Quotes scare me

Comments (13)

1. You’re walking a dangerous path referring to misused quotation marks as scare quotes. Scare quotes are the ones that mean so-called-but-not-really (as in creation “science”). Quotes used for emphasis might be scary quotes, but that is not the same thing. You will probably claim that you put scare quotes around “scare quotes” to mean “not really scare quotes”, but that’s a dodgy defence if ever I heard one.

   Speaking of creation “science”, this reminds me of an occasion in the nineties when a creationist I was arguing with failed to see what was right in front of their nose. You know those claims that there are fossilised hats in museums, only a hundred years old or so? Well, this creationist showed me the photograph, and sure enough, the sign in the museum said: Fossil Hat.

   Oh, wait … no, it didn’t. Instead, it said: “Fossil” Hat. With scare quotes. But try as I might, I could not get the creationist to see the blatantly obvious truth that the quotation marks around “fossil” demonstrate that the person who made the sign, at least, didn’t actually think it was a fossil. It was as though, to the creationist, the quotation marks were completely invisible.

   1. Oddly, I know what are and aren’t scare quotes (see prior professional roles). Using quotation marks for anything but quotations is a scare quote. Many people think there is a legitimate use for quotes to indicate a lack of literal meaning, but in every case it can be dispensed with. It’s lazy.

      Even worse are those who use single quote marks for quoted text. There’s a “circle of hell” for these people…

      1. We’re going to have to agree to disagree on the definition of scare quotes. I still think you’re wrong about that, but because this is a blog and not the Monty Python argument room, I won’t say so again.

         (Besides, your two minutes is up.)

      2. but because this is a blog and not the Monty Python argument room

         There’s a difference?

      3. Yes. For a start I can’t do Getting Hit on the Head lessons.

2. Scare quotes can be useful when you are discussing something where the meaning of a word is being abused or distorted, and you want to emphasize that fact.

   You’re right that they are grossly overused, though. Coming from history and philosophy of science, I’ve started rolling my eyes every time I come across someone in science studies who can’t talk about truth, facts, or knowledge without putting the words in scare quotes. It just seems to me like a very superficial and shallow attempt to appear non-whiggish.

   1. And I was joking. But I do think that you can almost always find an alternative way to indicate disbelief. The use of subjunctive, for example.

      1. It’s not so much indication of disbelief that’s the issue, as it is calling attention to a distortion of the meaning of a specific term. For instance, one might say something like, “Fundamentalist Christians are very defensive of their ‘right’ to control what gay people do behind closed doors.” In a sentence like that, the quotation marks are used to call attention to how the religious right abuses the meaning of a specific term. When they speak of rights, they really mean power over others.

         Maybe I could find some wordy way to state it in the subjunctive, but I think it’s much more effective to single the word out with quotes, pointing directly to it and how it’s being abused.

3. I can be a grammar nazi at times but this is one thing that just doesn’t bother me that much. People seem to most often use it when they want to give emphasis to a word or set of words but they don’t have the option/ability/knowledge to use a different font.

   1. Oh, I’m not a grammar Nazi, if only because I don’t know any. But I’m merry hell on punctuation. Heaven help the student who uses a mere hyphen between a number range.

4. I think the only legitimate use of quotation marks other than for direct speech and book titles is in philosophy when the word in quotes is being treated as a concept, as the object of a discussion and not being used as a word. But I’m sure that the Aussie Anthropoid will also declare that superfluous.

   1. I italicise a mentioned word. Saves a lot of trouble.

5. I just wonder if there is a special circle of Hell for people that use no-verbal scare quotes when they are speaking.

   Maria Shriver egregiously committed this crime on a special TV program related to gay marriage several years ago. Whenever she said the word “gay” she held up the first two fingers of both hands. It annoyed me so much that I had to turn off what otherwise could have been an excellent show.

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