{"id":589,"date":"2009-04-29T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2009-04-29T18:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/face-time-matters\/"},"modified":"2011-05-31T08:46:07","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T14:46:07","slug":"face-time-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2009\/04\/face-time-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"“Face time matters.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I instant-messaged this to a friend last week.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nThe statement is ambiguous without a hyphen.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nWhat does “Face time matters.” mean to you?<\/p>\n

Soon after I instant-messaged this statement, I realized that my friend could interpret what I wrote in two ways.<\/p>\n

One interpretation of the statement is that I was commanding or imploring my friend to seriously consider “time matters”.<\/p>\n

In other words, one interpretation of “Face time matters.” is that this was an imperative<\/em> statement.<\/p>\n

The other interpretation of “Face time matters.” is that I was telling my friend that “face time” with other people makes a difference.<\/p>\n

These two interpretations are possible because the word “face” is both a noun and a verb and because the word “matters” is both a noun and a verb.<\/p>\n

The solution comes from using a hyphen to indicate whether one is talking about about “time matters” or about “face time”.<\/p>\n

Written schematically, what we have is [NOUN|VERB] NOUN [VERB|NOUN], and any sentence that follows this pattern will be ambiguous without a hyphen between the first and second words or between the second and third words.<\/p>\n

Some might argue that using an exclamation mark instead of a period in “Face time matters.” would make it clear to the reader that the statement is an imperative.<\/p>\n

Unlike Spanish, which tends to favor the use of exclamation marks for imperative statements, American English seems to have dropped the common use of exclamation marks for imperatives a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Using a period instead of an exclamation mark at the end of an imperative statement is<\/em> consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to write a period than it is to write an exclamation mark (one stroke versus two strokes). And it is simpler to type a period than it is to type an exclamation mark (one key versus two keys).<\/p>\n

So the absence<\/em> of the exclamation mark does not assure American<\/em> readers that the statement is not<\/em> an imperative.<\/p>\n

But I would counter-argue that the presence<\/em> an exclamation mark at the end of a sentence with this pattern does not ensure that the sentence will be<\/em> interpreted as imperative. Instead, the exclamation mark could be interpreted as turning a declarative statement into an exclamatory statement.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong><\/p>\n