Uptalk[1] is a useful addition to the language actually? In both speech and writing, it provides a terse and low-friction way of expressing ‘this is my current belief but I’m not fully confident in it’. The English language sadly doesn’t include a bound confidence marker[2], but the option of uptalk serves as a coarse-grained substitute. Rationalists should consider adopting it.
Oh, whoops, just added a link to a news program from 1994 on the topic. But tl;dr it’s the vocal act of raising your pitch at the end of a statement so that it sounds more like a question. Usually denoted in writing with a question mark, eg ‘John Adams was one of the best presidents?’ (that construction can also be an ordinary question, so there’s a bit of context sensitivity). It can sometimes denote things other than confidence, but that’s the most common meaning.
Ah. I have actually seen rationalists do this! And I think it works.
It’s faster than adding words like I think or may, but not much. It reads a little more oddly, but not much. So probably worth including in your vocabulary?
Tangentially, another rationalist grammatical quirk that I appreciate and have started to adopt is the use of ‘ever’ in positive statements, which I interpret to mean something like ‘yes but not often / not much’. For example: ‘I have ever met Jane Doe.’ or ‘She has ever eaten crêpes.’
Uptalk[1] is a useful addition to the language actually? In both speech and writing, it provides a terse and low-friction way of expressing ‘this is my current belief but I’m not fully confident in it’. The English language sadly doesn’t include a bound confidence marker[2], but the option of uptalk serves as a coarse-grained substitute. Rationalists should consider adopting it.
Also sometimes called ‘upspeak’.
Although Cuzco Quechua seems to?
Sounds interesting, I’ve always wanted easy confidence markers! What is “uptalk”?
Oh, whoops, just added a link to a news program from 1994 on the topic. But tl;dr it’s the vocal act of raising your pitch at the end of a statement so that it sounds more like a question. Usually denoted in writing with a question mark, eg ‘John Adams was one of the best presidents?’ (that construction can also be an ordinary question, so there’s a bit of context sensitivity). It can sometimes denote things other than confidence, but that’s the most common meaning.
Also sometimes called ‘upspeak’.
Ah. I have actually seen rationalists do this! And I think it works.
It’s faster than adding words like I think or may, but not much. It reads a little more oddly, but not much. So probably worth including in your vocabulary?
Tangentially, another rationalist grammatical quirk that I appreciate and have started to adopt is the use of ‘ever’ in positive statements, which I interpret to mean something like ‘yes but not often / not much’. For example: ‘I have ever met Jane Doe.’ or ‘She has ever eaten crêpes.’