While early CMC research already mentioned the repetition and omission of certain punctuation signs as salient features of digital interactional writing (cf. Crystal, 2001; Runkehl et al., 1998; Werry, 1996), the theoretical perspective on punctuation was mostly limited to noting down these phenomena in their deviations from an orthographic norm and interpreting them as emulation of spoken language features. In contrast, this paper adopts a graphocentric approach and argues for investigating digital punctuation with regard to its emergent interactional principle: While the rhetorical principle (marking intonational structures) and the grammatical principle (marking syntactical structures) of punctuation are well known in the history of writing (cf. Parkes, 1992), digital punctuation appears as an innovative extension to these functional realms in that it is used by co-participants to shape and organize their mediated interactional order. When punctuation is deployed in an interactional mode, it structures primarily neither intonational patterns nor grammatical patterns, but interactional patterns such as shaping sequential organization and stance-taking. Drawing on a data set of 47 text-messaging threads by German adolescents, the paper investigates the interactional principle of punctuation by frequency analyses as well as by in-depth sequential analyses of <.>, <:>, <!>, <?>, and <…>. The findings suggest that even punctuation signs whose codification in descriptive and prescriptive grammars is based on pure syntactic criteria are utilized to achieve interactional goals. It shows that by following the interactional principle, punctuation establishes collaborative interactional management and serves participants as a graphic means of communicative and social contextualization in digital interactions.

尽管早期的CMC研究已经提到某些标点符号的重复和省略是数字交互写作的显着特征（参见Crystal，2001； Runkehl等人，1998； Werry，1996），但标点符号的理论观点大多仅限于指出减少这些现象，使其偏离正交规范，并将其解释为对口头语言功能的模仿。相比之下，本文采用以图心为中心的方法，并就其出现的交互原理提出了对数字标点的研究。：虽然标点符号的修辞原则（标记为国家结构）和语法原理（标记句法结构）在写作历史上是众所周知的（参见Parkes，1992），但数字标点符号似乎是对这些功能领域的创新扩展。共同参与者使用它来塑造和组织他们介导的互动顺序。当标点符号以交互方式进行部署时，它主要既不构成国家模式也不构成语法模式，而是构成交互模式（例如塑造顺序组织和立场）的结构。本文利用德国青少年的47条文本消息线程数据集，通过频率分析以及对<。>，<：>，<！>，<？的深入顺序分析，研究了标点符号的交互原理。 >，和<…>。这些发现表明，即使是在描述性和描述性语法中的编纂基于纯句法标准的标点符号也可用于实现交互目标。它表明通过遵循互动原则，标点符号建立协作互动的管理和服务参与者在数字互动交流和社会语境的图形手段。