Quotation marks used to indicate non-standard usage
This article is about the typographic practice. For the use of quotations and headlines to scare readers, seeScare-line.
Scare quotes (also calledshudder quotes[1][2] orsneer quotes[3][4][5]) arequotation marks that writers place around a word or phrase to signal that they are using it in anironic, referential, or otherwise non-standard sense.[6] Scare quotes may indicate that the author is using someone else's term, similar to preceding a phrase with the expression "so-called";[7] they may imply skepticism or disagreement, belief that the words are misused, or that the writer intends a meaning opposite to the words enclosed in quotes.[8] Whether quotation marks are considered scare quotes depends on context because scare quotes are not visually different from actual quotations. The use of scare quotes is sometimes discouraged in formal or academic writing.[9][10]
Elizabeth Anscombe coined the termscare quotes as it refers to punctuation marks in 1956 in an essay titled "Aristotle and the Sea Battle", published inMind.[11] The use of a graphic symbol on an expression to indicate irony or dubiousness goes back much further: Authors of ancient Greece used a mark called adiple periestigmene for that purpose.[12] Beginning in the 1990s, the use of scare quotes suddenly became very widespread.[13][14][15]Postmodernist authors in particular have theorized aboutbracketing punctuation, including scare quotes, and have found reasons for their frequent use in their writings.[2][16] In 2014,Slate declaredhashtags to be "the new scare quotes" in the sense that both are used for "announcing distance". Just like scare quotes, hashtags such as#firstworldproblems or#YOLO signal that the phrase is not one's own.[17]
Writers use scare quotes for a variety of reasons. They can imply doubt or ambiguity in words or ideas within the marks,[18] or even outright contempt.[19] They can indicate that a writer is purposely misusing a word or phrase[20] or that the writer is unpersuaded by the text in quotes,[21] and they can help the writer deny responsibility for the quote.[19] Megan Garber inThe Atlantic writes: "to put terms like 'identity politics' or 'rape culture' or, yes, 'alt-right' in scare quotes is ... to make, in that placement, a political declaration."[22] In general, the punctuation expresses distance between the writer and the quote.[23][7]
For example:
Some "groupies" were following the band.
The scare quotes could indicate that the word is not one the writer would normally use, or that the writer thinks there is something dubious about the wordgroupies or its application to these people.[24] The exact meaning of the scare quotes is not clear without further context.
The termscare quotes may be confusing because of the wordscare. An author may use scare quotes not to convey alarm, but to signal asemantic quibble. Scare quotes may suggest or create aproblematization with the words set in quotes.[25][26]
Some experts encourage writers to avoid scare quotes because they can distance the writer and confuse the reader.[27]
EditorGreil Marcus, in a talk at Case Western Reserve University, described scare quotes as "the enemy", adding that they "kill narrative, they kill story-telling… They are a writer's assault on his or her own words."[28] Scare quotes have been described as ubiquitous, and the use of them as expressing distrust in truth, reality, facts, reason and objectivity.[14]
Political commentatorJonathan Chait wrote inThe New Republic,
The scare quote is the perfect device for making an insinuation without proving it, or even necessarily making clear what you're insinuating.[29]
In 1982, philosopherDavid Stove examined the trend of using scare quotes in philosophy as a means of neutralizing or suspending words that imply cognitive achievement, such asknowledge ordiscovery.[30]
Scare quotes can be replaced by writing text to make the insinuation explicit.
In spoken conversation, a stand-in for scare quotes is a hand gesture known asair quotes orfinger quotes, which mimics quotation marks. A speaker may alternatively say "quote" before and "unquote" after quoted words, or say "quote unquote" before or after the quoted words,[31] or pause before and emphasize the parts in quotes. These spoken methods are also used for literal and conventional quotes.
^Anscombe, G. E. M. (1 January 1956). "I.--Aristotle And The Sea Battle".Mind: A Quarterly Review of Psychology and Philosophy.65 (1):1–15.doi:10.1093/mind/65.1.1.JSTOR2251218.
^Finnegan, Ruth.Why Do We Quote?: The Culture and History of Quotation. Open Book Publishers (2011).ISBN9781906924331. p. 86.
^Howells, Richard, editor.Outrage: Art, Controversy, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan. (2012)ISBN9780230350168, p. 89.
^abHaack, Susan, editor.Manifesto of a Passionate Moderate: Unfashionable Essays. University of Chicago Press (2000)ISBN9780226311371, p. 202.
^Perlman, Merrill."'Scare' Tactics".Columbia Journalism Review. 28 January 2013.
^Stove, David C.Against the Idols of the Age. Transaction Publishers (1999)ISBN9781412816649 pp. xxv–xxvi.
^abTrask, Robert Lawrence.Say what You Mean!: A Troubleshooter's Guide to English Style and Usage. David R. Godine Publisher (2005)ISBN9781567922639 p. 228.
^Gibaldi, Joseph.MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. The Modern Language Association of America (1995)ISBN0-87352-565-5 p. 56.
^Fogarty, Mignon.The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl. Macmillan (2009)ISBN9781429964401 p. 207.
^linguistlaura (18 June 2012)."Scare quotes".Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved29 December 2021.The 'RF modulator' use is the 'neutral distancing' one on the Wikipedia page (special terminology).
^McArthur, Thomas Burns. McArthur, Roshan.Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press (2005)ISBN9780192806376
^Davidson, Arnold. I.The Emergence of Sexuality: Historical Epistemology and the Formation of Concepts. Harvard University Press (2004)ISBN9780674013704 pp. 87–88.
^Sharma, Nandita Rani.Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of 'Migrant Workers' in Canada. University of Toronto Press (2006)ISBN9781551930589 p. 169.
^Kemp, Gary.What is this thing called Philosophy of Language? Routledge (2013)ISBN9781135084851 p. xxii.
