Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

75%
+4 −0
Q&A Is there a name for this kind of sentence structure?

I've seen this construction quite a bit, although only in the last five years or so. It's a transcription of a way of speaking, where the speaker is emphasizing something by using a verbal full sto...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question structure
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:07Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5306
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:16:02Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/5306
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T02:16:02Z (about 5 years ago)
I've seen this construction quite a bit, although only in the last five years or so. It's a transcription of a way of speaking, where the speaker is emphasizing something by using a verbal full stop after several words in a row, no matter where it is in the sentence. To wit:

- Please don't use the "Prologue, then flashback" technique because it has been done. to. death. lately and I am sick of it.
- "We are going to do this because we were hired to do it, and then we. Are. Finished. Forever. I don't ever want to speak to you again."
- That episode of _The Simpsons_? Best. Episode. Ever.

Does this structure have a name? And while we're at it, is there any convention to how the words are capitalized? I used all three ways I've seen it (no caps because it's in the middle of a sentence, caps after every period, three "single-word sentences") in the examples above.

(My guess is that it originated from [Comic Book Guy's](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Book_Guy#Character) catchphrase, but that's neither here nor there.)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-03-23T11:07:59Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 5