This is another brief polemic regarding a common misunderstanding in the use of punctuation marks, in particular quotation marks.
By definition and logically, they should only be used when someone is being quoted.
After all, the symbols in question are called that (quotation marks), right? So when used, they should be encapsulating a quote.
Here’s an exchange I’ve had a time or two when noticing that some store (usually it’s a store, or a restaurant, or a motel, or a flyer somebody put up on a power pole or bulletin board somewhere) has added quotation marks where they don’t belong:
“Who are they quoting?” I say.
“Who? Who are you talking about?”
“That sign says, ‘Going Out of Business Sale!’ with quotes around it. So who are they quoting? Who said, ‘Going Out of Business Sale!’ that they are now quoting as having made that rather mundane remark? I doubt someone really stood up on a soapbox, jutted his finger into the air, and declaimed: ‘Going Out of Business Sale!’
“And if they really are quoting somebody, they should give attribution for it, like so:”
“Going Out of Business Sale!”
- Jeffrey Skilling
-or:
“Moving Sale - All Things Must Go!”
- Ma Joad
But at this point, the person I’m speaking with usually either doesn’t quite understand what I’m talking about or doesn’t think the superfluous quotation marks matter. Some say it’s just a way of adding emphasis to the statement. Hmm.
Does this stuff really matter?
Yes and No.
Some people detest the ambiguity of that answer, but let me explain:
No, it doesn’t usually matter, as long as people understand the writer of the sign was just being ignorant. It doesn’t really matter, because nobody’s going to die or get maimed or injured because quotation marks were misused—that is, that they were added where they didn’t belong.
But yes, it does matter, at least at times, because everything matters, or could potentially be significant.
Everything?
Yes, because where does it end when you start getting lazy and letting things slide like that?
To quote “H. Wads Longfellow” (I’m quoting Mark Twain there; he called him that) in the poem “The Builders”:
Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.
In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.
Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.
And besides, it is possible that somebody could get hurt due to a misunderstanding caused by imprecision in speech or writing. There are times when using quotation marks can be misleading in what could turn out to be a serious way. Note this book’s title, for example:
By putting the word “Officer” in quotes, it seems to infer that he’s not really an officer, but that he called himself an officer—in which case this could be a dangerous situation, for what is this guy who only claims to be an officer up to? No good, probably, if he would lie about his officership or officerhood that way.
So am I just being a curmudgeon in objecting to quotation marks that don’t quote anyone? No. As I said, “everything matters.”
NOTE: It is said that there are exceptions to everything. I take exception to that, but in this case, anyway, it’s true. And there it is (was): “It’s”
Is “It’s” the possessive of “It” or is it a contraction?
It’s a contraction; that is to say, it (“It’s”) is a contraction. It’s a contraction of “It is.” So how do you write the possessive of it? Its. As if it’s a plural of “It.” Example:
The dog has no collar. It’s collarless. Its neck has no collar around it.
Yes, it’s confusing, but as I said in a previous post, English is crazy.