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vic joseph
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 7:06 am
Post subject: quick question? |
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My question is, since this sentence is grammatically an affirmative
statement, should it or shouldn't it have a question mark at the end.
A one word answer would suffice, as long as it's not 'maybe'.
regards, Vic Joseph, Amsterdam, a translator suffering from nocturnal
brainwobble.
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Giles Todd
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 7:24 am
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 03:06:20 +0200, vic joseph <vic_ngreply@xs4all.nl>
wrote:
| Quote: | My question is, since this sentence is grammatically an affirmative
statement, should it or shouldn't it have a question mark at the end.
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It depends on whether you are trying to translate "snelle vraag?" or
"snelle vraag." In the former case, I would use the question mark, in
the latter, not.
| Quote: | A one word answer would suffice, as long as it's not 'maybe'.
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Wellicht.
Giles. |
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vic joseph
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:43 am
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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Oh dear, Giles, thanks for replying. I stupidly thought I had precluded
any possibility of misunderstanding. By 'this sentence' I meant that
very sentence, not the header. On further thought, I could reformulate
my query as 'my question is, is this a question?'. I now feel that it
is, or at least it looks silly without a question mark, so I'm off to
bed. Will it still look silly in the (late) morning?
Vic
Giles Todd wrote:
| Quote: | On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 03:06:20 +0200, vic joseph <vic_ngreply@xs4all.nl
wrote:
My question is, since this sentence is grammatically an affirmative
statement, should it or shouldn't it have a question mark at the end.
It depends on whether you are trying to translate "snelle vraag?" or
"snelle vraag." In the former case, I would use the question mark, in
the latter, not.
A one word answer would suffice, as long as it's not 'maybe'.
Wellicht.
Giles. |
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Einde O'Callaghan
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:49 am
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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vic joseph wrote:
| Quote: | Oh dear, Giles, thanks for replying. I stupidly thought I had precluded
any possibility of misunderstanding. By 'this sentence' I meant that
very sentence, not the header. On further thought, I could reformulate
my query as 'my question is, is this a question?'. I now feel that it
is, or at least it looks silly without a question mark, so I'm off to
bed. Will it still look silly in the (late) morning?
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"My question is: Is this a question?" if you want to follow the normal
rules of punctuation. You can't really connect to main clauses with a
comma in English.
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan |
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Mike Stevens
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:38 pm
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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Einde O'Callaghan wrote:
| Quote: | vic joseph wrote:
Oh dear, Giles, thanks for replying. I stupidly thought I had
precluded any possibility of misunderstanding. By 'this sentence' I
meant that very sentence, not the header. On further thought, I
could reformulate my query as 'my question is, is this a question?'.
I now feel that it is, or at least it looks silly without a question
mark, so I'm off to bed. Will it still look silly in the (late)
morning?
"My question is: Is this a question?" if you want to follow the normal
rules of punctuation. You can't really connect to main clauses with a
comma in English.
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Or (but perhaps a bit old-fashioned) "My question is, 'Is this a question?'
"
Or should I have written
" Or (but perhaps a bit old-fashioned) "My question is, 'Is this a
question?'." "
And so /ad infinitum/ ? :-)
--
Mike Stevens
narrowboat Felis Catus II
web site www.mike-stevens.co.uk
Old grammarians never die - they simple parse away |
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vic joseph
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:09 pm
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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I agree that the form
***My question is, 'Is this a question?'***
is correct but looks old-fashioned. In any case, the texts I translate
often have forests of quotation marks (mainly the authors covering their
backs when they can't think of the precise words) so I try to get rid of
them whereever possible.
Colons I dislike for a similar reason. Dutch authors love their colons,
occasionally using several in succession in the same sentence. I try to
zap them from my translations - if only to annoy.
Perhaps I don't need anything at all to mark ommission of the antiquated
quotation marks. I could justify the comma I used in
***My question is, is this a question?***
purely because of the two is's next door to one another.
So a better example would be
***My question is what on earth are you talking about?***
I feel the above sentence still needs a comma after 'is', viz:
***My question is, what on earth are you talking about?***
But I can't explain why.
Vic Joseph
<snip>
| Quote: | ..."My question is: Is this a question?" if you want to follow the
normal
rules of punctuation. You can't really connect to main clauses with a
comma in English.
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
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Giles Todd
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:46 am
Post subject: Re: quick question? |
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On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 04:43:36 +0200, vic joseph <vic_ngreply@xs4all.nl>
wrote:
| Quote: | Oh dear, Giles, thanks for replying. I stupidly thought I had precluded
any possibility of misunderstanding. By 'this sentence' I meant that
very sentence, not the header. On further thought, I could reformulate
my query as 'my question is, is this a question?'. I now feel that it
is, or at least it looks silly without a question mark, so I'm off to
bed. Will it still look silly in the (late) morning?
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Hey, I had an attack of mindless literalism. I think it's a symptom
of old age. Please pay no attention to my remarks.
Giles. |
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