Quotation-Marks.com

Create Emphasis and Irony Using Quotation Marks

Another important use of quotation marks is to indicate or call attention to ironic or apologetic words. Ironic quotes can also be called scare, sneer, shock, or distance quotes. Ironic quotes are sometimes gestured in verbal speech using air quotes:

My jerk brother claimed he was too “busy” to help me.

Ironic quotes should be used with care. Without the intonational cues of speech, they could obscure the writer's intended meaning. They could also be confused easily with quotations.

In a similar sense, quotes are also used to indicate that the writer realizes that the word is not being used in its (currently) accepted sense.

In the fifteenth century, we “knew” that the Sun's revolution divided day from night.

Woody Allen joked, “I'm astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”

Quotes are also sometimes used for emphasis in lieu of underlining or italics, most commonly found on signs or placards. This is generally discouraged not only because it is historically an improper usage, but also because it is easily confused with ironic or altered-usage quotation.

For sale: “fresh” fish, $5.99

The statement above could be construed to imply that the word fresh is not being used with its everyday meaning.

Either quotes or italic type can emphasize that an instance of a word refers to the word itself rather than its associated concept.

Cheese is derived from milk.

“Cheese” is derived from a word in Old English.

Cheese has calcium, protein, and phosphorus.

Cheese has three E's.

In HTML/XHTML, a semi-semantic way to distinguish regular quotes from distance quotes is to use the <q> tag for the former while using actual quotation marks for distance quotes. It is only semi-semantic because the behavior for non-eye-centered media is uncertain. Still, it is safer than not introducing any distinction at all.

Copyright © 2005-2010 Quotation-Marks.com. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”.