# Is there a name for this usage of the question mark? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834 "2010-11-25T00:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/1 "2010-11-25T00:13:14Z")
Suppose in some informal medium (like a message board, or chat room, say) somebody claims in writing that “activity X is difficult, so we should all adopt technique Y”, for instance. Dubious, somebody else writes “Activity X isn’t difficult?”, refuting the premise of the original claim. No specific question is being asked (though perhaps it is being used to request clarification), but the question mark is being used to mark suspicion, incredulity, etc. Is there a specific term for this common usage of the question mark? ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/2 "2010-11-25T00:35:02Z")
I don’t recollect ever reading that usage (but then I don’t hang out at more informal boards than the SDMB). Isn’t the much more common usage to write ‘activity x is difficult?’ to express doubt on the statement ‘activity x is difficult.’? ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/3 "2010-11-25T00:46:11Z")
Examples? Never seen this myself. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/4 "2010-11-25T00:55:31Z")
I think he meant for the respondent to say, “Activity X _is_ difficult?”, rather than _isn’t._ ---
**Author:** ![Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pasta)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/5 "2010-11-25T01:02:44Z")
That certainly would make more sense. (In fact, my first post almost said only: “People use question marks this way?” but I thought it might be taken as a joke rather than a serious question.) I’d say it’s just a normal use of a question mark: Person A: X is true. Person B: X is true? _(Short for: Is X really true, or have you maybe not considered the situation fully?)_ ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/6 "2010-11-25T01:08:25Z")
I am not a grammar expert, but would it be an inquisitive statement? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/7 "2010-11-25T01:23:38Z")
The usage you describe is incorrect. There is no question being asked. An ellipsis would be a possible way to end the sentence to indicate further thoughts. “Activity X isn’t difficult…” ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/8 "2010-11-25T01:25:41Z")
Isn’t it a rhetorical question? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/9 "2010-11-25T01:41:33Z")
Lots of sentence fragments can best be understood if the rest of the sentence is filled in. Really? Yes. That full sentence would be something like, “Do you really believe that?” or “Is that statement really true?” So when you say “Activity X is/isn’t difficult?” the full sentence is more like, “Do you really believe that activity X is/isn’t difficult?” [Ellipsis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis_(linguistics)). The linguistic ellipsis is not exactly the same as the … ellispis but both have their origin in missing words. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/10 "2010-11-25T01:42:53Z")
Pretty sure the OP said “isn’t” on purpose. The example is of someone outright refuting the original premise but conveying a sense of doubt by using the question mark. It is clearly not a question, rhetorical or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/11 "2010-11-25T01:58:47Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Pretty sure the OP said “isn’t” on purpose. The example is of someone outright refuting the original premise but conveying a sense of doubt by using the question mark. It is clearly not a question, rhetorical or otherwise. I don’t see how it isn’t a question. That sense of doubt is itself a question. It’s like adding “right?” to the end of a sentence. And I’d also say that the usage is ungrammatical: the proper way of expressing doubt is with a question mark in parentheses. ---
**Author:** ![Ace309](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ace309/32/1050_2.png) [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/12 "2010-11-25T02:23:32Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Pretty sure the OP said “isn’t” on purpose. The example is of someone outright refuting the original premise but conveying a sense of doubt by using the question mark. It is clearly not a question, rhetorical or otherwise. If that’s the case, then the name is ‘confusion about punctuation.’ I’ve seen this usage as well and always mentally replace the question mark with an ellipsis and a confused smiley, personally. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/13 "2010-11-25T02:50:30Z")
_“X is difficult” “X isn’t difficult? [refutation]”_ I’ve never seen this, but could the actual quote be “What the heck, X isn’t difficult?”. Since _what the heck_ is a question, maybe they mistakenly used the question mark. But like I said, I’ve never seen this? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/14 "2010-11-25T03:28:56Z")
I have seen (rather, I’ve heard) this construction used on occasion. By Aussies in my gaming guild. It’s definitely not what I would say is normal or common, at least in the US. I believe there’s an implied “but” at the beginning of the sentence, and at the end is an implied “so why are you proposing this?” It’s just used to express incredulity that the proposed solution was ever even conceived of in the first place–it’s THAT unbelievable. The question mark in text probably denotes the upward inflection used when spoken, rather than the use of an actual inquisitive. AFAIK there is no name for this construction. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/15 "2010-11-25T03:59:55Z")
Think it’s called a question. ---
**Author:** ![Ring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Ring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ring)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/16 "2010-11-25T04:25:45Z")
When I’ve seen it used it seems to be a snarky way of saying “you’re full of shit.” ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/17 "2010-11-25T06:09:43Z")
Maybe they’re sort of using the question mark to represent a [high rising terminal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal), or uptalk, or something along those lines. Alternatively, it’s short for something like "(Um, are you really unaware that) activity X isn’t difficult? ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/18 "2010-11-25T10:17:50Z")
I tend to use it to indicate my own uncertainty in my refutation. So rather than: “I’m not sure but I seem to recall that position x does not apply in Alabama, does anyone else have that same recollection or am I missing something here?” It’d be: “Position x is pretty usual in Alabama?” It’s like a lot of internet behaviour - a lazy way to get a point across when you’re posting a quick reply. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/19 "2010-11-25T10:23:49Z")
First I just want to make sure I am not confused here. Do we all agree that in general, statements with a question mark are not strange? It is just using a question mark where no question seems to be intended, right? > [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > “Activity X isn’t difficult?” I would just think they mixed up two sentences each saying the same thing in a different way: “Activity X isn’t difficult” X is not difficult, so your premise is invalid. “Activity X is difficult?” You think X is difficult? It isn’t so your premise is invalid. Mix the two up in your head and you get “Activity X isn’t difficult?” Could that explain it? ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834/20 "2010-11-25T11:16:11Z")
Yes, I used the “isn’t” on purpose. I think **Exapno’s** pointer to the linguistic ellipsis is on the mark. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-usage-of-the-question-mark/561834.md?page=2)