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Inverted question (¿) and exclamation (¡) marks are punctuation marks used to begin interrogative and exclamatory sentences (or clauses), respectively, in written Spanish and sometimes also in languages which have cultural ties with Spanish, such as in older standards of Galician (now it is optional and not recommended), Catalan or Waray-Waray. They can also be combined in several ways to express the combination of a question and surprise or disbelief. The initial marks are normally mirrored at the end of the sentence or clause by the common marks (?, !) used in most other languages. Unlike the ending marks, which are printed along the baseline of a sentence, the inverted marks (¿ and ¡) actually descend below the line. Inverted marks were originally recommended by the ''Real Academia Española'' (Spanish Royal Academy) in 1754, and adopted gradually over the next century. On computers, inverted marks are supported by various standards, including ISO-8859-1, Unicode, and HTML. They can be entered directly on keyboards designed for Spanish-speaking countries, or via alternative methods on other keyboards. == Usage == The inverted question mark (¿) is a punctuation mark written before the first letter of an interrogative sentence or clause to indicate that a question follows. It is an inverted form of the standard symbol "?" recognized by speakers of languages written with the Latin alphabet. In most languages, a single question mark is used, and only at the end of an interrogative sentence: "How old are you?" This was once true of the Spanish language. The inverted question mark was adopted long after the Real Academia's decision, published in the second edition of (''The Orthography of the Royal Academy'') in 1754 recommending it as the symbol indicating the beginning of a question in written Spanish—e.g. ("How old are you?"). The Real Academia also ordered the same inverted-symbol system for statements of exclamation, using the symbols "¡" and "!". This helps to recognize questions and exclamations in long sentences. "Do you like summer?" and "You like summer." are translated respectively as "¿Te gusta el verano?" and "Te gusta el verano." (There is no difference between the wording of a yes–no question and the corresponding statement in Spanish as there is in English.) These new rules were slowly adopted; there exist nineteenth-century books in which the writer does not use either opening symbol, neither the "¡" nor the "¿". In sentences that are both declarative and interrogative, the clause that asks a question is isolated with the starting-symbol inverted question mark, for example: (In case you cannot go with them, would you like to go with us?) Some writers omit the inverted question mark in the case of a short unambiguous question such as: ("Who comes?"). This is the criterion in Catalan. Certain Catalan-language authorities, such as Joan Solà, insist that both the opening and closing question marks be used for clarity. Some Spanish-language writers, among them Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), refuse to use the inverted question mark.〔Pablo Neruda, , (June 2008). ISBN 978-956-16-0169-7. p. 7 〕 It is common in Internet chat rooms and instant messaging now to use only the single "?" as an ending symbol for a question, since it saves typing time—using most keyboards, it is easier to type the closing symbol than the opening, inverted symbol. Multiple closing symbols are used for emphasis: ''Por qué dices eso??'', instead of the standard ''¿Por qué dices eso?'' ("Why do you say that?"). Some may also use the ending symbol for both beginning and ending, giving ''?Por qué dices eso?'' Given the informal setting, this might be unimportant; however, teachers see this as a problem, fearing and claiming that contemporary young people are inappropriately and incorrectly extending the practice to academic homework and essays.〔(Upside Down Exclamation Point )〕 (See Internet linguistics: Educational perspective.) Unspoken uncertainty is expressed in writing (informal notes, comics) with ''¿?'', and surprise with ''¡!'', but single interrogative ''?'' and exclamatory ''!'' symbols are also used. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Inverted question and exclamation marks」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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