? may derive from Qo, with the Q written over the o, an abbreviation of Latin quaestio(“question”), placed at the end of a question to mark it as such.[1]
Character #1: "I have no time to explain! Have you seen a Big Bad Wolf blowing down various houses?"
Character #2: "?"
(linguistics)Marks the following word or phrase as questionable for a grammatical or semantic-pragmatic reason.
2006, Renaat Declerck, Susan Reed, Bert Cappelle, “The Grammar of the English Verb Phrase”, in The Grammar of the English Tense System, volume 1 (in English), →ISBN, page 6:
A superscript question mark will be used similarly to indicate that a sentence or constituent is questionable for a grammatical or semantic-pragmatic reason. A double superscript question mark indicates an even higher degree of questionability.
I have never { worked / ?been working } on a dissertation
This time tomorrow I { will / ??am going to } be driving to London.
2009, Terry Stickels, Math Puzzles and Brainteasers, Grades 3-5: Over 300 Puzzles that Teach Math and Problem-Solving Skills (in English), John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 6:
What is the next number in the sequence below?
1 4 9 16 25 36 ?
As SMS messaging and other forms of electronic communication have become more common, some Spanish-speakers use only ? for questions and ! for exclamations, leaving out the initial typographical mark. This is considered non-standard usage.
