"
Verbal Capitalization" is the act of changing the
pronunciation of a word or words to
emphasize its meaning, depending on the context.
Geeks are a great fan of this and have many
catch phrases that are Verbally Capitalized.
The Jargon File even touches on some of the aspects in regards to
Hacker Speech Style.
Many common phrases are found more often verbally capitalized than others. These can include such catch phrases as: Good Thing, Bad Thing, Good Idea, Bad Idea, Right Way, Wrong Way. The phrases that are verbally capitalized are generally important or profound in some way. The tone of voice when telling a newbie that trying to see how the mail servers memory management is by writing a fork bomb is the Wrong Thing to do. Telling management that spamming its users with email telling them how wonderful your company is is Bad and Wrong must be said just right. Learning which words and phrases to verbally capitalize is essential!