100503
I've encountered this a number of times, where, in Japanese, a question mark
(?) is used when someone is clearly making a statement, not when posing a
question or hypothetical or any such thing. It seems to particularly happen
when a sentence concludes with "よ".

Is this just a unique use of the question mark (?) by japanese people, that
applies more to intonation (a rising tone towards the end of the sentence),
and less to the fact that the sentence is a question? Or am I misinterpretting
things?

As for examples, here's two off the top of my head:

  1. There's an anime titled "Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou desu yo?" (yes, it ends in a question mark)
  2. In SAO Progressive (2nd movie), goon #1 says basically says "let's attack!", and goon #2 says "短気は損気ですよぉ？" according to the Japanese subtitles (the statement being essentially "haste makes waste". This is a statement, not a question or anything of the sort.).

As a bonus related question, I swear I see "ですよね。" with a period at the end
way more often than with a question mark at the end. Whereas in English,
"isn't it?"/"ain't that right?" will always have question marks at the end. So
yeah, in general, I'm not sure how Japanese people think a question mark is
supposed to be used @.@. Or maybe I don't know how it's supposed to be used? A
question mark is supposed to be used to mark a question, right? @.@
(rhetorical or otherwise)
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2023-08-02T13:20:52.670
100501
2023-08-02T14:23:18.983
2023-08-02T13:25:54.037
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question
grammar orthography punctuation literature written-language
Japanese people using a "?" (question mark) after making a statement (not question) ending in "よ"?
This type of "よ?", pronounced with a rising intonation, is like "..., you
know?", "..., don't you know?", "..., okay?", "..., huh?", "..., and so?" or
"..., so what's next?" and so on, depending on the context. In any way, it's a
kind of "question" in the sense that it seeks the listener's response.

  * 短気は損気ですよ？  
Haste makes waste, you know?

  * 本当ですよ？  
That's true, okay? / don't you believe me?

  * その映画？ 見ましたよ？  
The movie? Yes I saw it (but why do you ask)?

  * 先生が来ましたよ？  
The teacher just arrived (so what should I do)?

As for your next question, depending on the intonation, a sentence-end ね may
or may not be a question. "ですよね" without a question mark is a very common
expression like "That's understandable" or "I knew it". "ですよね?" with a
question mark is like "I'm correct, right?"
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-08-02T14:10:13.800
100503
2023-08-02T14:23:18.983
2023-08-02T14:23:18.983
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100501
answer