Stops, Or How to Punctuate / A Practical Handbook for Writers and Students

THE POINT OF INTERROGATION

Paul Allardyce

XXIX. The point of interrogation is placed after a direct question.

Where are you going, my pretty maid?

Whether of them twain did the will of his father?

The question may end in the middle of a sentence:

Is he happy? you ask.

We have sometimes the choice of putting the point of interrogation in the middle or at the end of the sentence.

You would not consent to that, by whomsoever proposed.

You would not consent to that?—by whomsoever proposed.

There is a slight shade of difference in meaning; in the second form, "by whomsoever proposed" is added as an afterthought.

XXX. Indirect questions are not strictly questions at all, and therefore should not be followed by a point of interrogation.

He asked me whether I had seen his friend; whether I had spoken to him; and how I liked him.

If we restore these questions to the direct form, the point of interrogation is inserted.

He asked me: "Have you seen my friend? Have you spoken to him? How do you like him?"

XXXI. When a sentence contains more than one question, sometimes the point of interrogation is placed after each of them, sometimes it is placed only at the end of the sentence. It is placed after each, if each is in reality a distinct question; it is placed only at the end, if the separate questions so unite as to need but a single answer.

In many cases it will be a matter of individual taste to say whether they do so unite.

Is it better that estates should be held by those who have no duty than by those who have one? by those whose character and destination point to virtues than by those who have no rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own will and appetite?

Do you imagine that it is the Land Tax Act which raises your revenue, that it is the annual vote in the Committee of Supply which gives you your army, or that it is the Mutiny Bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no!

Oh! why should Hymen ever blight
The roses Cupid wore?
Or why should it be ever night
Where it was day before?
Or why should women have a tongue,
Or why should it be cursed,
In being, like my Second, long,
And louder than my First?

XXXII. Exclamations in an interrogative form take a mark of exclamation after them, not a point of interrogation. (See Rule XXXV.)

XXXIII. A point of interrogation enclosed within brackets is sometimes used to indicate that there is a doubt whether the statement preceding it is true, or whether the expression preceding it is well applied, or that some statement or expression is made or used ironically.

While you are revelling in the delights (?) of the London season, I am leading a hermit life, with no companions save my books.

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