Are you good with rhetorical questions?

Post Reply New Topic

I'd never even heard of the concept of rhetorical questions until, as a part of my self motivated therapy, I went beyond just learning American Sign Language (to better under stand body language). I enrolled in an Interpreter Training Program to learn how to interpret sign language to spoken language or vice versa.

Because of the structure of ASL it was easiest to interpret many statements into rhetorical questions in order to make sense quickly.
What then happened was
many of the students in the program found everything that came out of their mouth began coming out in the form of a rhetorical question.

Once we realized what was happening, we laughed about it.
One of the ITP students suggested we all spend time at the "Betty Ford Foundation for those known to abuse the use of rhetorical questions".

I can nearly always tell when a question is rhetorical. I'm good on the verbal skills. It's the non-verbal language that stumps me. Until a couple of months ago, I had no idea there even was such a thing as a "non-verbal cue." 50 years old, and no clue. I still wouldn't believe it except that people I trust implicitly tell me that they exist.

Stop trying to be cool.

I've found that when a rhetorical question is asked, there are usually very subtle verbal cues that separate it from a question - a slight tone of desperation (for rhetorical assertion) or a slight tone of command (for rhetorical affirmation). Politicians often utilize the latter.

"Those horrible noisy things children play on their television? Someone designs them? What a senseless thing to do with your life"- Cruella De Vil.


See the rhetorical questions?

^Now that was one^ I am not expecting anyone to answer it but if they want to, go ahead.

They do look sound like comments because they be so easy to miss if you never read the movie novel or saw the movie in caption. It's the ? mark that shows it's a question except they are not meant to be answered.

Challenging the posture, position or premises of the person asking a question is inherently rhetorical behavior.

That is difficult to do for AS because rhetoric is a query against a non-existent Theory of Mind.

I wasn't trying to be annoying.

I'm god with them. I come across them every now & again in english.

Are you good with rhetorical questions?

I dunno. Was that a rhetorical question?

Ha. If I had a penny or every time someone's flatly said to me "...that was a rhetorical question", I would be RICH. I tend to assume that if someone's asking a question, then they would like an answer. I can only tell that it was rhetorical if it is an extremely silly or nonsensical question, or one that clearly has no answer. But if it COULD be answered in some way, I'll usually attempt to do so. Oh well.

I ain't got no problem with rhetorical questions.

I am very good at asking them, and very good at answering. When a person thinks he can make me look stupid, I'll show him he's wrong.

I dare not answer that.

I believe that a rhetorical question is a cue the speaker gives the audience to mull over a deep concept or idea.

I know this now and was given extensive oratory training in school.
I've also attended a lot of talks and assemblies.

When I was much younger, I used to answer rhetorical questions out-loud. That behaviour was deemed to be "naughty", so I had it trained out of me.

Now instead, I store my answers in my head and think about it for the rest of the day. That's quite fun to do actually. If I'm motivated enough, I might make some notes about the talk later on. Everyone else seems to chatter and discuss their own answers to the questions after a meeting. Some people chatter about completely unrelated topics. I only join in with this if someone prompts me to do so. Only then do my internal thoughts and opinions come out into the open.

I still think about some of the things I heard from speeches said years ago. I like storing up information and questions like that for future reference. Sometimes they come in handy.

No. It was meant to be answered by members.

Ha! I always anser those questions. A teacher of mine says "(Name)...that was a rhetorical question." Also, I never answer statements. Once another teacher says "You're one of the smart ones..." I just looked at her until she rephrased to "Are you one of the smart ones?"

I have got to work on getting these things straight!

Ha! I always anser those questions. A teacher of mine says "(Name)...that was a rhetorical question." Also, I never answer statements. Once another teacher says "You're one of the smart ones..." I just looked at her until she rephrased to "Are you one of the smart ones?"

I have got to work on getting these things straight!