Question ≠ ?

BBC: Question mark over food factory

No there isn't.

BBC: Iraq question won't go away
…What the leak does show then is that, firstly, Lord Goldsmith did originally raise significant question marks over the possible legality of the war.

No he didn't.

BBC: Pen state
Never mind Brian Sedgemore, another question mark was raised about New Labour today as a result of their campaign pens.

No one wasn't.

BBC: Dangerous new phase for DR Congo peace
…In addition, there is always a political question mark over whether UN soldiers—however good they may be technically—will fight.

No there isn't.

BBC: Eisteddfod 2007 site difficulties
…A question mark over the siting of the 2007 event was raised after Roderick Owen, President of Cymdeithas Cymry Lerpwl (Liverpool Welsh Society), confirmed he had sent a letter to Mr Roberts.

No it wasn't.

BBC: Question mark over arrest death

No there isn't.

The word is question, not question mark. A question is something that is asked (overtly or implicitly); a question mark is a punctuation symbol. Question marks only hang over physical objects in cartoons. It's not that difficult to get right.

Published
Filed under: Nonsense

Richard Carter

A fat, bearded chap with a Charles Darwin fixation.

6 comments

  1. Erm? Wasn't he Eric Morecambe's sidekick?
    Anyway, the corrupted expression 'question mark' most likely comes from those badly drawn American sci-fi comics of the 1950s,where the '?' featured heavily, along with zap!, pow! Maudling! gnaarrgh! etc. Or am I just talking out of my arse question mark close bracket full stop where was I oh yes that's right goodbye

  2. It's a phrase. A figure of speech. Like somebody talking figuartively, not literaly. It's a metaphore.

  3. I'm not sure it should correctly even be "there is a question over..". Strictly, I think they should say "there is a query over...".

    A question is a sentence in an interrogative form, while the act of raising a question is to query.

    Of course, I agree and write merely to annoy.

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