How To Install CentOS?

Does anyone know why I keep seeing people putting question marks at the end of things that aren't questions?

How to pay for parking? How to install CentOS?

I see it on official signs as well. It's quite perplexing.

Is this the text equivalent of up-talking?

Interesting article. Now I come to think of it, as a Canadian resident, I do recognise this speech behaviour in people around me.

I did wonder if it was some kind of language cross-talk phenomenon, as I think that some languages convert statements to questions using different grammatical mechanisms from those used in English.

Actually "How to install CentOS?" is not a complete sentence (question), it is a fragment. To make it a complete sentence one could do something like this:

"Please show me how to install CentOS."

"I will, in this article, show you how to install CentOS."

But I think that people speak in sentence fragments in common everyday speech. We say things like:

"Well done!"

"Really?"

Since sentence fragments are common in everyday language, they will inevitably also appear in the written language.

Well, at least we got a sentence fragment and not just a few letters. Lol

Language is an semi-arbitrary combination of sounds which convey meaning to within a group. It changes over time...

And then there's this:

http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/can-you-read

it may be a sentence fragment, but that doesn't make it a question. even shorter complete sentences can be created with: "this is how to ..."

i guess people get confused by the "how". if a sentence starts with "how", it has to be a question, right?

greetings, eMBee.

@dotmatrix: there ought to be a tool for that, like cat, that just jumbles all the words.

greetings, eMBee.

It isn't a sentence fragment given the context. If it was the heading of a thread asking how to install CentOS it would be, but it's used as the headline for an article stating how to install CentOS.

It's just plain wrong. English probably isn't the author's first language which is a more likely explanation.

penguinist wrote:Actually "How to install CentOS?" is not a complete sentence (question), it is a fragment. To make it a complete sentence one could do something like this:

"Please show me how to install CentOS."

"I will, in this article, show you how to install CentOS."

You are absolutely correct that it is not a complete sentence, but does a title have to be a complete sentence?

The question mark makes it strange, even for a title.

How to install CentOS

The above title is better, unless the author wants to imply it that it is questionable if this article is really how to install CentOS. My suggestion that up-talking is affecting text now was sarcastic, however I wouldn't be surprised.

This thread is screaming for an Oatmeal comic:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

--Questionable Question Mark Quite Disquieting

***

Now, would it be correct to write:

1. an Oatmeal comic
2. a The Oatmeal comic
3. an Oatmeal, The comic
4. an Oatmeal, the comic
5. a the Oatmeal comic

? ... Of course, the question mark goes at the end of the list of questionable options.

Something to distract one from the chaos of the USA election today.