Editing Quotation marks in English (section)

=== Signalling unusual usage ===
Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realises that a word is not being used in its current commonly accepted sense:
{{block indent|Crystals somehow "know" which shape to grow into.}}

In addition to conveying a neutral attitude and to call attention to a [[neologism]], or [[slang]], or special terminology (also known as [[jargon]]), quoting can also indicate words or phrases that are ''descriptive'' but unusual, colloquial, folksy, startling, humorous, metaphoric, or contain a [[pun]]: [[Richard Dawkins|Dawkins's]] concept of a [[meme]] could be described as an "evolving idea".

People also use quotation marks in this way to distance the writer from the terminology in question so as not to be associated with it, for example to indicate that a quoted word is not official terminology, or that a quoted phrase presupposes things that the author does not necessarily agree with; or to indicate special terminology that should be identified for accuracy's sake as someone else's terminology, as when a term (particularly a controversial term) pre-dates the writer or represents the views of someone else, perhaps without judgement (contrast this neutrally distancing quoting to the negative use of [[scare quotes]]).

''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'', 17th edition (2017),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part2/ch07/psec057.html |title=The Chicago Manual of Style Online |edition=17th |date=2017 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |access-date=21 December 2018 |at=Section 7.57 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> acknowledges this type of use but, in section 7.57, cautions against its overuse: "Quotation marks are often used to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard (or slang), ironic, or other special sense .... [T]hey imply 'This is not my term,' or 'This is not how the term is usually applied.' Like any such device, [[scare quotes]] lose their force and irritate readers if overused."