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6. Syntactical Stylistic Devices Based on Stylistic Use of Structural
Meaning
The rhetorical question
as a stylistic device presents a statement in the form of
a question. There is an interaction of two structural meanings, that of the question and
of the statement [64]. Both meanings are materialized simultaneously.
The question is emphatic and mobilizes the attention of the reader even when
the latter is not supposed to answer anything, i.e. rhetorical question is not intended to
draw an answer, and used for rhetorical effect. For example:
“Can anybody answer for all the grievances of the poor in this wicked world?”
(Dickens)
The form of a rhetorical question is often negative:
“Who is here so vile that will not love his country?”
(Shakespeare)
Rhetorical questions preserve the intonation of a question, though sometimes the
assertion is so strong that both the intonation and the punctuation are changed to those
of the exclamatory sentence:
“Oh! Don’t remember the days of my happy childhood? How different they are
from my present ignoble state?”
(Greenwood)
Both sentences of the above example are pronounced
with the same intonation
and have the same punctuation, though the second one is exclamatory, both by form
and essence, while the first one presents a rhetorical question.
Rhetorical questions are realized in different constructions [16]:
1.
Interrogative sentences (general and special questions):
“Is there such a thing as a happy life?”
(R. Aldington)
“What can any woman
mean to a man in comparison with his mother?”
(R.Aldington)
Uzbek:
Yigit uchun mardlik, qahramonlikdan o‘ zga ulug‘ roq, oliyroq bir
fazilat bormi?
(Oybek)
2.
Interrogative – negative constructions:
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“Who has not seen a woman hide the dullness of a stupid husband? Have I not to
wrestle with my lot?”
(W.Thackeray)
An Uzbek example:
Qaydan rayhon hidi, elning yayrashi?
(Zulfiya)
3.
A. rhetorical question contains the
modal verb
“should” + “but
”:
“Whom should they light but Rebecca and her husband?”
4.
Declarative sentences:
“So it was wicked, like being smutty, to fall happy when you looked at things and read
Keats?”
(R. Aldington)
5.
Infinitive constructions take part in the building of rhetorical questions to
express indignation:
“A man like Matthew Brodie to return home at the childish hour often ten o’clock.”
(A. Cronin)
The stylistic function of rhetorical
questions is to express doubt, assertion or
suggestion. Rhetorical question is mainly used in publicistic style and particularly in
oratory, though it is more and more penetrating into other styles. So,
it is widely
employed in modern fiction for depicting the inner state of a personage, his
meditations and reflections.
“There isn’t one of them, Michael thought staring, unsmiling at their
unwelcoming” faces, that I would ever talk to any of them under any other
circumstances. My neighbors. Who picket them? Where did they come from? What
made them so eager to send their fellow-citizens off to war?”
(Shaw).
In Uzbek:
Bunday qiyinchiliklarni faqat shu yilgagina xos deysh noto‘ g‘ ri. Axir
qaysi yil dehqon uchun engil kelgan? Qaysi yil osonlik bilan yuqori hosil ko‘
tarilgan?
(Gazetadan)
It is most popular in poetry:
“They come shaking in triumph their long, green hair;
They came out of the sea and run shouting by the shore.
My heart, have you no wisdom this to despair?
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My love, my love, my love, why have left me alone?”
Uzbek examples:
Ne izlab qoldi ekan yana tinmagur inson?
(O. Matchon).
Kurashadi ikki to‘lqin, qarab turaymi?
Yosh tarixning temir qo‘lin chetga buraymi?
(Oybek).
Rhetorical questions are more emotional than statements.
Not seldom rhetorical question can be met in informal dialogues:
“What the hell have you got to do here? I didn’t invite you, not me.”
(E.Biggers)
Through frequent usage some rhetorical questions become traditional:
“What business is it of yours? What have I to dowith him?
”
Such questions usually imply a negative answer and reflect a strongly antagonistic
attitude of the speaker towards his interlocutor or the subject discussed.
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