TY - JOUR
T1 - Interrogatives that seek no answers
T2 - Exploring the expressiveness of rhetorical interrogatives in Japanese
AU - Maynard, Senko K.
PY - 1995
Y1 - 1995
N2 - Although questions presuppose answers, everyday Japanese often uses expressions that take interrogative forms but do not seek answers. Through analysis of these expressions — which I call “rhetorical interrogatives” — I argue that they express different kinds of the speaker s emotion and attitude. Based on the examples found in spoken and written Japanese data, I discuss various expressive effects that rhetorical interrogatives create in discourse. Sources for these meanings and functions of rhetorical interrogatives are sought by concentrating on the context of information statuses with which they are associated — such as known, assumed, or unknown — as well as the question-answer interactional relationship. Since rhetorical interrogatives do not seek answers but instead express the speaker's (emotional) attitude, the nonparallel interpretation between form and meaning/function becomes an important theoretical concern. This study proposes a framework in which different interpretations of rhetorical interrogatives are motivated by information statuses (assumed of the participants) regarding the potential answers. This study also suggests that the concept of “hidden dialogicality” serves as a source for the interpretation of rhetorical interrogative expressions.
AB - Although questions presuppose answers, everyday Japanese often uses expressions that take interrogative forms but do not seek answers. Through analysis of these expressions — which I call “rhetorical interrogatives” — I argue that they express different kinds of the speaker s emotion and attitude. Based on the examples found in spoken and written Japanese data, I discuss various expressive effects that rhetorical interrogatives create in discourse. Sources for these meanings and functions of rhetorical interrogatives are sought by concentrating on the context of information statuses with which they are associated — such as known, assumed, or unknown — as well as the question-answer interactional relationship. Since rhetorical interrogatives do not seek answers but instead express the speaker's (emotional) attitude, the nonparallel interpretation between form and meaning/function becomes an important theoretical concern. This study proposes a framework in which different interpretations of rhetorical interrogatives are motivated by information statuses (assumed of the participants) regarding the potential answers. This study also suggests that the concept of “hidden dialogicality” serves as a source for the interpretation of rhetorical interrogative expressions.
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1995.33.3.501
DO - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1995.33.3.501
M3 - Article
SN - 0024-3949
VL - 33
SP - 501
EP - 530
JO - Linguistics
JF - Linguistics
IS - 3
ER -