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Rhetorical Questions

Therhetoricalquestion is a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the question is no longer a question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. Thus there is an interplay of two structural meanings: 1) that of the question and 2) that of the statement. Both are materialized simultaneously. For example:

" Arethese the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?"

" Isthere not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?" (Byron)

One can agree with Prof. Popov who states: "...the rhetorical question is equal to a categorical pronouncement plus an exclamation." Indeed, if we compare a pronouncement expressed as a statement with the same pronouncement expressed as a rhetorical question by means of transformational analysis, we will find ourselves compelled to assert that the interrogative form makes the pronouncement still more categorical, in that it excludes any interpretation beyond that contained in the rhetorical question.

From the examples given above, we can see that rhetorical questions are generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing the pronouncement. Here is another example:

"... ShallthesonsofChimary

Bid an enemy live?..." (Byron)

Without the attributive clause the rhetorical question would lose its specific quality and might be regarded as an ordinary question. The subordinate clause, as it were, signalizes the rhetorical question. The meaning of the above utterance can hardly fail to be understood: i.e., Thesons of Chimary willneverbid an enemy live.

There is another structural pattern of rhetorical questions, which is based on negation. In this case the question may be a simple sentence, as in

" DidnottheItalian Mosico Cazzani

Sing at my heart six months at least in vain?" (Byron)

"Have I not had to wrestle with my lot?

Have I not suffered things to be forgiven?" (Byron)

Negative-interrogative sentences generally have a peculiar nature. There is always an additional shade of meaning implied in them: sometimes doubt, sometimes assertion, sometimes suggestion. In other words they are full of emotive meaning and modality.

We have already stated that rhetorical questions may be looked upon as a transference of grammatical meaning. But just as in the case of the transference of lexical meaning the stylistic effect of the transference of grammatical meaning can only be achieved if there is a simultaneous realization of the two meanings: direct and transferred. So it is with rhetorical questions. Both the question-meaning and the statement-meaning are materialized with an emotional charge, the weight of which can be judged by the intonation of the speaker.

The intonation of rhetorical questions, according to the most recent investigations, differs materially from the intonation of ordinary questions. This is also an additional indirect proof of the double nature of this stylistic device.

The nature of the rhetorical question has not been fully studied and what structural peculiarities cause an ordinary question to turn into a rhetorical one is still to be discovered. In the question-sentence

" Isthepoorprivilege to turn the key

Upon the captive, freedom ?" (Byron)

instead of a categorical pronouncement one can detect doubt. It is the word 'poor' that prompts this interpretation of the utterance.

A more detailed analysis of the semantic aspect of different question-sentences leads to the conclusion that these structural models have various functions. Not only ordinary questions, not only categorical pronouncements are expressed in question form. In fact there are various nuances of emotive meaning embodied in question-sentences. We have already given an example of one of these meanings, viz. doubt. In Shakespeare's

"Who is here so vile that will not love his country?" there is a meaning of challenge openly and unequivocally declared. It is impossible to regard it as a rhetorical question making a categorical pronouncement. In the rhetorical question from Byron's maiden 'speech given above ('Is there not blood...') there is a clear implication of scorn and contempt for Parliament and the laws it passes.

So rhetorical questions may also be defined as utterances in the form of questions which pronounce judgements and also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning as doubt, challenge, scorn and so on.

It has been stated elsewhere that questions are more emotional than statements. When a question is repeated as in these lines from Poe's "The Raven:"

" — Is there — is there balm in Gilead?! Tell me — tell me—I implore!—"

the degree of emotiveness increases and the particular shade of meaning (in this case, despair) becomes more apparent. The rhetorical question re-enforces this essential quality of interrogative sentences and uses it to convey a stronger shade of emotional meaning.

Rhetorical questions, due to their power of expressing a variety of modal shades of meaning, are most often used in publicistic style and particularly in oratory, where the rousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at.

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