rhetorical question

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A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for rhetorical effect rather than to receive an answer^[1]. Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to reflect on what the implied answer to the question must be. When a speaker declaims, "How much longer must our people endure this injustice?" or "Will our company grow or shrink?", or "How many times do I have to tell you to stop walking into the house with mud on your shoes?"; no formal answer is expected. Rather, it is a device used by the speaker to assert or deny something. Some language experts consider rhetorical questions to be in fact, grammatical errors when used formally.^[2]

As many other expressions, these questions may vary in significance from one language to another or even from one version of a language to another due to the peculiar idioms of the language or dialect. For example commonly used rhetorical questions of American slang may be sometimes confusing to people who may be fluent in English but unfamiliar with the localized meaning and who may attempt to answer the rhetorical question in an argument. ^[3] Likewise, an American English speaker may be confused if asked "Are you coming the raw prawn?" which in Australian English has the same meaning as the rhetorical question: "Are you pulling my leg?", which might confuse someone unfamiliar with phrase. Both of these are rhetorical questions that are actually a form of epiplexis (a specific kind of rhetorical question) used to mean "Are you kidding me?". ^[4]

Punctuation

A rhetorical question typically ends in a question mark (?), but occasionally may end with an exclamation mark (!) or even a period (.) according to some writing style guides^{[citation needed]}. For example:

• "What's the point of going on."
• "Isn't that ironic!"

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.^[5]

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

Examples

• "How can people have hope when we tell them that they have no recourse, if they run afoul of the state justice system?" Edward Kennedy, Senate debate on the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, 1968.
• "Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
  When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
  Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
  Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
  And Brutus is an honourable man.
  You all did see that on the Lupercal
  I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
  Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?" William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2.

Some rhetorical questions become idiomatic English expressions:

• "What's the matter with you?"
• "Don't you know any better?"
• "Have you no shame?"
• "Right?!"
• "What the hell?"
• "Do pigs fly?"/"Do fish swim?"/"Can fish drown?"
• "Are you crazy?"
• "Who cares?"
• "How should I know?"
• "Are you kidding me?"
• "Isn't that nice?"
• "But who's counting?"

Notes

1. ^ [O. Burton, Brigham Young University]. "Rhetorical Questions". specialized language definitions. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
2. ^ [Brians, Washington State University]. "Common Errors in English". Grammatical Errors in the English Language. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
3. ^ [Kruez, Aaron Ashley, and Kathryn Bartlett, University of Memphis]. "Twisting Arms: Figurative Language Effects in Persuasive Discourse". psychology research paper. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
4. ^ [O. Burton, Brigham Young University]. "Epiplexis". specialized language definitions. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.
5. ^ Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 142. ISBN 1-592-40087-6.

See also

• Aporia
• Figure of speech
• Hypothetical question
• Question
• Humane Systems Design Blog: "Types of Questions"

External links

• What is a rhetorical question?
• Audio illustrations of the rhetorical question
• A short definition of the term

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