How did a question get to be a question?
While I was reading questions on Fluther in the middle of the night (I couldn’t sleep), I found myself wondering about the origin of written and spoken questions. We all know that a spoken phrase or a sentence in which certain words emphasized in a certain way is a request for information or clarification – in other words, a question – and that in written form, the use of a question mark at the end serves the same purpose … but how did that come to be? An inquiring (sleepy) mind wants to know.
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14 Answers
I think the question mark is placed at the end of a sentence to signal the reader that he has to change his tone to make clear that the sentence is indeed a question.
In Spain,they place the (upside down) question mark at the beginning and in Greece they use the semicolon ;.
The questioning inflection may predate language itself. The single question mark at the end of a question is the punctuation of choice in some languages, particularly western languages, but not all languages. As noted above, Spanish uses bracketing question marks, the first reversed.
All true, but perhaps my question about questions should have been worded differently. I’m really asking about the concept of what we know is a question. The idea of seeking information orally and in writing was bound to happen in the history of language, but how did it come to be in the form it is, especially in the way we phrase a question orally?
All languages contain some marker or inflection to indicate a question. In some languages you add a phoneme (in Japanese if you say “ka” you are asking a question.) In some, like ours, you inflect differently.
Questions probably predate language. A cat can look at the cupboard her food is kept in and look at her owner and a question is asked.
Don’t you think when the cavemen came in from the hunt and said how big the Woolly Mammoth they had been hunting was, their women said ”How big was it?”
I think @anartist is probably on the money here. I’d add @Austinlad that the structures that indicate questions – be they intonational, syntactical or grammatical – are contingent. There are no universals (that I know of) in the question structures of human languages.
@dpworkin: That’s true in a general way. However, it’s quite possible to ask a question in Japanese without adding [ か] – intonation can also be used, particularly in informal spoken language.
Here’s a question for you. Why is this thread in the Meta section and not in Social?
@AstroChuck, because that’s where one of the mods moved in from General, where I had originally put it. Thanks for asking.
Probably cause “Fluther” is in the details (where I think G-d used to be) but still does seem strange.
@janbb: I always thought the devil was in the details.
Did I miss a meeting?
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