0
Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Should Punctuation Agree with Syntax or Semantics?
We are trained to write punctuation automatically. In almost all sentences, the syntax of a sentence matches the semantics in regards to how punctuation should be used. However, there is at least one situation in English where this is questionable. A polite request in English is syntactially the same as a question. However, it is semantically different: it is a request; not a question.
For example:
Could you please feed the dog?
Of course this sentence could be taken as an actual question. In this case the question mark is warranted semantically and syntactically. However, I may be simply requesting of a person that they feed the dog. In this case the question mark matches the syntax of the sentence but not the semantics.
My personal thought on this is that punctuation should match semantics and not syntax. This is because one of the functions of punctuation is to indicate meaning. In my opinion, a question mark does exactly what its moniker suggests: it marks a sentence as a question. So isn't it fair to say that question marks are only warranted at the end of polite requests when they are actually meant to be questions?
There is another way to look at this problem. In English, when we want to phrase a question we re-order the sentence to indicate that semantically, a sentence is a question. There are many other cases in English where we re-order words in a sentence to change the meaning of a sentence. So couldn't it be the case that the ordering of the words to form a question is exactly the same as the ordering of the words to form a polite request? In other words, isn't it the case that the sentence "could you please feed the dog" could be either a polite request or a question?
Isn't it the case that the convention of always putting a question mark after a polite request like the one mentioned about actually negates the usefulness of the question mark? My personal opinion is that a question mark is perfect for indicating the semantic difference between a polite request and a question.
So the main question is should punctuation agree with syntax or semantics? If the former is the case then we still don't need question marks on the end of polite requests because it is perfectly possible that the syntax of a polite request is exactly the same as that of a question. Isn't this correct?
For example:
Could you please feed the dog?
Of course this sentence could be taken as an actual question. In this case the question mark is warranted semantically and syntactically. However, I may be simply requesting of a person that they feed the dog. In this case the question mark matches the syntax of the sentence but not the semantics.
My personal thought on this is that punctuation should match semantics and not syntax. This is because one of the functions of punctuation is to indicate meaning. In my opinion, a question mark does exactly what its moniker suggests: it marks a sentence as a question. So isn't it fair to say that question marks are only warranted at the end of polite requests when they are actually meant to be questions?
There is another way to look at this problem. In English, when we want to phrase a question we re-order the sentence to indicate that semantically, a sentence is a question. There are many other cases in English where we re-order words in a sentence to change the meaning of a sentence. So couldn't it be the case that the ordering of the words to form a question is exactly the same as the ordering of the words to form a polite request? In other words, isn't it the case that the sentence "could you please feed the dog" could be either a polite request or a question?
Isn't it the case that the convention of always putting a question mark after a polite request like the one mentioned about actually negates the usefulness of the question mark? My personal opinion is that a question mark is perfect for indicating the semantic difference between a polite request and a question.
So the main question is should punctuation agree with syntax or semantics? If the former is the case then we still don't need question marks on the end of polite requests because it is perfectly possible that the syntax of a polite request is exactly the same as that of a question. Isn't this correct?
Top answer
Hi, You have raised some interesting points. To me, Could you please feed the dog. looks jarring without the question mark, so I wouldn't hesitate to put it there.
- Hi, You have raised some interesting points.
- To me, Could you please feed the dog.
- looks jarring without the question mark, so I wouldn't hesitate to put it there.
- In most contexts, I don't think the presence of a question mark like this is going to cause any confusion to the reader.
- In fact, it seems reasonable to me to suggest that most requests of this type are spoken rather than written, anyway.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
1 Answers
0
Hi,
You have raised some interesting points.
To me, Could you please feed the dog. looks jarring without the question mark, so I wouldn't hesitate to put it there. In most contexts, I don't think the presence of a question mark like this is going to cause any confusion to the reader. In fact, it seems reasonable to me to suggest that most requests of
You have raised some interesting points.
To me, Could you please feed the dog. looks jarring without the question mark, so I wouldn't hesitate to put it there. In most contexts, I don't think the presence of a question mark like this is going to cause any confusion to the reader. In fact, it seems reasonable to me to suggest that most requests of
0
Related Questions