Rhetorical question

A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question that is asked in order to make a point and without the expectation of a reply. The question is used as a rhetorical device, posed for the sake of encouraging its listener to consider a message or viewpoint. Though these are technically questions, they do not always require a question mark.

For example, the question "Can't you do anything right?" is asked not to gain information about the ability of the person being spoken to, but rather to insinuate that the person always fails.

While sometimes amusing and even humorous, rhetorical questions are rarely meant for pure, comedic effect. A carefully crafted question can, if delivered well, persuade an audience to believe in the position(s) of the speaker.

Forms

• Negative Assertions

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 have the Romans ever done for us? (Monty Python's Life of Brian) should be read as The Romans have never done anything for us. Similarly, when Shakespeare lets Mark Antony exclaim: Here was a Caesar! when comes such another? (Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2, 257), it functions as an assertion that Caesar possessed 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, when a speaker repeats a statement reported to have been found true and adds a sarcastic Who knew?, the question functions as an assertion that the truth of the preceding statement was – or should have been – already utterly obvious: Smoking can lead to lung cancer. Who knew?

• 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 humorous, question for which the answer is equally obvious; popular examples include Is the sky blue? and Is the Pope Catholic?

• Grammar

Depending on the context, a rhetorical question may be punctuated by a question mark (?), full stop (.), or exclamation mark (!), but it is generally best to use a question mark for any question, rhetorical or not.

Rhetorical questions may be signaled by marker phrases; questions that include "after all", or "by any chance" may be intended as rhetorical.

Written lists of rhetorical questions within a sentence require question marks, but do not require quotation marks. "Would he? Could he? Should he? she asked."

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 17th century. 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.

• Quotes

"The effectiveness of rhetorical questions in argument comes from their dramatic quality. They suggest dialogue, especially when the speaker both asks and answers them himself, as if he were playing two parts on the stage. They are not always impassioned; they may be mildly ironical or merely argumentative: but they are always to some extent dramatic, and, if used to excess, they tend to give one’s style a theatrical air."

"Rhetorical questioning is…a fairly conscious technique adopted by a speaker for deliberate ends, and it is used infrequently, proportional to the length of the dialogue, oration, or conversation." [1]