3mo ago

xkcd #3143: Question Mark

Title text:

Although now people will realize three-per-em space that all this time I've been using weird medium mathematical space whitespace characters in my hair space hair space hair space speech dot dot dot...

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3143/

explainxkcd for 3143

38 comments

Tbh, I hate in much more when people say "quote unquote" before starting their quote.
It's like writing ""Here is the quoted text.
Unquote ends the quote. So "quote unquote" means ""Here's an empty quote, now let me ramble on about something that is not a quote.
- you're thinking too much like a computer.
  in human speech, when "quote unquote" is used, it's typically obvious when the quote ends from the tone and pace of what is said.
  the function of "quote unquote" is to reduce the awkwardness and increase the impact of reciting a quote by obviating the need to state the word "unquote" at the end of a quote.
  compare:
  He ended every speech with quote and carthege must be destroyed unquote
  with
  He ended each speech with quote unquote carthege must be destroyed
  Try saying both out loud. I think you'll agree that the second form sounds less awkward and more impactful
  
  That's why in most other languages (and that works in english too), if you don't want to specifically mark the end of your quote, you just say something like "And then he said, I quote, your mom is so fat that she has her own gravitational well."
  No need or point to put an unnecesary "end quote" marker before the beginning of your quote.
- That's the point though, quote to tell people it's a quote and unquote to signal that you are using it out of context or sarcastically, thus not quoting the original sentiment. It's correct.
  
  I think they're more annoyed that some people say both right before they start the quote
- People sometimes introduce a quote by doing that air quote gesture - I suppose with this logic they should only do it on one hand at the quote start and use the other hand to end the quote.
  
  The air quote is usually signed til the end of the quote. It being done in parallel to the spoken language doesn't really have an equivalent in purely sequential written language.
  But yeah, I'd be kinda confused if someone quoted a longer segment and only used the air quotes super briefly before the first word, ending them before the first word started.

Thought it was gonna be about when phone dictation bleeds into the real world.
- I actually thought this was going to be the punchline.

I don't recall ever hearing someone do that. Is this a thing people do?
- I've done it on rare occasions to emphasize the uncertainty of a claim.
- I think it's mostly people like me who use voice to text. You have to tell it the punctuation verbally.
- I use it as a way to say I'm pretty sure the thing I said is true but I have doubt.
  " the glasses are only cosmetic, question mark"
  Also turns out I'm pretty sure the devs patched the glasses,and they now negatively effect aim.
- Copy/paste instead of linking because Lemmy doesn't like me>
  I can shad a light on that! [...]
  When we're in a fast paces dialogue with a high level of rapport I start speaking my thoughts before they're finished - and it happens that a thought starts out as "my opinion is ..." And in the middle transfers to "oh it would be way more interesting what your thoughts on this are!".
  Or I'm mentally distracted and fall back to the monologue voice ....
  Either way: the flow of the sentence already started as a statement and now I want to make sure that it's clear that your input is wanted and appreciated - and instead of saying "and perhaps that sounded like a statement but please treat it as a question" I fall back to "question mark."
- I've heard some people use it when they don't have the rising inflection in their voice that usually denotes a question. I've also used and seen it used to mean dubious claim as the other poster mentioned! Not very commonly though.

When people say "question mark" out loud
https://xkcd.com/2071/
- always a relevant XKCD
- Oh I can shad a light on that! Hope it's not en pair with the shelter animal hunting though.
  When we're in a fast paces dialogue with a high level of rapport I start speaking my thoughts before they're finished - and it happens that a thought starts out as "my opinion is ..." And in the middle transfers to "oh it would be way more interesting what your thoughts on this are!". Or I'm mentally distracted and fall back to the monologue voice ....
  Either way: the flow of the sentence already started as a statement and now I want to make sure that it's clear that your input is wanted and appreciated - and instead of saying "and perhaps that sounded like a statement but please treat it as a question" I fall back to "question mark."