ("Punctuation: A generational divide", The Atlantic 7/14/2026).
There was a flurry of attention to such things a couple of decades ago:
"The new semiotics of punctuation", 11/7/2012 "Agressive periods and the popularity of lingusitics", 11/26/2013 "Generational punctuation differences again", 8/1/2014 "Query: Punctuation in personal digital media", 2/23/2015
What I've seen about it more recently, or at least noticed, is a bit off to the side:
"Prosodic punctuation", 12/19/2017 "More on grammar, punctuation, and prosody", 12/19/2017 "Barstool punctuation", 4/4/2020 "Cumulative punctuation", 4/15/2020 "2020 punctuation/prosody", 9/19/2020 "Punctuation marks hanging out", 4/8/2025 "Death by punctuation", 6/3/2026
I haven't seen any discussions of punctuational innovations in other languages/orthographies, like Chinese or Korean, though this might be because it's not happening?