Did that headline bother you. Did you kind of miss the question mark at the end of it. Would you really like it if everyone wrote like this, all the time. No, that would be bothersome, wouldn't it.
But just imagine if everyone wrote sentences like this? If every statement they made ended with a question mark? I wonder if you're one of them without realising it? (Well, if you are, I love you anyway?)
Okay, enough of that; point made. But this plague seems to have infected adults over 40 as well — probably victims of their own children, no doubt. If you're old enough, you will remember a time before people over 18 framed statements without a question mark at the end, but now, listening to a typical North American adult, that era seems to be a very, very long time ago. With children, it's almost a tic, as if they're suffering from Statement-Averse Syndrome (or by its medical name, Questionitis, or inflammation of the question gland.)
Where did this abominable speech defect enter into our language? Would you like to hear someone, like, always, you know, umm, go through, like whole sentences or, like, talk like this for several paragraphs, y'know?
It's just as annoying, believe me.
Please, if you talk like that now, think about it and JUST STOP YOURSELF before you do it?
You'll be doing us all a favor?
Aloha again :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. I must admit I've not run into this particular grammar peeve (and I do see it as a grammmar issue).
Here are three guesses:
- It's a result of school systems dropping grammar and phonics because they were old-fashioned concepts, and neither shiny nor cool (or "kewl?")
- Home apathy
- A decline in (pleasure) reading.
I saw this argument: It's okay for to not care about grammar/spelling because it's the passion that counts.
Personally, I disagree--written blogs depend on informed word and punctuation choices to be effective (to inform, persuade, whatever). If I use your statement-only para as an example, there little-to-no passion in such texts.
Okay, I've usurped and pontificated in your space for too long...my apologies. I must go and eat chocolate...that'll make up for it...I'm absolutely certain of it.
Email me if you want to discuss (addy is on my blog).
j
I think the alarming thing is that the first few "non-question" sentences that I wrote actually look perfectly normal in today's world.
ReplyDeleteAnd you must have run into this "question-at-the-end-of-every-sentence" deal. It's not a grammar thing — it's a purely spoken thing, all about intonation. I'm not ranting about written English here — that's for another, very long day.
What set me off about it was that I was watching the PBS program "Texas Ranch House," a reality show about a group of people who pretend to be running a ranch in 1867. The "kids," three girls from 14 to 19, all ended all their sentences with a question mark.
This, I can abide. But their parents, in their 50s, ALSO ended all their sentences with a question mark. It's as if people in their 50s were all talking ValleyGirl, or saying things like "WhatEVERR, dude," that belong to, well, their children.
It's not so much of a problem up here in Canada . . . yet. But it sure is in California, where two out of three people — regardless of age — are seemingly doing it.
But then again, language changes, and I'm not a stickler for the "old ways." Just that this new way is so annoying.
Upon re-reading the original post, I see that it's not entirely clear that I'm referring to a speech anomaly, not a writing anomaly. I used the written sentences to try to translate how weird it would be if extended to writing. This would have been better expressed as a Podcast.
ReplyDeleteyes i realised this very interesting phenemonon when i was living in N America. it's spread across the Atlantic i believe - the same here in England!!! but a little less serious i think - here, only teenagers (or immature older people in their 20s =P) speak like this as far as i observe. i've found myself being infected (starting from Montreal in fact; in SoCal, wow almost everyone i heard on the street spoke like that!). sometimes i'd do this too? rising intonation in a declarative sentence which is weird and confusing? like adding everything sentence with a "like" as well? does it mean people are getting less certain of their lives/destiny and want to question everything?
ReplyDeleteIngrid,
ReplyDeleteGOD! For a second I thought I was alone. It's really a creeping phenomenon and I, too am not immune to it. Ending spoken sentences with a continual question mark is, like, bizarre?
I don't know where it started but I highly suspect the California culture of the 1990s. I think it stems from the speaker's insecurity and constant desire to have the listener understand the speaker's sincerity, which may have been originally a conversational tool but has now developed into a conversational crutch.
In its essence, I think it says "Are you really listening to me? Don't you agree that what I'm saying is important?" and stems from conversations originally among little children that somehow worked its way up the development ladder.
It's really so pervasive in North American culture (the only equivalent in England that I can think of is the sentence-ending "Yeah?") that it now goes largely unnoticed by the majority of the population.
Except by me.
Mea culpa-I thought you meant written word and not spoken.
ReplyDeleteYES-- I know what you mean...I remember the mimickry happening in the 80s (remember Square Pegs?).
Is it simply a matter of trying to develop an association with "desireable" people? Young people don't necessarily have the ability to have the same posessions/live the lifestyle, so they change what they can--accents/inflections, clothing, hair etc...
I've seen similar things happen with people who pick up accents when they travel or Ontario farmers' kids who try to dress and talk like Detroit rappers.
Most people will outgrow this, but some people don't...
j
One of my courses in first year university was a public speaking course. I hated it (it's hard to watch yourself on camera), but in the end it was quite useful. I learned that i touch my nose, a lot, when I speak in public & am nervous. Seeing it on camera pretty much cured the habit.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing we saw alot on the playback of everyone's tapes (our class was mostly girls) was that many girls had this affectation of speaking in questions instead of statements.
We learned from our prof that this phenomenon is (or was... first year was a long time ago. things may have changed ;)) actually more prevalent in girls, and is often due to the socialization of girls that in general does not encourage them to speak with authority.
Therefore, girls (& women) often developed (consciously or subconsciously) a habit of speaking in questions as a form of approval from their male counterparts.
I was horrified to have noticed that I did sometimes speak in questions that were supposed to be statements. Others in my class were equally horrified.
But what I remember most is making the conscious decision, then and there, to speak in statements unless I truly was asking a question.
There was no way I was going to speak in a way that sounded like I needed approval from others!
Yes, it most definitely is most prevalent in girls. In California, it's 99% universal in girls under 20 and probably 75% prevalent in women over 20. But teenage boys are doing it as well.
ReplyDeleteI'm praying it's just a cultural phase and will die out. But not if these kids grow into moms and . . .