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Question mark

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"?"redirects here. For "¿", seeInverted question mark.For the backwards or mirrored question mark ⸮ used to indicate irony or sarcasm, seePercontation point.For the similar but dotless mark ʔ used in IPA, seeGlottal stop.For other uses, see?(disambiguation).
?
Question mark
U+003F?QUESTION MARK(?)
¿ ﹖ ؟
Inverted question mark Small question mark Arabic question mark

Thequestion mark?(also known asinterrogation point,query,orerotemeinjournalism[1]) is apunctuation markthat indicates aquestionorinterrogative clauseor phrase in manylanguages.

History

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In the fifth century,SyriacBible manuscripts used question markers, according to a 2011 theory by manuscript specialist Chip Coakley: he believes thezagwa elaya( "upper pair" ), a vertical double dot over a word at the start of a sentence, indicates that the sentence is a question.[2][3]

8th centurypunctus interrogativusfrom theGodescalc Evangelistary.(BnF NAL 1203, f. 6v.)

From around 783, inGodescalc Evangelistary,a mark described as "a lightning flash, striking from right to left" is attested.[4][5]This mark is later called apunctus interrogativus.According to somepaleographers,it may have indicatedintonation,perhaps associated with early musical notation likeneumes.[4]Another theory, is that the "lightning flash" was originally atildeortitlo,as in·~,one of many wavy or more or less slanted marks used inmedievaltexts for denoting things such asabbreviations,which would later become variousdiacriticsorligatures.[6][7]

An 11th centurypunctus interrogativus;in the third line before "tamen". (Burgerbibliothek Bern,Cod. 162, f. 15r.)

From the 10th century, the pitch-defining element (if it ever existed) seems to have been gradually forgotten, so that the "lightning flash" sign (with the stroke sometimes slightly curved) is often seen indifferently at the end of clauses, whether they embody a question or not.[citation needed]

In the early 13th century, when the growth of communities of scholars (universities) in Paris and other major cities led to an expansion and streamlining of the book-production trade,[8]punctuation was rationalized by assigning the "lightning flash" specifically tointerrogatives;by this time the stroke was more sharply curved and can easily be recognized as the modern question mark. (See, for example,De Aetna[it](1496) printed byAldo ManuzioinVenice.[9])

In 1598, the English termpoint of interrogationis attested in anItalian–English dictionary byJohn Florio.[10]

In the 1850s, the termquestion markis attested:[11]

The mark which you are to notice in this lesson is of this shape?You see it is made by placing a little crooked mark over a period.... The name of this mark is theQuestion Mark,because it is always put after a question. Sometimes it is called by a longer and harder name. The long and hard name is theInterrogation Point.

Scope

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In English, the question mark typically occurs at the end of a sentence, where it replaces thefull stop(period). However, the question mark may also occur at the end of a clause or phrase, where it replaces the comma(see alsoQuestion comma):

"Is it good in form? style? meaning?"

or:

"Showing off for him, for all of them, not out of hubris—hubris? him? what did he have to be hubrid about?—but from mood and nervousness." —Stanley Elkin.[12]

This is quite common inSpanish,where the use of bracketing question marks explicitly indicates the scope of interrogation.

En el caso de que no puedas ir con ellos, ¿quieres ir con nosotros?('In case you cannot go with them, would you like to go with us?')

A question mark may also appear immediately after questionable data, such as dates:

Genghis Khan (1162?–1227)

In other languages and scripts

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Opening and closing question marks in Spanish

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Main article:Inverted question and exclamation marks
Opening and closing question marks

In Spanish, since the second edition of theOrtografíaof theReal Academia Españolain 1754, interrogatives require both opening¿and closing?question marks.[13][14]An interrogative sentence, clause, or phrase begins with aninverted question mark¿and ends with the question mark?,as in:

Ella me pregunta «¿qué hora es?»– 'She asks me, "What time is it?"'

Question marks must always be matched, but to mark uncertainty rather than actual interrogation omitting the opening one is allowed, although discouraged:[15]

Gengis Khan (¿1162?–1227)is preferred in Spanish overGengis Khan (1162?–1227)

The omission of the opening mark is common in informal writing, but is considered an error. The one exception is when the question mark is matched with an exclamation mark, as in:

¡Quién te has creído que eres?– 'Who do you think you are?!'

(The order may also be reversed, opening with a question mark and closing with an exclamation mark.) Nonetheless, even here theAcademiarecommends matching punctuation:[16]

¡¿Quién te has creído que eres?!

The opening question mark in Unicode isU+00BF¿INVERTED QUESTION MARK(¿).

In other languages of Spain

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Galicianalso uses the inverted opening question mark, though usually only in long sentences or in cases that would otherwise be ambiguous.BasqueandCatalan,however, use only the terminal question mark.[clarification needed]

Solomon Islands Pidgin

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InSolomon Islands Pidgin,the question can be between question marks since, in yes/no questions, the intonation can be the only difference.

?Solomon Aelan hemi barava gudfala kandre, ia man?('Solomon Islandsis a great country, isn't it?')[17]

Armenian question mark

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Question mark in Armenian

InArmenian,the question mark is adiacriticthat takes the form of an open circle and is placed over the last vowel of the question word. It is defined in Unicode atU+055E◌՞ARMENIAN QUESTION MARK.

Greek question mark

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TheGreekquestion mark (Greek:ερωτηματικό,romanized:erōtīmatikó) looks like;.It appeared around the same time as the Latin one, in the 8th century.[18]It was adopted byChurch Slavonicand eventually settled on a form essentially similar to the Latinsemicolon.InUnicode,it is separately encoded asU+037E;GREEK QUESTION MARK,but the similarity is so great that thecode pointisnormalisedtoU+003B;SEMICOLON,making the marks identical in practice.[19]In Greek, the question mark is used even forindirect questions.

Mirrored question mark in right-to-left scripts

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"؟" redirects here. For the symbol this may also stand for, seeIrony punctuation.
Mirrored question mark inArabicandPerso-Arabic

InArabicand other languages that use Arabic script such asPersian,UrduandUyghur (Arabic form),which are written fromright to left,the question mark is mirrored right-to-left from the Latin question mark. In Unicode, two encodings are available:U+061F؟ARABIC QUESTION MARK(Withbi-directionalcode AL: Right-to-Left Arabic) andU+2E2E⸮REVERSED QUESTION MARK(With bi-directional code Other Neutrals). Some browsers may display the character in the previous sentence as a forward question mark due to font or text directionality issues. In addition, theThaanascript inDhivehiuses the mirrored question mark: މަރުހަބާ؟

The Arabic question mark is also used in some other right-to-left scripts:N'Ko,SyriacandAdlam. Adlam also hasU+1E95F𞥟ADLAM INITIAL QUESTION MARK:𞥟 𞤢𞤤𞤢𞥄 ؟,'No?'.[20][better source needed]

Hebrew scriptis also written right-to-left, but it uses a question mark that appears on the page in the same orientation (e.g.את מדברת עברית?) as the left-to-right question mark.[21]

Fullwidth question mark in East Asian languages

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The question mark is also used in modern writing inChineseand, to a lesser extent,Japanese.Usually it is written asfullwidth formin Chinese and Japanese, in Unicode:U+FF1F?FULLWIDTH QUESTION MARK.[clarification needed] Chinese and Japanese also have a spoken indicator of questions, sao (ma) and か (ka) respectively, which essentially function as a verbal question mark. Because of this, in Japanese use of the question mark is optional with か. Thus the same sentence could be written both いいですか? ('May I?') or いいですか. (Still 'May I?'), but usually, the question mark is used.

In other scripts

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Some other scripts have a specific question mark:

Stylistic variants

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French orthographyspecifies anarrow non-breaking spacebefore the question mark.[22](e.g., "Que voulez-vous boire ?"); inEnglish orthography,no space appears in front of the question mark (e.g. "What would you like to drink?" ).[23]

Typological variants of "?"

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The rhetorical question mark or percontation point (seeIrony punctuation) was invented byHenry Denhamin the 1580s and was used at the end of arhetorical question;[24]however, it became obsolete in the 17th century. It was the reverse of an ordinary question mark, so that instead of the main opening pointing back into the sentence, it opened away from it.[24]This character can be represented usingU+2E2E⸮REVERSED QUESTION MARK.

Bracketed question marks can be used for rhetorical questions, for exampleOh, really(?),in informal contexts such asclosed captioning.

The question mark can also be used as ameta-sign to signal uncertainty regarding what precedes it. It is usually put between brackets:(?).The uncertainty may concern either a superficial level (such as unsure spelling), or a deepertruth(realmeaning).

In typography, some other variants and combinations are available: "⁇," "⁈," and "⁉," are usually used forchess annotation symbols;theinterrobang,"‽," is used to combine the functions of the question mark[25]and theexclamation mark,superposing these two marks.

Unicode makes available these variants:

  • U+2047⁇DOUBLE QUESTION MARK
  • U+2048⁈QUESTION EXCLAMATION MARK
  • U+2049⁉EXCLAMATION QUESTION MARK
  • U+203D‽INTERROBANG
  • U+2E18⸘INVERTED INTERROBANG
  • U+2E2E⸮REVERSED QUESTION MARK
  • U+061F؟ARABIC QUESTION MARK
  • U+FE56﹖SMALL QUESTION MARK
  • U+00BF¿INVERTED QUESTION MARK(¿)
  • U+2753❓BLACK QUESTION MARK ORNAMENT
  • U+2754❔WHITE QUESTION MARK ORNAMENT
  • U+1F679🙹HEAVY INTERROBANG ORNAMENT
  • U+1F67A🙺SANS-SERIF INTERROBANG ORNAMENT
  • U+1F67B🙻HEAVY SANS-SERIF INTERROBANG ORNAMENT

Computing

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Incomputing,the question markcharacteris represented byASCIIcode 63 (0x3F hexadecimal), and is located at Unicode code-pointU+003F?QUESTION MARK(?). The full-width (double-byte) equivalent (?), is located at code-pointU+FF1F?FULLWIDTH QUESTION MARK.[26]

Theinverted question mark(¿) corresponds to Unicode code-pointU+00BF¿INVERTED QUESTION MARK(¿), and can be accessed from the keyboard inMicrosoft Windowson the default US layout by holding down theAltand typing either1 6 8(ANSI) or0 1 9 1(Unicode) on the numeric keypad. InGNOMEapplications onLinuxoperating systems, it can be entered by typing the hexadecimal Unicode character (minus leading zeros) while holding down bothCtrlandShift,I J mm.e.:Ctrl Shift B F.In recentXFree86andX.Orgincarnations of theX Window System,it can be accessed as a compose sequence of two straight question marks, i.e. pressingCompose??yields¿.Inclassic Mac OSandMac OS X(macOS), the key combinationOptionShift?produces an inverted question mark.

In shell and scripting languages, the question mark is often utilized as awildcard character:a symbol that can be used to substitute for any other character or characters in astring.In particular,filename globbinguses "?" as a substitute for any one character, as opposed to theasterisk,"*", which matches zero or more characters in a string.

The question mark is used in ASCII renderings of theInternational Phonetic Alphabet,such asSAMPA,in place of theglottal stopsymbol,ʔ,(which resembles "?"without the dot), and corresponds to Unicode code pointU+0294ʔLATIN LETTER GLOTTAL STOP.

Incomputer programming,the symbol "?"has a special meaning in manyprogramming languages.InC-descended languages,?is part of the?:operator, which is used to evaluate simpleboolean conditions.InC#2.0, the?modifier is used to handlenullable data typesand??is thenull coalescing operator.In thePOSIXsyntax forregular expressions,such as that used inPerlandPython,?stands for "zero or one instance of the previous subexpression", i.e. an optional element. It can also make a quantifier like{x,y},+or*match as few characters as possible, making it lazy, e.g./^.*?px/will match the substring165pxin165px 17pxinstead of matching165px 17px.[a]In certain implementations of theBASICprogramming language, the?character may be used as a shorthand for the "print" function; in others (notably theBBC BASICfamily),?is used to address a single-byte memory location. InOCaml,the question mark precedes the label for an optional parameter. InScheme,as a convention, symbol names ending in?are used for predicates, such asodd?,null?,andeq?.Similarly, inRuby,method names ending in?are used for predicates. InSwifta type followed by?denotes anoption type;?is also used in "optional chaining", where if an option value is nil, it ignores the following operations. Similarly, inKotlin,a type followed by?isnullableand functions similar to option chaining are supported. InAPL,?generates random numbers or a random subset of indices. InRust,a?suffix on a function or method call indicates error handling. InSPARQL,the question mark is used to introduce variable names, such as?name.InMUMPS,it is the pattern match operator.

In manyWeb browsersand other computer programs, when converting text between encodings, it may not be possible to map some characters into the targetcharacter set.In this situation it is common to replace each unmappable character with a question mark?,inverted question mark¿,or the Unicodereplacement character,usually rendered as a white question mark in a black diamond:U+FFFD�REPLACEMENT CHARACTER.This commonly occurs for apostrophes and quotation marks when they are written with software that uses its own proprietary non-standard code for these characters, such asMicrosoft Office's"smart quotes".

The genericURLsyntax allows for aquery stringto be appended to a resource location in a Web address so that additional information can be passed to a script; the query mark,?,is used to indicate the start of a query string. A query string is usually made up of a number of different field/value pairs, each separated by theampersandsymbol,&,as seen in this URL:

http:// example /search.php?query=testing&database=English

Here, a script on the pagesearch.phpon the serverexampleis to provide a response to the query string containing the pairsquery=testinganddatabase=English.

Games

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Inalgebraic chess notation,somechess punctuationconventions include: "?"denotes a bad move,"??"ablunder,"?!"adubiousmove, and "!?"an interesting move.

InScrabble,a question mark indicates a blank tile.[27]

Linguistics

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In most areas oflinguistics,but especially insyntax,a question mark in front of a word, phrase or sentence indicates that the form in question is strongly dispreferred, "questionable" or "strange", but not outrightungrammatical.[b](Theasteriskis used to indicate outright ungrammaticality.[31]: 332 )

Other sources go further and use several symbols (e.g. the question mark and the asterisk plus?*or thedegree symbol°) to indicate gradations or a continuum of acceptability.[c]

Yet others use double question marks??to indicate a degree of strangeness between those indicated by a single question mark and that indicated by the combination of question mark and asterisk.[33][34]

Mathematics and formal logic

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Inmathematics,"?"commonly denotesMinkowski's question mark function.

Inlinear logic,the question mark denotes one of the exponential modalities that control weakening and contraction.

When placed above the relational symbol in anequationorinequality,a question-mark annotation means that the stated relation is "questioned". This can be used to ask whether the relation might be true or to point out the relation's possible invalidity.

  • U+225F≟QUESTIONED EQUAL TO
  • U+2A7B⩻LESS-THAN WITH QUESTION MARK ABOVE
  • U+2A7C⩼GREATER-THAN WITH QUESTION MARK ABOVE

Medicine

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A question mark is used in English medical notes to suggest a possiblediagnosis.It facilitates the recording of a doctor's impressions regarding a patient's symptoms and signs. For example, for a patient presenting with leftlower abdominal pain,a differential diagnosis might include?diverticulitis(read as "query diverticulitis" ).

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ThePerl Compatible Regular Expressionslibrary implements theUflag, which reverses behavior of quantifiers: these become lazy by default, and?can make them greedy.
  2. ^One article notes succintly that "common practice in linguistics [is that] an asterisk preceding a word, a clause or a sentence is used to indicate ungrammaticality or unacceptability, while a question mark is used to indicate questionable usage",[28]: 15 another that, "A question mark indicates that the example is marginal; an asterisk indicates unacceptability"[29]: 409 and another that "examples preceded by an asterisk are ungrammatical, and those preceded by a question mark would be considered strange".[30]: 623 
  3. ^One example is "rough approximations of acceptability are given in four gradations and indicated as follows: normal and preferred, no mark; acceptable but not preferred, degree sign°;marginally acceptable, question mark (?); unacceptable, asterisk (*). "[32]: 123–24 

References

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  1. ^Truss 2003,p. 139.
  2. ^"The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it's the world's earliest question mark".University of Cambridge.2011-07-21.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-11-01.Retrieved2022-11-01.
  3. ^"Symbol in Syriac may be world's first question mark".Reuters.2011-07-21.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-11-01.Retrieved2022-11-01.
  4. ^ab"The Grammarphobia Blog: Who invented the question mark?".grammarphobia.2022-02-28.Archivedfrom the original on 2022-11-01.Retrieved2022-11-01.
  5. ^Truss 2003,p. 159.
  6. ^Parkes, M. B. (1993).Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West.University of California Press.ISBN0-520-07941-8.
  7. ^The Straight Dope on the question markArchivedJuly 11, 2007, at theWayback Machine(link down)
  8. ^De Hamel, ChristopherHistory of Illuminated Manuscripts,1997
  9. ^Bembo, Pietro(1495–1496).De Aetna.Venice:Aldo Pio Manuzio.f. 4v.
  10. ^Florio, John(1598).A worlde of wordes, or, Most copious, and exact dictionarie in Italian and English.London: By Arnold Hatfield for Edw. Blount. p.188.Iterogatiuo punto, a point of interrogation.
  11. ^Parker, Richard Green; Watson, J. Madison (1859).The National Second Reader: Containing preliminary exercises in articulation, pronunciation, and punctuation.National series; no. 2. New York: A. S. Barnes & Burr. p.20.hdl:2027/nc01.ark:/13960/t26988j57.
  12. ^Elkin, Stanley(1991).The MacGuffin.p. 173.
  13. ^Truss 2003,p. 142–143.
  14. ^Ortografía de la Lengua Castellana(in Spanish). Madrid:Real Academia Española.1779 [1754] – viaInternet Archive.
  15. ^Interrogación y exclamación (signos de). Punto 3d.
  16. ^Interrogación y exclamación (signos de). Punto 3b.
  17. ^Lee, Ernie (1999).Pidgin Phrasebook(2nd ed.). Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications. pp. 63–64.ISBN0864425872.
  18. ^Thompson, Edward Maunde (1912).An Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaiography.Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp.60ff.RetrievedDecember 10,2017– viaInternet Archive.
  19. ^Nicolas, Nick (November 20, 2014)."Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation".Thesaurus Linguae Graecae:A Digital Library of Greek Literature.University of California, Irvine. Archived fromthe originalon January 18, 2015.".2005. Accessed 7 October 2014.
  20. ^"Adlam/Pular orthography notes".r12a.github.io.5 January 2023.Archivedfrom the original on 16 January 2023.Retrieved16 January2023.
  21. ^Truss 2003,p. 143.
  22. ^"Ponctuation".Lexique des règles typographiques en usage à l'Imprimerie nationale(in French) (3e ed.).Imprimerie nationale.October 2007. pp. 148–149.ISBN978-2-7433-0482-9..
  23. ^"Learn English Punctuation - English Punctuation Rules".learnenglish.de.Retrieved2024-02-20.
  24. ^abTruss 2003,p. 142.
  25. ^Mandeville, Henry (1851).A Course of Reading for Common Schools and the Lower Classes of Academies.RetrievedNovember 22,2013.
  26. ^"Character Codes – HTML Codes, Hexadecimal Codes & HTML Names".Character-Code.Archivedfrom the original on August 7, 2016.RetrievedAugust 7,2016.
  27. ^"Scrabble Glossary".Tucson Scrabble Club. Archived fromthe originalon August 30, 2011.RetrievedFebruary 6,2012.
  28. ^Xu, Hui Ling (2007)."Aspect of Chaozhou Grammar A Synchronic Description of the Jieyang Variety / Triều Châu lời nói bóc dương phương ngôn ngữ pháp nghiên cứu".Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series(22): i–xiv, 1–304.ISSN2409-2878.JSTOR23826160.Retrieved5 September2023.
  29. ^Simons, Mandy (August 1996)."Pronouns and Definite Descriptions: A Critique of Wilson".The Journal of Philosophy.93(8): 408–420.doi:10.2307/2941036.JSTOR2941036.Retrieved5 September2023.
  30. ^Everett, Daniel L. (August–October 2005)."Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language".Current Anthropology.46(4): 621–646.doi:10.1086/431525.hdl:2066/41103.JSTOR10.1086/431525.S2CID2223235.Retrieved5 September2023.
  31. ^Graffi, Giorgio (May 2002)."The Asterisk from Historical to Descriptive and Theoretical Linguistics: An historical note".Historiographia Linguistica.29(3): 329–338.doi:10.1075/hl.29.3.04gra.Retrieved5 September2023.
  32. ^Timberlake, Alan (Summer 1975)."Hierarchies in the Genitive of Negation".The Slavic and East European Journal.19(2): 123–138.doi:10.2307/306765.JSTOR306765.Retrieved5 September2023.
  33. ^Trask, R. L.(1993).A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics.London: Routledge. p. 227.ISBN0-415-08627-2.
  34. ^Jones, Michael Alan (1996).Foundations of French Syntax.Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. xxv.ISBN0-521-38104-5.

Bibliography

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  • Truss, Lynne (2003).Eats, Shoots & Leaves:The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.London: Profile Books.ISBN1861976127.
  • Lupton, Ellen; Miller, J. Abbott (2003)."Period Styles: A Punctuated History"(PDF).In Peterson, Linda H. (ed.).The Norton Reader(11th ed.). Norton. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 14, 2007.RetrievedDecember 10,2017– via Think-gn – online excerpt (at least – may be full text of chapter), pp. 3–7.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related toQuestion mark.
  • "The Question Mark".Guide to Grammar & Writing.Hartford, Connecticut:Capital Community CollegeFoundation. 2004. Archived fromthe originalon 8 September 2006.Retrieved10 December2017.– provides an overview of question mark usage, and the differences between direct, indirect, and rhetorical questions.
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