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The question mark (?), also known as an interrogation point, question point, query,[1] or eroteme, is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence. Guillemets ( or after French) also called Angle quotes, are line segments pointed as if arrows ( « or ») sometimes forming a complementary A hyphen ( -) is a Punctuation mark It is used for both Words to join and to separate Syllables It is often confused with the dashes Quotation marks or inverted commas (informally referred to as quotes and speech marks) are Punctuation marks used in pairs to set off speech A semicolon ( ) is a conventional Punctuation mark with several usages The slash ( /) is a punctuation mark It is also called a virgule, diagonal, stroke, forward slash, oblique dash, The solidus ( ⁄) is a punctuation mark that is not found on standard keyboards Interword separation is the act and the effect of mutually separating the written representations of Words The early Semitic languages mdashwhich had no vowel In writing a space () is a blank area that is devoid of content which separates words letters numbers and punctuation An interpunct ( ·) is a small dot used for Interword separation in ancient Latin script, being perhaps the first consistent visual representation of word boundaries Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, Type design, and modifying type Glyphs Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety An ampersand ( &) also commonly called an " 'and' sign," is a Logogram representing the conjunction "and" The typographic character @, the at sign, denotes a pan-lingual abbreviation of the word 'at' An asterisk ( *) (Latin asteriscum "little star" from Greek ἀστερίσκος) is a Typographical symbol or Glyph The backslash ( \) is a typographical mark ( Glyph) used chiefly in Computing. In Typography, a bullet is a typographical symbol or Glyph used to introduce Items in a list, like below also known as the point of a bullet Caret is the name for the symbol ^ in ASCII and some other Character sets Its Unicode code point is U+005E and its ASCII code in hexadecimal is 5E The currency sign ( ¤) is a character used to denote a currency when the symbol for a particular currency is unavailable In many national currencies, the cent is a monetary unit that equals 1/100 of the basic monetary unit The euro sign (€ is the Currency sign used for the Euro, the official currency of the European Union (EU See also Pound (currency.The pound sign (" £ " or " ₤ " is the symbol for the Pound sterling —the currency of the ¥￥ ₪The sheqel sign ( ₪) A dagger ( †, &dagger U+ 2020 is a typographical symbol or Glyph. The degree symbol (° Unicode: U+00B0 HTML: ° is a typographical symbol or Glyph, that is used to represent degrees of arc (see The inverted question and exclamation marks are used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences respectively in written Spanish. The inverted question and exclamation marks are used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences respectively in written Spanish. In Logic and Mathematics, negation or not is an operation on Logical values for example the logical value of a Proposition Number sign is a name for the symbol #; it is the preferred Unicode name for the Code point associated with that Glyph. The Numero sign (U+2116 or Number sign is used in many languages to indicate ordinal numeration especially in names and titles for example instead of writing the long " The percent sign ( %) is the symbol used to indicate a Percentage (that the preceding number is divided by one hundred The pilcrow (¶ Unicode U+00B6 HTML entity ¶ also called the Paragraph sign or the alinea ( The prime symbol ( ′ double prime symbol ( &Prime triple prime symbol ( ‴ etc The section sign (§ Unicode U+00A7 HTML entity § is a typographical character used mainly to refer to a particular section The tilde (~ (/ˈtɪldə/ is a Grapheme with several uses The name of the character comes from Spanish, from the Latin titulus Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark The underscore _ (also called understrike, underbar, low line, or low dash is a character that originally appeared on the Typewriter. Note "broken bar" and the glyph "¦" redirect here Typography is the art and techniques of arranging type, Type design, and modifying type Glyphs Type glyphs are created and modified using a variety For other uses of this term please refer to Asterism disambiguation page The symbol ☞ is a Punctuation mark called an index or fist. In a Mathematical proof, the therefore sign (∴ is a symbol that is sometimes placed before a Logical consequence, such as the conclusion of a The interrobang ( ‽, is a nonstandard English -language Punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the Question mark (also "؟" redirects here For the Arabic question mark see Question mark. This page lists Japanese typographic symbols which are not included in Kana or Kanji. A sarcasm mark or sarcasm point identifies text as being Derogatory or ironic. A full stop or period (sometimes stop, full point, decimal point, or dot) is the Punctuation mark commonly placed at the It can also be used mid-sentence to mark a merely interrogative phrase, where it functions similarly to a comma, such as in the single sentence "Where shall we go? and what shall we do?", but this usage is increasingly rare. A comma ( , is a Punctuation mark It has the same shape as an Apostrophe or single closing Quotation mark in many typefaces but it differs The question mark is not used for indirect questions. The question mark character is also often used in place of missing or unknown data. It can also be used in place of a period. A full stop or period (sometimes stop, full point, decimal point, or dot) is the Punctuation mark commonly placed at the
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History
The symbol is sometimes [2] thought to originate from the Latin quaestiō (that is, qvaestio), meaning "question", which was abbreviated during the Middle Ages to Qo. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The uppercase Q was written above the lowercase o, and this mark was transformed into the modern symbol.
Another hypothesis about the origin of the question mark proposes that it originated in the 9th century, when it appeared as an exclamation point with a curved bar (like a tilde written slantwise) in order to reflect the intonation of the speaker. The 9th century is the period from 801 to 900 in accordance with the Julian calendar in the Christian / Common Era. The tilde (~ (/ˈtɪldə/ is a Grapheme with several uses The name of the character comes from Spanish, from the Latin titulus Lynne Truss attributes an early form to Alcuin of York. Alcuin of York (Alcuinus or Ealhwine, nicknamed Albinus or Flaccus (c [3] Truss describes the punctus interrogativus of the late 700s as "a lightning flash, striking from right to left. " The name "question mark" was coined in the late 1800s. [4]
Yet another view is that the question mark simply inverts the semicolon, which marked interrogative clauses in Ancient Greek (while enlarging the upper portion). A semicolon ( ) is a conventional Punctuation mark with several usages The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c
The origin of the question mark has also been associated with early musical notation like neumes. Neumes are the basic elements of Western and Eastern systems of Musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation
An American superstition that movies or television shows with question marks in the title do poorly at the box office has made many studios shy away from the punctuation mark. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Superstition ( Latin superstitio, literally "standing over" derived perhaps from standing in awe used in Latin as a unreasonable or excessive belief A television program (US television programme (UK or television show (U A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for Admission to a venue This has caused many works to be retitled when adapted for American cinema, such as the book Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which was retitled Who Framed Roger Rabbit (without the question mark) for the big screen. Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is a mystery novel written by Gary Wolf in 1981, later adapted into the hit Touchstone film Who Framed Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 Live-action/animated film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released
Proper placement
Spacing before the question mark
Some writers place a space between the end of their sentence and the question mark. This usage is thought to stem from French practice and is known as French spacing. In French a space is always placed before question marks and exclamation marks, as well as colons and semicolons (see Ponctuation at French Wikipedia). In English, however, the insertion of this space is generally considered bad form. The Oxford English Dictionary rules against it. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English Some English-language books do appear to have these spaces, but these are often a thin space or a hair space, which are not full spaces but merely a form of kerning used to make the text less cramped and thus easier to read. In writing a space () is a blank area that is devoid of content which separates words letters numbers and punctuation In writing a space () is a blank area that is devoid of content which separates words letters numbers and punctuation In Typography, kerning —less commonly mortising (referring to the process of physically removing material from the cast character—is the process of adjusting letter (For detailed discussion of spaces after a question mark, see Full stop. A full stop or period (sometimes stop, full point, decimal point, or dot) is the Punctuation mark commonly placed at the )
Multiple question marks
Using multiple question marks at the end of a sentence is often considered improper (i. e. "What???"). If the need for urgency or illustration of higher confusion is needed, an exclamation point and a question mark should be used ("What!?"). [5]
Other languages
In some languages, such as Spanish and Galician, typography since the 18th century has required opening and closing question marks, as in "¿Qué hora es?" (What time is it?); an interrogative sentence or phrase begins with an inverted question mark (¿) and ends with the question mark (?). The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system The inverted question and exclamation marks are used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences respectively in written Spanish. This orthographical rule is often disregarded in quick typing, although its omission is always considered a mistake. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language Typing is the process of inputting text into a device such as a Typewriter, Computer, or a Calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard.
In Greek and Church Slavonic, a semicolon (;) is used as a question mark. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Church Slavonic (also Church Slavic, Old Bulgarian) is the Liturgical language of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Macedonian Orthodox A semicolon ( ) is a conventional Punctuation mark with several usages
In Armenian the question mark (՞ ) has a form of an open circle and is placed over the last vowel of the question word. The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian
In Arabic, which is written from right to left, the question mark "؟" is mirrored right-to-left from the English question mark. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language (Some browsers may display the character in the previous sentence as a forward question mark due to font or text directionality issues. ) Hebrew is also written right-to-left, but uses a question mark that appears on the page in the same orientation as the English "?". [6]
The question mark is also used in modern writing in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, though it is not required in Japanese. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities Usually it is written as fullwidth form (？; Unicode: U+FF1F) in Chinese and Japanese. In CJK computing Graphic characters are traditionally classed into fullwidth (in Taiwan and Hong Kong: 全形 elsewhere 全角 and halfwidth Unicode ’s
Rhetorical question mark
The rhetorical question mark was invented by Henry Denham in the 1580s and was used at the end of a rhetorical question; however, it died out of use in the 1600s. Henry Denham was one of the outstanding English printers of the sixteenth century A Rhetorical question is a Figure of speech in the form of a Question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply 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. [7]
Some have adapted the question mark into various irony marks, but these are very rarely seen. "؟" redirects here For the Arabic question mark see Question mark.
Computing
In computing, the question mark character is represented by ASCII code 63, and is located at Unicode code-point U+003F. Computing is usually defined like the activity of using and developing Computer technology Computer hardware and software. For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of American Standard Code for Information Interchange ( ASCII) In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's The Universal Character Set (UCS defined by the ISO / IEC 10646 International Standard, is a standard set of characters upon which The full-width (double-byte) equivalent, ？, is located at Unicode code point U+FF1F.
The question mark is often utilized as a wildcard character: a symbol that can be used to substitute for any other character or characters in a string. For other meanings of 'wild card' see Wild card. The term wildcard character has the following meanings Telecommunication In In Computer programming and some branches of Mathematics, a string is an ordered Sequence of Symbols. In particular "?" is used as a substitute for any one character as opposed to the asterisk, "*", which can be used as a substitute for zero or more characters in a string. The inverted question mark corresponds to Unicode code-point 191 (U+00BF), and can be accessed from the keyboard in Microsoft Windows on the default US layout by pressing Shift-/ or by holding down the Alt key and typing either 1 6 8 (ANSI) or 0 1 9 1 (Unicode) on the numeric keypad. The inverted question and exclamation marks are used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences respectively in written Spanish. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. For a list of keyboard shortcuts see Table of keyboard shortcuts The Alt key on a computer keyboard is used to change (alternate the function In GNOME applications, it can be entered by typing the hexadecimal Unicode character while holding ctrl-shift, i. A gnome is a Mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle e. : ctrl-shift BF - ¿. In recent XFree86 and X. Org incarnations of the X Window System, it can be accessed as a compose sequence of two straight question marks, i. e. pressing <Compose> ? ? yields ¿. In the Mac OS, option-shift-? produces an inverted question mark. Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc
The question mark is used in ASCII renderings of the International Phonetic Alphabet, such as SAMPA in place of the glottal stop symbol, ʔ, (which resembles "?" without the dot), and corresponds to Unicode code point U+0294, Latin letter glottal stop. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic The Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet (SAMPA is a computer-readable phonetic script using 7-bit printable ASCII characters based on the International Phonetic This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter.
In computer programming, the symbol "?" has a special meaning in many programming languages. A programming language is an Artificial language that can be used to write programs which control the behavior of a machine particularly a Computer. In C, "?" is part of the ?: operator, which is used to evaluate simple boolean conditions. tags please moot on the talk page first! --> In Computing, C is a general-purpose cross-platform block structured ? is a Ternary operator that is part of the syntax for a basic conditional expression in several Programming languages including In C# 2. C# (pronounced C Sharp is a Multi-paradigm 0, the "?" modifier and the "??" operator are used to handle nullable data types. In the POSIX syntax for regular expressions, such as the one used in Perl and Python, ? stands for "zero or one instance of the previous subexpression", i. POSIX (ˈpɒzɪks or "Portable Operating System Interface" is the collective name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define In Computing, regular expressions provide a concise and flexible means for identifying strings of text of interest such as particular characters words or patterns of characters NOTES FOR EDITORS "Perl" is not an acronym (read the "Name" section below Python is a general-purpose High-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes programmer productivity and code readability e. an optional element.
In many web browsers, "?" is used to show a character not found in the program's character set. A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of A character encoding consists of a code that pairs a sequence of characters from a given character set (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Code page 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. Some fonts will instead use the Unicode Replacement Glyph (U+FFFD, �), which is commonly rendered as a white question mark in a black diamond.
The generic URL syntax allows for a query string to 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. Uniform Resource Locator is an URI which also specifies where the identified resource is available and the protocol for retrieving it In the World Wide Web, a query string is the part of a URL that contains data to be passed to web applications such as CGI programs A query string is usually made up of a number of different field/value pairs, each separated by the ampersand symbol, &, as seen in this url:
http://www. An ampersand ( &) also commonly called an " 'and' sign," is a Logogram representing the conjunction "and" example. com/login. php?username=test&password=blank
Here, a script on the page login. php on the server www. example. com is to provide a response to the query string containing the pairs "username=test" and "password=blank".
Linguistics
In linguistics, the question mark is prepended to strings to show that the linguist cannot determine whether they are well-formed or not. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields It is used similarly to the asterisk, which marks strings that are clearly ill-formed. An asterisk ( *) (Latin asteriscum "little star" from Greek ἀστερίσκος) is a Typographical symbol or Glyph It may be doubled to show greater uncertainty, or combined with the asterisk to show that the string is most likely ill-formed but that there is room for doubt.
Chess
In algebraic chess notation, "?" denotes a bad move, and "??" a blunder. Algebraic chess notation is used to record and describe the moves in a game of Chess. For details see punctuation (chess). When annotating Chess games commentators frequently use Question marks and Exclamation points to denote a move as bad or good
Mathematics
In mathematics "?" commonly denotes Minkowski's question mark function. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and In Mathematics, the Minkowski question mark function, sometimes called the slippery devil's staircase, is a function, denoted ?( x
Comics, cartoons and emoticons
In comic vignettes and strips, and in cartoons, the symbol "?" over a character's head denotes ignorance, doubt or the sudden surprise of the subject, and with the same meaning is used with emoticons. Comics (via Latin from the Greek "" kōmikos, of or pertaining to "comedy" from kōmos "revel" The word cartoon has various meanings based on several very different forms of Visual art and Illustration. An emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form
The Batman villain Riddler wears a costume decorated with question marks--often a green leotard dotted with them, or perhaps a suit and a tie with a single question mark on it)--denoting his curious modus operandi. Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a fictional Comic book Superhero co-created The Riddler ( Edward Nigma or Nygma, or Nashton) is a Fictional character, a DC Comics Supervillain, an enemy of Green is a Color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a Wavelength of roughly 520–570- nm. A leotard is a Skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso and body but leaves the legs free Modus operandi (often used in the abbreviated forms MO or simply Method) is a Latin phrase approximately translated as " mode of operation
The DC hero Question (comics) often uses the question mark as a symbol and leaves notes with a "?" on them to show he was involved. The Question is the name used by a number of Comic book Superheroes in the DC Comics universe.
See also
Notes
- ^ In journalism. The interrobang ( ‽, is a nonstandard English -language Punctuation mark intended to combine the functions of the Question mark (also See Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 139. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
- ^ Brewer, E. C. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1870 (rev. 1894), s. v. 'Punctuation'.
- ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 76. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
- ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 76. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
- ^ Effective use of email
- ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 143. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
- ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 142. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.
References
- Lupton, Ellen and Miller, J. Abbott, "Period styles: a punctuated history", in The Norton Reader 11th edition, ed. Linda H. Peterson, Norton, 2003 Online excerpt (at least)
- Parkes, M. B. , Pause and Effect: an Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West, University of California Press, 1993
- Truss, Lynne, Eats, Shoots & Leaves Gotham Books, NY, p. 139
External links
Dictionary
question mark
-noun
- The punctuation mark "?", used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
- (idiomatic) doubt or uncertainty
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