Talk:Rhetorical question

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How does one start a page called "Rhetorical Question"?

Could it be with an interrogative?

Or is it possible the use of such a figure could be confusing?

I wonder if anyone else in the world wonders such things?

Who knows? Slac speak up! 04:41, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Are these the best questions we can think of in a discussion of rhetorical questions? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 00:38, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Why is there a biblical link? And why isn't it marked as such? Kuronue 00:50, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Do you really think I want to have a Star Trek themed wedding?

Thought that this was a better example compared to the old one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.106.148 (talk) 05:42, 6 December 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Does a bear shit in the woods?

Someone has removed this example, although it was added right back by someone else. I feel that since the afd for "do bears shit in the woods" resulted in redirect to rhetorical question, one should at least list it in the examples section. I don't know if any of the other prior content of Do bears shit in the woods really needs to be merged, however. --C S (Talk) 06:32, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

At first, this struck me as inappropriate. Does anyone agree? Perhaps vandalism? I don't think it's really necessary, and it should be considered for removal. --Buzzert 23:05, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Uh, vandalism? According to WP:Vandalism, vandalism involves a deliberate attempt to damage Wikipedia, so such allegations should not be thrown around lightly.
I don't see how it is inappropriate. Is it because it uses the word "shit"? Generally, censoring swear words is not considered a good reason to remove valid content. The necessity, however, of this example, is debatable. --C S (Talk) 02:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

I think the "what are you gay" one is way more innapropriate (and not used that much anyway)

I think it is used often enough, but there isn't a compelling reason to include it. --C S (Talk) 02:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
I think that there are better examples that could be used. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.182.78.230 (talk) 22:50, 16 March 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Idioms

The article seems to confuse concepts like idiomatic expressions and figurative speech with rhetorical questions; those concepts have nothing to do with one another. So examples about Australians and non-native speakers don't belong here.

Good point. I've removed that stuff. --C S (Talk) 02:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Are you coming the raw prawn? Rhetorical questions are a de facto figure of speech which do indeed have idiomatic variations. I have attempted to clarify the section and provide citations which will hopefully help you understand this topic better.

I have to agree, those examples are out of place. "Are you pulling my leg?" very often does prompt an answer, along the lines of "No, I'm serious!" It's not a rhetorical question at all. --Reuben (talk) 02:41, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
They don't seem to be epiplexis either. I'm removing the section as it appears to be based on misunderstandings. I can't find any support for the claims in the sources provided; the Kreuz et al. poster isn't even related to the paragraph it's cited in here. --Reuben (talk) 02:44, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rhetorical Answer

why would anyone remove the definition of rhetorical answer?!

[edit] WHAT?

Everything in this article past "No," is complete garbage. It should be removed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.102.134.129 (talk) 03:58, 10 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] "Prescriptivists"

I'm removing the claim about "prescriptivists" considering formal use of rhetorical questions a grammatical error, as it's not at all supported by the reference provided. The link does say that the term "rhetorical question" is sometimes used in a way that's technically incorrect, but it doesn't say anything about the correctness of rhetorical questions themselves. --Reuben (talk) 02:32, 28 March 2008 (UTC)