10.25.07
Grammar time!
Today there was an exercise that we did wherein we were to supply the punctuation for sentences that lacked it. One of the sentences was as follows:
Did Jon ask Where are they
Can you fix it?
Clearly, there should be quotation marks, so let’s go ahead and put them in. Likewise with the comma before that precedes quotes.
Did Jon ask, “Where are they”
Additionally, Jon is asking a question, so let’s put the question mark inside the quotes.
Did Jon ask, “Where are they?”
Alright, that’s where I left off. When we went through the exercise as a class, it suddenly struck me — the sentence itself is a question! So, being the inquisitive mind that I am, I asked the teacher whether there should be a question mark outside of the quotations as well. Something to the effect of:
Did Jon ask, “Where are they?”?
Obviously, I didn’t think that was right (since my original answer was different), but it touched off some debate. Let’s pretend the main sentence wasn’t a question:
Jon asked, “Where are they?”
That would be fine because you’re not supposed to use a period or a comma outside of quotations. On the other hand, it’s okay to use question marks outside of quotes! The following sentence would be correct, I believe.
Did Jon say, “There they are”?
Having established that there are cases when a question mark is used inside the quotations and that there are cases when it used outside of the quotes, the question is whether they should be used twice when these situations overlap. Anyone know the definitive answer? My teacher didn’t know, and he said that he was having stomach cramps and was in too much pain to think. He then promptly dismissed class. He did say he would look into it and get back to us next week. I guess I’ll wait until Tuesday to find out, unless someone here knows.