Verbalisation Patterns of Punctuation Marks in English: A Multimodal Perspective

This paper investigates the patterns of verbalisation and the pragmatic functions of punctuation in spoken English. Punctuation marks are visual signs that lack phonetic realisation and are not typically verbalised. As communication becomes increasingly shaped by digital media, the boundaries between writing and speech, i.e., between visual and auditory modalities, are becoming more porous. Computer-mediated communication, such as social media and messaging apps, has amplified exposure to written signs and facilitated their migration into speech (Baron 1984; Crystal 2001). Adopting a multimodal pragmatic perspective (Haryanti, Saddhoro, Anindyarini 2023), this study presents preliminary findings on the pragmatic functions of spoken punctuation in English. Drawing on data from scripted dialogue (Davies 2019), it maps selected instances of verbalised punctuation and discusses their emerging roles in meaning-making.