Editing Question mark (section)

==Linguistics==
In most areas of [[linguistics]], but especially in [[syntax]], a question mark in front of a word, phrase or sentence indicates that the form in question is strongly dispreferred, "questionable" or "strange", but not outright [[ungrammatical]].{{efn|One article notes succinctly that "common practice in linguistics [is that] an asterisk preceding a word, a clause or a sentence is used to indicate ungrammaticality or unacceptability, while a question mark is used to indicate questionable usage",<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|15}} another that, "A question mark indicates that the example is marginal; an asterisk indicates unacceptability"<ref name="Simons"/>{{rp|409}} and another that "examples preceded by an asterisk are ungrammatical, and those preceded by a question mark would be considered strange".<ref name="Everett"/>{{rp|623}}}}  (The [[asterisks in linguistics|asterisk]] is used to indicate outright ungrammaticality.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|332}})

Other sources go further and use several symbols (e.g. the question mark and the asterisk plus {{code|?*}} or the [[degree symbol]] {{code|°}}) to indicate gradations or a continuum of acceptability.{{efn|One example is "rough approximations of acceptability are given in four gradations and indicated as follows: normal and preferred, no mark; acceptable but not preferred, degree sign {{code|°}}; marginally acceptable, question mark ({{code|?}}); unacceptable, asterisk ({{code|*}})."<ref name="Timberlake"/>{{rp|123–24}}}}

Yet others use double question marks {{code|??}} to indicate a degree of strangeness between those indicated by a single question mark and that indicated by the combination of question mark and asterisk.<ref>{{Cite book |first=R. L. |last=Trask |author-link=Larry Trask |title=A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics |location=London |publisher=Routledge |date=1993 |isbn=0-415-08627-2 |page=227}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Michael Alan |last=Jones |title=Foundations of French Syntax |series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1996 |isbn=0-521-38104-5 |page=xxv}}</ref>