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1.Impact of cross cultural lingua rhetorical questions
Pragmatic peculiarities of rhetorical questions-responses in dialogues “How would you like a swift punch on your nose?” The main function of rhetorical question is to attract attention, produce strong impression and raise emotional level. When the speaker addresses the interlocutor with an RQ he/she is not expecting any answer (because he/she either knows the answer beforehand or is convinced that no answer can be given, at least at the moment). RQR in a context As we have mentioned above RQ can very often be used as an answer to the preceding statement. Very often their rhetoric nature is obvious even beyond the given context. A large group of such RQR is constituted by RQ which contain universal truths. Under this term we understand indisputable fact which is based on natural laws, universal values, social order, social norms etc. The obvious and indisputable nature of the idea which is contained in RQ excludes any opportunity of such RQ to function as an interrogative sentence because it makes information request redundant. RQR of this category might contain assessment and therefore can be subjective to some extent. RQR are very often used to express some philosophical ideas, or attempts to comprehend the world, the meaning of life. Thus they involve universal laws of existence and a speaker’s subjective approach. “What are you talking about?” “Life is very sweet, brother; who wouldn't wish to live?”[Hemingway 1973: 125]. There is a special group of context independent RQR which can be called rhetorical clichés. Under this term we understand interrogative sentences which are used as RQR so often that their interrogative nature is not obvious any more. RQR with interrogative pronoun what (what’s the use...? What difference...? What’s wrong with...? etc.) very often show how unnecessary, redundant the message/action is. “Do you know I’m married now?” “What does it matter?” or “Why did you not come back?” “What was the use? It was finished.” RQR can be also independent of the context when RQR is an extended, semantically full statement. “Please calm down. I’m not against you after all!” “Doesn’t the company have an obligation to fix the the problem when they're responsible for it?”. Such RQR sometimes contain an allusion to an obvious fact and makes it close to RQR containing universal truths. Thus RQR can be contextually independent if:
1.RQR contains universal truth, which cannot be questioned, thus interrogative nature of such RQR is minimal
2.RQR is a question cliché which transmits rather than requests information
3.RQR is a semantically full statement and already contains information it is ‘requesting’ for.
However we should not forget that RQ is an indirect speech act and sometimes context should be used in order to fulfill and understand its meaning correctly and adequately. RQ without a context might be understood as an information request and it is only peculiarities of its use in speech which can help reveal its pragmatic meaning. Such context may be limited to one sentence: “Did they pursue him then or not?” “Who could attempt to pursue him?”.Or it can be extended and may include several statements: “What's your degree?” “A Bachelor of Arts. In music,” Marty said, in his reasonable tone. “Mr. Barker, do you think that qualifies you to pass judgments about an aircraft?” . Information which is represented in the first two statements makes clear that a person who studied liberal arts and humanities cannot be an expert in technical problems. RQR in this case represents a statement which shows the speaker’s point of view: That does not qualify you to judge aircraft. However sometimes context which reveals pragmatic meaning of RQR transcends the limits of a work of literature, so in order to understand the meaning of an RQR correctly one need to have some background knowledge. That includes information about historical situation, outstanding people, traditions and national peculiarities of a country, etc. In other words it is all necessary information about the world which one needs to know for adequate perception of the whole book and particular statements. Every work of literature creates a scope of its own “universal truths”, universal for this particular book. “Are you against carpe diem approach?” “Саn a sane man believe in carpe diem?”
In the next example RQR contains a changed version of a famous proverb: “Didn’t you know that, dear?” “How curious! Isn’t the world small?”
1.2. RQR as a means of expressing agreement/disagreement RQR can also be used to express agreement or disagreement with a preceding statement. Under agreement we understand positive reaction of an interlocutor towards the initial statement. This reaction consists in the affirmative answer, agreement to take a particular action or positive assessment of intentions or views of the speaker. Pragmatic function of agreement can be realized with the help of the word “yes” (which is the marker of agreement) and its equivalents (of course, sure etc) if their use in the sentence does not change its semantic structure In some dialogues agreement realized by RQR shows how obvious the requested information is: “Did you sее they were chasing him?” “Why would I not see?” Pablo said. The answer can be expressed by a positive statement “There's no reason why I wouldn’t see they were chasing him”. In RQR negation can be expressed by lexical means. “Is it true, Pilar?” he asked me. “Did I ever lie to you?” I told him. An affirmative statement for this RQR will be: I never lied to you. Or, for example: “You must have had your share of troubles.” “Sure, dear. What businesses doesn’t?”– meaning “Every business has troubles”. In the next example agreement is expressed explicitly: In some dialogues RQR which doesn’t contain negation can be a negative answer to a negative question: “You didn’t like her?” “Could you expect me to?” So the speaker agrees with his interlocutor: “No, I didn’t like her and you couldn’t expect me to”. Let’s take a look at the following example: “If I’d only known...” “How should уou know?” .The initial statement in the dialogue is realized as a part of a compound sentence with 3d conditional (unreal condition in the past) and can be expressed by a statement: You should not know. The positive form of the RQR which forms the answer implies the negative statement and therefore agreement with the interlocutor. In the following example RQR expresses agreement not to take a particular action: “No smoking with Allison in the car, right?” “Do you see me or Allison smoking?” .The indirect affirmative statement for this RQR will be: You do not see me or Allison smoking. RQR can also be used to express disagreement. Under disagreement we understand speaker’s negative reaction to the previous statement. Disagreement can be expressed as a negative answer to a question, protest, rejection, negative assessment of interlocutor’s intentions and points of view.
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