I was at the post office today mailing a few items, when I saw a little placard that made me cringe. It showed a postal worker, holding her hand to her ear, as if she was listening. Below her picture was this text:
We’d like to know how you service was today?
Argh. No, that sentence does not need a question mark at the end. It should have a period, or if they were wanting to imply excitement, an exclamation point – but not a question mark. That’s a statement. Statements do not end in question marks.
I’m really surprised that made it through the editing process!
I think this may be a case of extreme high rising terminal
I’m not sure if that’s really what that is or not. I’ve seen such constructions before. Generally, it looks to me like what’s happened is, they have a question in mind, e.g.:
How was your service today?
But when they convert that to a statement, they forget to change the punctuation from that of a question to a statement, thus:
We’d like to know how you service was today?
Maybe you’re right though. Maybe it is a case of high rising terminal.