Scare Quotes as Markers of "Questionable" Word Usages and Misalignment in Conversation: An Annotation Study

Abstract

Scare quotes are a subtle yet powerful device: they can mark irony, distance, or disagreement about word meaning or lexical choices. We present a large-scale manual annotation of quoted word usages focused on the scare versus non-scare quote distinction as well as on their role in managing (mis)alignment in conversation. Our analysis reveals that scare quotes can mark problematic word usages, and they are often used to contest or criticize other speakers’ word choices. However, non-scare, meta-linguistic usages of quotes are also often involved in explicit efforts toward lexico-semantic alignment.

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