Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Or commas. Or, most recently, quotation marks to "mean" emphasis.

  Using quotation marks to express irony is perfectly valid in most languages,
including English.

  For example: My brother claimed he was "too busy" to help me.

  Other usages, as listed by wikipedia:

* indicate descriptive but unusual, colloquial, folksy words or phrases
* indicate descriptive but startling, humorous, or metaphoric words or phrases
* distance the writer from the terminology in question so as not to be
  associated with it. For example, to indicate that a quoted word is not
  official terminology, or that a quoted phrase pre-supposes things that
  the author does not necessarily agree with.
* indicate special terminology that should be identified for accuracy's sake
  as someone else's terminology, for example if a term (particularly a
  controversial term) pre-dates the writer or represents the views of
  someone else, perhaps without judgement

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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