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英语语法:80 Punctuating Questions

时间:2010-06-30 01:40来源:互联网 提供网友:因你发烧   字体: [ ]
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Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is how to format1 questions. You think you already know this, don't you? I wonder if you're right.

Everybody knows how write a plain vanilla2 question: What's new? They're called direct questions. But there are trickier3 scenarios4. What happens when a sentence seems to be half statement, half question? What if you're asking an indirect question, or asking a question that also seems to require an exclamation5 point, or dealing6 with a quotation7 that contains a question, and so on?

Questions Masquerading as Statements
Sometimes even direct questions are tricky8 because they can look like statements, and the only way to tell your reader otherwise is to add a question mark (1). There's a big difference in meaning between “He went to the store.” and “He went to the store?” Yet the only difference between the two sentences is that one ends with a period and one ends with a question mark. The question mark makes it a direct question that shows surprise. What the heck was he doing at the store?

A Question Flurry
What if you have a bunch of questions and you want to string them all together?

There's a funny scene in a movie (I think it was Cats & Dogs) where a dog realizes he can talk, and it goes something like this: You can hear me? Can I have a cookie? two cookies? four cookies? twenty cookies?

Those add-on questions at the end aren't complete sentences but they each get a question mark anyway (1). It reads Can I have a cookie? two cookies? four cookies? and so on. They aren't complete sentences, so you don't usually capitalize the first letter. The rules are vague, though. Some books say to capitalize the first letter if the questions are “nearly a sentence” (2) or have “sentence-like status” (3), so you have to use your own judgment9. I don't consider “two cookies” to be nearly a sentence, but I may consider something like “two cookies and a squeaking10 ball to chase” to be nearly a sentence, which would make me think about capitalizing it.

Statements with Tag Questions
Now, what about those little questions that come at the end of a statement? You didn't forget my birthday, did you? It's fun to play marimbas, isn't it?

Bits like did you and isn't it are called tag questions and they turn the whole sentence into a question, so use a question mark at the end (4).

Indirect Questions
Do you have a curious nature? Do you wonder about things? When you wonder, your statements might sound like questions, but they're not direct questions, they're indirect questions, and they don't take a question mark. For example, I wonder why he went to the store. It's an indirect question—essentially a statement—so there's no question mark. I wonder if Squiggly would loan me his marimbas. Again, it's not a question.

Questions in Quotation Marks
Next, where do you put the question mark when you're using quotation marks? It depends on the sentence—is the whole thing a big question, or is only the part in quotation marks a question?

If the whole sentence is a question, then you put the question mark outside the quotation mark (1, 5). Here's an example: What do you think Squiggly meant when he said, “The fish swam darkly up the river”? The whole sentence is a question, so the question mark goes at the very end (outside the quotation mark).
On the other hand, if only the quotation is a question, then the question mark goes inside the quotation mark (1, 5). Here's an example: Squiggly ran up to Aardvark and asked, "Where are the fish?" The question mark goes inside the quotation mark because the only part of the sentence that is a question is Where are the fish?

It helps to remember that the question mark stays attached to the question whether it is the whole sentence or just the quotation.

Indirect Questions Mixed with Direct Questions
It gets really crazy when you start mixing direct and indirect questions together. There are multiple ways to write something like The question at hand is, who stole the cookies? The simplest way to write that is to put a comma after the indirect question and a question mark after the direct question (4): The question at hand is, who stole the cookies?

Believe it or not, some style guides allow you to capitalize the first word in a direct question, even though it comes in the middle of a sentence: The question at hand is, Who stole the cookies? Supposedly, capitalizing the first word in the question places more emphasis on the question, but I think it makes the sentence look disjointed.

And if you think that looks weird11, it gets even worse. If you flip12 the two parts around, you can put a question mark in the middle of your sentence (1, 3): Who stole the cookies? was the question at hand.

It's good to know the rules, but these sentences seem so contorted that I think it is better to try to rewrite them. I could easily convert the sentence to an indirect question: Everyone wondered who stole the cookies. Or I could use a colon13 to make the punctuation14 less odd: One question remained: Who stole the cookies?

Polite Requests
Here's another strange rule: some style guides say that polite requests phrased as questions get a period instead of a question mark (1, 3, 4). For instance, they recommend putting a period at the end of a sentence like Would you bring me the marimbas. I find this very odd, since it is clearly a question, but the rationale is that it is really a demand masquerading as a question.

Surprising Questions
And finally, when you're asking a question in surprise such as What? it isn't appropriate to use multiple question marks or a question mark with an exclamation point. You're supposed to pick the terminal punctuation mark that is most appropriate and use just one (1). Is your statement more of a question or more of an outburst?

I've always found that solution unsatisfactory, so I was thrilled to learn that there's an obscure punctuation mark that was designed exclusively for asking questions in a surprised manner. It's called an interrobang, and it looks like an exclamation point superimposed on a question mark.

You shouldn't use the interrobang in formal writing, but I think it would be great if people started using it on blogs and in other informal communications. If you have the Wingdings 2 font in your word processing program, you can insert an interrobang as a special character, and there are unicode values that you can use to add the interrobang to your web site. I've put those in the transcript15 of this episode.

That's all.

 


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 format giJxb     
n.设计,版式;[计算机]格式,DOS命令:格式化(磁盘),用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据;v.使格式化,设计,安排
参考例句:
  • Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
  • The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。
2 vanilla EKNzT     
n.香子兰,香草
参考例句:
  • He used to love milk flavoured with vanilla.他过去常爱喝带香草味的牛奶。
  • I added a dollop of vanilla ice-cream to the pie.我在馅饼里加了一块香草冰激凌。
3 trickier 8f11f8d26b8de2fe0f7a88a0d6c7708f     
adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 );(形势、工作等)复杂的;机警的;微妙的
参考例句:
  • This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则,但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
  • The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低,问题就越复杂。 来自互联网
4 scenarios f7c7eeee199dc0ef47fe322cc223be88     
n.[意]情节;剧本;事态;脚本
参考例句:
  • Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者,根据一些事故解说,石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
  • Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样,我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
5 exclamation onBxZ     
n.感叹号,惊呼,惊叹词
参考例句:
  • He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
  • The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号,以引起读者的注意。
6 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
7 quotation 7S6xV     
n.引文,引语,语录;报价,牌价,行情
参考例句:
  • He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
  • The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。
8 tricky 9fCzyd     
adj.狡猾的,奸诈的;(工作等)棘手的,微妙的
参考例句:
  • I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手,你能帮我吗?
  • He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题,只做了个笼统的表述。
9 judgment e3xxC     
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见
参考例句:
  • The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
  • He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。
10 squeaking 467e7b45c42df668cdd7afec9e998feb     
v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 );吱吱叫;告密;充当告密者
参考例句:
  • Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗? 来自《简明英汉词典》
11 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
12 flip Vjwx6     
vt.快速翻动;轻抛;轻拍;n.轻抛;adj.轻浮的
参考例句:
  • I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书,看来似乎很有趣。
  • Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。
13 colon jqfzJ     
n.冒号,结肠,直肠
参考例句:
  • Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样,应当在冒号后加破折号。
  • The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。
14 punctuation 3Sbxk     
n.标点符号,标点法
参考例句:
  • My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
  • A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。
15 transcript JgpzUp     
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
参考例句:
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
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