Question mark or period

Question

If you say this to someone but aren't looking for an answer sort of like a rhetoric question, would you put a question mark or a period?

Is there anything wrong with the sentence?

How pitiful team is this.
How pitiful is this team.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

All questions get a question mark, even rhetorical ones.

~~How pitiful team is this.~~
How pitiful is this team?

BillJ · Answer

AnonymousIf you say this to someone but aren't looking for an answer sort of like a rhetoric question, would you put a question mark or a period?Is there anything wrong with the sentence?How pitiful team is this.How pitiful is this team.

How pitiful is this team!

If it's not intended as a question, then the use of "how" like this means that it is an exclamatory statement expressing the author's view of the state of the team, and an exclamation mark would be correct. That mark is the usual punctuation for exclamatives like this.

BillJ

RandomGuy · Answer

BillJThat mark is the usual punctuation for exclamatives like this.

No. To permit this punctuation, you would need to change the word order.

How pitiful this team is!

There is a difference between a how introducing an exclamatory question and one introducing an exclamatory statement.

Elizabethd90 · Answer

However, in normal conversation, an English speaker would not say "How pitiful this team is!", they would say "How pitiful is this team". You can tell whether a question is rhetorical or not based upon the context and content of the question. Just reading "How pitiful is this team?" I can tell that it is a rhetorical question.

BillJ · Answer

Aspara GusBillJ That mark is the usual punctuation for exclamatives like this.No. To permit this punctuation, you would need to change the word order. How pitiful this team is! There is a difference between a how introducing a question and one introducing an exclamatory statement.

So are these three examples, two with "how" and one with "what", exclamatives or interrogatives?

How rarely does one see such chivalry nowadays.

How often have I told you not to put your feet on the sofa.

What a disaster would it be if they were to appoint his son.

BillJ

Enoon · Answer

One important use of the exclamation point is to signal that an inversion is not interrogative. That isn't called for much these days, but it is still legitimate.

"What a good boy am I!"

"How green is my cornfield!"

"How pitiful is this team!"

We, sadly, have been hypnotized by the parade of a million exclamation points we've seen used as mere stage direction or childish emphasis. Of course, you can construe that last one as a rhetorical question, but it is really like the others at the core. It's just that we don't talk like that much anymore.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

You can also exclaim
eg How pitiful a team this is!
eg How pitiful this team is!

These are not questions.

Clive

BillJ · Answer

enoonOne important use of the exclamation point is to signal that an inversion is not interrogative. That isn't called for much these days, but it is still legitimate."What a good boy am I!""How green is my cornfield!""How pitiful is this team!"We, sadly, have been hypnotized by the parade of a million exclamation points we've seen used as mere stage direction or childish emphasis. Of course, you can construe that last one as a rhetorical question, but it is really like the others at the core. It's just that we don't talk like that much anymore.

The traditional 'rule' says that sentences like "How pitiful is this team" and "How hopeless is that" are open-interrogative in their form, and so should be ended with question marks. The rule goes on: 'even though they function semantically as exclamatory statements, they don't instantiate the exclamative clause type, which never exhibits subject-aux inversion'.

Fine, that may be right. But I would temper that rule (and one modern grammar supports me on this) by saying 'They usually have subject+predicator order, but subject-aux inversion is also possible provided the exclamative phrase is in non-subject function':

[1] How happy would he be if he could see her once more!
[2] How rarely does one see such chivalry nowadays!
[3] How pitiful is this team!

[1] and [2], are examples of exclamatives from a very highly-respected grammar (note the punctuation), and thus must be acceptable; notice that in both, the exclamatory phrases are not subjects ("he" and "one" are the subjects) and they both exhibit sub-aux inversion. [3], the OP's example, has the same form as the others - it too has sub-aux inversion, and the exclamative phrase is not subject. So why treat it differently to the others?

[4] How sad is that (! or ?)
[5] How cool is that (! or ?)

More contemporary are the expressions in [4] and [5]. They tick all the boxes that [1] and [2] do. And would anyone really say the non-inverted "How sad that is" or "How cool that is" when the intended meaning is exclamatory?

A bridge too far, perhaps?

BillJ

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