The habit of ending statements with a stress that makes them sound a bit like questions is one that winds many people up - including me. So many people now believe that the speech pattern originated in Australia that they've dubbed it the Australian Question Intonation.
English is a notoriously woolly language, full of ways to say one thing and mean another, but why add to the confusion by ending a sentence with an interrogative tone so that it sounds like a question even when it's just a statement? Like that, in fact.
"So what did I do today? Well, I went canoeing on the river? Which was, like, really really fun? And then I had a cold beer on the jetty?"
Did you notice the 'like' I slipped in as well? Some people can't speak a full sentence without it, which is another pet hate of mine. And the list is growing because I've just noticed this latest habit of starting almost every sentence with the word 'so', the kind of 'so' which is so meaningless that you'd be inclined to separate it from the rest of the sentence by a comma - if you still believe in punctuation, that is!
I know it's a living language but it shouldn't be killed off prematurely. I don't think that needs a question mark, do you?
