World, meet the exclamation¹ comma -- the punctuation² mark you didn't know existed, but that you almost certainly need in your life.

大家来欢迎感叹逗号，你可能不知道有这样的标点符号存在，但生活中绝对会用得到。

The exclamation comma is, as its name suggests, a symbol that looks like an exclamation point, only with a comma instead of a period at its base. As the Grammarly blog noted³ this week, it's used just like an exclamation mark “to denote excitement, add flourish, and generally lend a statement a certain degree of emotion and emphasis,” but it's to be placed within sentences rather than at the end of them.

从它的名字“感叹逗号”就可以看出，这个标点符号外形像个感叹号，只不过尾部的标点不是句点，而是个逗号。据语法博客介绍，感叹逗号的用法和感叹号相同，“用于表现兴奋、增强语气、为一句话增添感情色彩并表示强调意味，”不过，感叹逗号应该用在句子中间，而不是句子结尾处。

For example:

“That velociraptor is so scary [insert exclamation comma] but don't worry, he's not going to eat you.”

例如：

“那个迅猛龙好吓人（插入感叹逗号），不过别担心，他不会吃了你的。”

The exclamation comma was reportedly created by American inventors Leonard Storch, Haagen Ernst Van and Sigmund Silber in 1992, who also lobbied for its widespread adoption⁴. However, their patent for the symbol lapsed⁵ in 1995, and their effort to popularize it ultimately failed.

据称，感叹逗号是由美国发明家李奥纳·史托奇、恩斯特·范哈根和席蒙·施尔柏在1992年发明的，他们同时也大力游说推广该符号的广泛使用。不过，他们为该符号申请的专利于1995年失效，而他们的推广行动也以失败告终。

Interest in the exclamation comma has surged this week after the Grammarly blog's post on it, but it's not the only obscure punctuation mark that deserves attention.

本周语法博客发布相关文章以后，人们对感叹逗号的兴趣被激发出来。其实，感叹逗号并不是唯一一个值得被关注的过时的标点符号。

For instance, there's the question comma (the exclamation comma's inquisitive⁶ cousin), the SarcMark (short for “sarcasm⁷ mark”), the irony⁸ mark and the wonderfully-named Interrobang (which looks like what would happen if an exclamation point and a question mark jumped into bed together).

比如，我们有问逗号（感叹逗号在疑问家族的表亲）、讽刺号、反讽号以及有着好听名字的疑问惊叹号（这个符号看上去像感叹号和问号一起躺在床上）。