!

I love the way language evolves over time, according to need. I love that no-one controls it, that words just bend their way across the languagescape, changing and altering as required. I love watching new words thrive or die and wondering why. I love that 'cool' has stayed the ultimate expression of goodness while other, lesser would-be successors have had their time and passed. I love reading the history of words. I'm glad the language grows and mutates and naturally pares away the language dross. I mean, the people who 'invented' Esperanto...what were they thinking? You don't just invent a language. They invent themselves, over thousands of years.

That said -and I'm not the first to say this- I could really do with a context-independent evolution of the exclamation mark. The exclamation mark has a lot of meanings, but in everyday e-mail use you generally want it to convey either anger, suprise or, more generally, a sort of pleased loudness.

"Thanks for dropping off those paperclips!" may not necessarily be suprised or angry, for example, just sort of happy and loud about it. (alternatively, this may be sarcasm)

The problem with having two essentially opposed emotions (anger and happiness) represented by the same emoticon is that it can lead to someone interpreting your messages in the opposite of the spirit that they were intended. For example, you might e-mail a co-worker and conclude your message with: "I'll bet you're down the pub!" meaning it with a smile, and half an hour later getting an apologetic e-mail back after they read it as: "I'll bet you're down the pub! Grrr."

All language is, of course, context specific, and it's neat that we even have a symbol that expresses loudness of any kind. But I think we can go one better. After all, we already have:

!? I'm angry and confused.
!?! I'm so angrily confused I am coming after you.
!!! I have no control when it comes to punctuation.

Would it really be so bad to have:

!+ I'm loud because I'm happy
!- I'm loud because I'm mad