One for the Semanticists

[Aschenbach]

Is this a question.

[jno]

It's in the sentence format the English language uses for questions - verb first - which isn't used for non-questions except sometimes by Yoda. It doesn't have a question mark at the end, but this may be regarded as a typo - question marks only function in written English, after all; the word order on its own, perhaps with a rising intonation, would be enough in spoken English to mark this out as a question. So I reckon it is, and I have furthermore proved it by providing an answer.

[acw]

I agree with jno - for the reasons he gave.  However, I can't resist saying that it does really really grate on me to read SO many questions on here that don't have a "?" at the end.  At least your sentence is in question format.  I get more irked by things like "Recipe for pastry".  That's neither a question nor even a polite request.  Grrr! :-p

Grammatically though - it is a question, as jno said. 

[Golem]

Only if this is an answer.

[Quizmonster]

Why am I reminded here of the Ren� Magritte painting of a pipe with the caption "This is not a pipe"?

[bernardo]

No, it's a custard pie with a blob of jam in the middle.

[Peter Pedant]

This was said to be a question from the Philosophy Tripos at Cambridge.

another was: Is John the same as 'John' ?

we were told if you dont like questions such as this, dont read philosophy - a lot of us took this advice.

[jacey]

Will John still be there if you don't read about him ?

[jno]

If 'John' falls in the forest and there's nobody to hear him, does he make a sound?