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From: stevemac@bud.indirect.com (Pascal MacProgrammer)
Subject: Cherries are blue?
Message-ID: <D6xL5D.I8u@indirect.com>
Sender: usenet@indirect.com (Internet Direct Admin)
Organization: Department of Redundancy Department
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 16:44:00 GMT
X-Disclaimer: I have nothing to disclaim, deny, or disavow.
Lines: 54

Some time back, I wrote...

(a)  I wonder why people put question marks at the ends of declarative
sentences? 

...and then asked...

(b)  "How would you answer this apparent yes-or-no question?" 

> Not so very long ago, Paul Sampson <paul.sampson@octacon.co.uk> said... 

>Now by 'this', do you mean (a) or (b)?

  Obviously, I meant (a), because it is the only apparent yes-or-no 
question.  I call it that, because it is a declarative sentence 
(according to the word-order) followed by a question mark, as in, 
"Cherries are blue?"

> Not that it matters much. Neither (a) nor (b) seem to me to be
>'yes-or-no' questions. What makes you think they are? 

  I do not think that they are, so why do you ask that?
  Now, (a) is not a yes-or-no question, it is an =apparent= yes-or-no 
question.  To turn it into a true one, all we have to do is put the 
sentence into the standard interrogative word-order, and get, "Do I 
wonder why some people put question marks at the ends of declarative 
sentences?"
  And (b), of course, is an essay-question.

>(a) looks a bit like a 'why' question to me, which does not normally
>require a yes or no answer.

  Well, you're wrong.  A "why" question would be something on the order 
of, "Why do some people put question marks at the ends of declarative 
sentences?"

>Question (a), if framed as 'Why do people ...' might be answered by
>somebody other than the questioner since it is ostensibly directed in
>that, errm, direction. By placing the words 'I wonder' in front (along
>with the rather minor 'do-deletion') you appear to be asking yourself a
>question. But as we all know, this is not necessarily the case - you may
>be requesting a response from others. 

  Here's the bottom line:
  Sentence (a) was punctuated wrong; I did not intend it as a question,
but as a declarative statement.  I purposely mispunctuated it by putting a
question mark at the end, making fun of others who do that habitually.
  I was attempting to point out that this is a stupid thing to do.

-- 
                              ==----=                    Steve MacGregor
                             ([.] [.])                     Phoenix, AZ
--------------------------oOOo--(_)--oOOo----------------------------------
        Help stamp out, eliminate, and abolish redundancy!
