Forum: Linguistics
Topic: Spanish punctuation - inversion of '?' and '!'
Poster: Andy Watkinson
Post title: No markers
[quote]Lew Shiong Fong wrote:
What is the story or rather the origin of the inversion of the punctuation marks '?' and '!' at the beginning of phrases/sentences? Or. in other words, how did the deviation from other European languages come about?
[Edited at 2006-08-04 12:15] [/quote]
Assuming you're not familar with the language, an easier way to understand why is that Spanish generally lacks "markers" to know when a question is a question.
a) Did John do it?
b) John did it.
In a) the question mark is almost superfluous; English marks open questions via the use of "do" or by inversion of the auxiliary verb which tell us from the very start that we're dealing with a question.
This is not the case in Spanish.
Word order does not reveal that a sentence is necessarily a question.
a) ¿Lo hizo Juan? (Did John do it?)
b) Lo hizo Juan. (John did it)
As you can see, the only way we'd know it is a question (in writing, and therefore without intonation) is by placing a question mark at the beginning.
Andy
Topic: Spanish punctuation - inversion of '?' and '!'
Poster: Andy Watkinson
Post title: No markers
[quote]Lew Shiong Fong wrote:
What is the story or rather the origin of the inversion of the punctuation marks '?' and '!' at the beginning of phrases/sentences? Or. in other words, how did the deviation from other European languages come about?
[Edited at 2006-08-04 12:15] [/quote]
Assuming you're not familar with the language, an easier way to understand why is that Spanish generally lacks "markers" to know when a question is a question.
a) Did John do it?
b) John did it.
In a) the question mark is almost superfluous; English marks open questions via the use of "do" or by inversion of the auxiliary verb which tell us from the very start that we're dealing with a question.
This is not the case in Spanish.
Word order does not reveal that a sentence is necessarily a question.
a) ¿Lo hizo Juan? (Did John do it?)
b) Lo hizo Juan. (John did it)
As you can see, the only way we'd know it is a question (in writing, and therefore without intonation) is by placing a question mark at the beginning.
Andy
