Rhetorical question explained using an example
If you don't ask, you stay stupid - although some who ask don't want to be clever or to receive more information. For example, a rhetorical question is formulated as a question, but the question is not about getting information.
In addition to the so-called "W questions" and the "Yes-No questions", there are also the rhetorical questions, which are actually not questions. Such a question is often formulated as a "yes-no question"; H. In terms of the wording, it could be answered with yes or no - or "yes" - but the questioner is interested in something completely different. Because the rhetorical question is about influencing the addressee or the reinforcement of one's own statement in the first place.
Examples of rhetorical questions
- If you approach your counterpart with the question of whether he is actually crazy or stupid, it will not be about the information whether this is so or not. Rather, the wording disguised as a question contains the strong assumption of the questioner that the other person is stupid or be crazy. This statement is reinforced by the question, because it is usually emphasized in such a way that the answer could actually only be yes.
- A rhetorical question is therefore more of an indirect assertion than a question at all. The directness in the communication is avoided, the addressees of the question are addressed in a way that is intended to draw them to the side of the questioner.
- For example, anyone who asks whether "we don't all make a mistake once" aims to agree with the statement that everyone makes a mistake once. The questioner can ask such a question, for example, in the context of a mistake of his own. He will hardly expect the audience to say no to the question.
Generalizing and generalizing formulations
- Rhetorical questions aimed at approval are often formulated in very general terms. It is asked whether "we all" do not make "some mistake" at some point. These formulations are so generalizing that they can hardly be rejected.
- Rhetorical questions can also be used in speeches and lectures to attract the audience's attention. At the end of the sentence, the voice rises as the question is phrased, and this increases attention.
Women are mostly used to men being prone to a certain lack of words. …
Rhetorical questions are not really questions. Because it's not about getting more information through them.
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