Request, ask, and the question mark

Question

Hi,I was taught, "when you write a question, follow it with a question mark".Often when writing something similar to, "would you kindly get back to me when you have the information", I wonder about adding a question mark.Seems to me that it is and isn't a question.Perhaps somebody would expand on this for me?MikePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Hi, I was taught, "when you write a question, follow it with a question mark".[/nq]
Sounds sensible, doesn't it?
[nq:1]Often when writing something similar to, "would you kindly get back to me when you have the information", I wonder about adding a question mark. Seems to me that it is and isn't a question.[/nq]
It's a question in grammatical form, and my opinion is that anything that is grammatically a question should end with a question mark. Plenty of people disagree with me, however, and there is no consensus.
[nq:1]Perhaps somebody would expand on this for me?[/nq]
If you use question marks to end questions, you shouldn't use them to end non-questions. "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" is not, grammatically, a question. Put a period (full stop) at the end.

Bob Lieblich, AmEclectic
Ask and ye shall be answered

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]end non-questions. "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" is not, grammatically, a question. Put a period (full stop) at the end.[/nq]
That's your final answer?
Otherwise, I agree completely. If your request is phrased as a question, it deserves a question mark. If it's not, it doesn't. When I see something like "I wonder if you could get back to me when you have more information?" my thought is always "How should I know whether you wonder? You tell me."
¬R Plus meditandum, minus misculandum. (Marty Shapiro, deftly translated by Sean Fitzpatrick)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Hi, I was taught, "when you write a question, follow it with a question mark". Often when writing something similar ... isn't a question. Perhaps somebody would expand on this for me? Mike Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com[/nq]
That is rather verbose. And you don't really want it to be a question; that leaves any response up to that person. It should be a polite instruction: "Please get back to me when you have the information."

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]If you use question marks to end questions, you shouldn't use them to end non-questions. "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" is not, grammatically, a question. Put a period (full stop) at the end.[/nq]
But a statement can be turned into a question just by adding a question mark. Agreed?
I don't think the OP was in error. It was his choice to use the interrogative.
C.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]If you use question marks to end questions, you shouldn't ... a question. Put a period (full stop) at the end.[/nq]
[nq:1]But a statement can be turned into a question just by adding a question mark. Agreed?[/nq]Some can, some can't. "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" doesn't turn magically into a question if you put a question mark after it; it just gets thrown out of whack. This is one of those intersections of semantics and syntax depending on what a sentence says, it may or may not be susceptible to conversion from declarative to interrogative. "Columbus discovered America." with period at end is declarative. "Columbus discovered America?" with question mark at end is interrogative probably uttered by a descendant of Leif Ericsson, or perhaps by an irritable Navajo.

But I defy you to utter "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" in a way that makes it sound interrogative without approaching absurdity. On top of which, if you go back to context, it's quite clear that the OP didn't use it as a question. It's a statement. It may be a statement about something to which he seeks an answer, but that doesn't make it a question. "Would someone please expand on this for me?" is a question. What the OP wrote isn't.

The converse of this rule is that rhetorical questions get question marks even if no answer is expected; the sentence should be so written that the reader understands no anwer is wanted, e.g., "Isn't this a stupid topic to be arguing about?"

Punctuation is conventional. It's an aid to deriving meaning from the written word, but it functions indirectly by clarifying syntax. English has three marks with which to signal the end of a sentence, and they serve the useful function of indicating whether the sentence is declarative, interrogatory, or exclamatory. As in my Columbus example, you may not know what you've got until you see the ending punctuation. (And isn't it nice of Spanish to clue us in at the beginning as well as the end of questions and exclamations and, by the absence of a mark, of declarative sentences?) But where the punctuation clashes with the form there's a risk of misunderstanding. If there's one thing we don't need in English, it's more misunderstanding.
I realize I'm advocating my preference rather than a universal rule. So no one will be flogged for iognoring the rule I defend, although I believe mine has at least as many adherents as the one that allows for a question mark any time the writer comes close to interrogative sense and without regard to the syntax of the sentence.
And that's more than enough of that.
[nq:1]I don't think the OP was in error. It was his choice to use the interrogative.[/nq]
Well, of course it was his choice. The issue is whether it was a correct choice. As I've said in both my posts of this thread, I don't claim to have a pipeline directly to grammatical truth, but to me the sentence is declarative in form and simply goes weird if you put anything other than a period after it.

Bob Lieblich, AmEclectic
Right? Right

Usenet · Answer

>
[nq:2]If you use question marks to end questions, you shouldn't ... a question. Put a period (full stop) at the end.[/nq]
[nq:1]But a statement can be turned into a question just by adding a question mark. Agreed? I don't think the OP was in error. It was his choice to use the interrogative.[/nq]
Indeed. A large part of what marks a question in spoken English is the rising inflection on the final word. The only way to communicate that a sentence is a question in written English is with a question mark.

"Perhaps someone would expand on this for me." doesn't read like a question, or a request. It reads like a statement, and the response could very legitimately be, "Probably." "Someone might." But it was fairly clear that the OP intended it to be a request for clarification, not a statement that clarification could be possible.
So it goes back to a fundamental question: should punctuation be determined by form or by function?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]>[/nq]
[nq:2]But a statement can be turned into a question just ... in error. It was his choice to use the interrogative.[/nq]
[nq:1]Indeed. A large part of what marks a question in spoken English is the rising inflection on the final word. ... could be possible. So it goes back to a fundamental question: should punctuation be determined by form or by function?[/nq]
I think the above comes closest to answering my personal dilemma.

After writing something, I read it back to myself to see if it 'sounds' right and mentally add my intended inflection.

In future, I will remember that the reader will not be able to hear the inflection and will therefore make a change to the sentence if necessary.
Michael

Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]But I defy you to utter "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" in a way that makes it sound interrogative without approaching absurdity.[/nq]
Piece of cake. Just use a rising intonation on "me" and it becomes a question.
Remember the "Valley Girl" topic. It referred to a speech pattern that was found maybe still found in which practically every statement uttered ended with a rising intonation. One reasonable explanation for that phenomenon was that the speaker was trying to avoid seeming arrogant, as she might have seemed if she had advanced her opinion without allowing for the possibility that others might have opinions that were as good or better.
The rising intonation made her statement a question equivalent to "Do you agree with me?"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]> Indeed. A large part of what marks a question ... question: should punctuation be determined by form or by function?[/nq]
[nq:1]I think the above comes closest to answering my personal dilemma. After writing something, I read it back to myself ... reader will not be able to hear the inflection and will therefore make a change to the sentence if necessary.[/nq]
The reader doesn't have to hear the inflection. It's implied by the question mark.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]But I defy you to utter "Perhaps someone would expand on this for me" in a way that makes it sound interrogative without approaching absurdity.[/nq]
[nq:1]Piece of cake. Just use a rising intonation on "me" and it becomes a question.[/nq]
To be sure. But an absurd one. As I pointed out in material now snipped, meaning matters.
[nq:1]Remember the "Valley Girl" topic.[/nq]
With great dread.

Bob Lieblich, AmEclectic
Bobbin' along

Request, ask, and the question mark

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions