rhetorical question

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A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply (ex: "Why me, Lord?")^[1] Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to reflect on what the implied answer to the question must be. When a speaker states, "How much longer must our people endure this injustice?", no formal answer is expected. Rather, it is a device used by the speaker to assert or deny something.

Forms

Negative assertion

Often a rhetorical question is intended as a challenge, with the implication that the question is difficult or impossible to answer. Thus the question functions as a negative assertion. For example, What has he ever done for me? should be read as He has never done anything for me. Similarly, Shakespeare's Here was a Caesar! when comes such another? ("Julius Caesar," Act 3, scene 2, 257) functions as an assertion that Caesar possesses rare qualities that may not be seen again for a long time, if ever.

Such negative assertions may function as positives in sarcastic contexts. For example the sarcastic who knew? functions as an assertion that the preceding statement is utterly obvious: Smoking causes lung cancer. Who knew?

Rhetorical questions as metaphors

One common form is where a rhetorical question is used as a metaphor for a question already asked. Examples may be found in the song Maria from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The Sound of Music, in which the How do you solve a problem like Maria? is repeatedly answered with another question: How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?, How do you keep a wave upon the sand? and How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand? These responses may be taken as asserting that "the problem of Maria" cannot be solved; and furthermore the choice of cloud, wave and moonbeam as metaphors for Maria give insight into her character and the nature of the problem.

In the vernacular, this form of rhetorical question is most often seen as rhetorical affirmation, where the certainty or obviousness of the answer to a question is expressed by asking another, often humourous, question for which the answer is equally obvious; popular examples include Is the sky blue?, Is the Pope Catholic? and Does a bear shit in the woods?

Other forms

Sometimes the implied answer to a rhetorical question is "Yes, but I wish it were not so" or vice versa:

O mighty Caesar! dost thou lie so low?

Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils,

Shrunk to this little measure?

(Shakespeare, "Julius Caesar," Act 3, scene 1, 148)

Another common form is the expression of doubt by questioning a statement just made; for example, by appending Or did he?, or is it?, etcetera to a sentence.

The butler did it... or did he?

Grammar

Rhetorical questions may be signalled by marker phrases; for example a question that begins with after all is usually intended as rhetorical.

Punctuation

In the 1580s, English printer Henry Denham invented a "rhetorical question mark" for use at the end of a rhetorical question; however, it died out of use in the 1600s. It was the reverse of an ordinary question mark, so that instead of the main opening pointing back into the sentence, it opened away from it.^[2]

Some have adapted the question mark into various irony marks, but these are very rarely seen.

See also

Look up rhetorical question in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Aporia
• Hypothetical question

Notes

External links

• What is a rhetorical question?
• Audio illustrations of the rhetorical question
• A short definition of the term
• [|Paul Brians, Washington State University]. ""Common Errors in English"". Grammatical Errors in the English Language. http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/rhetorical.html. Retrieved on 2007-10-19. 
• [|Roger Kruez, Aaron Ashley, and Kathryn Bartlett, University of Memphis]. ""Twisting Arms: Figurative Language Effects in Persuasive Discourse"". psychology research paper. http://www.psyc.memphis.edu/faculty/kreuz/KAB02.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-03-27. 
• [|Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University]. ""Epiplexis"". specialized language definitions. http://rhetoric.byu.edu/figures/E/epiplexis.htm. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.