Definition
A rhetorical question is an illocutionary act that
- has the direct illocutionary force of a question, and
-
is not generally used with the expectation of an answer but with some different, indirect force, such as
- a command
- a tentative statement, and
- an evaluation.
Sources 5
- Quirk 1972, 825
- Larson 1984, 235–236
- Corbett 1971, 488–489
- Beekman and Callow 1974, 229
- Mish 1991, 1011