Rhetorical Question

a statement plus question mark that demonstrates a speaker's real intentions and/or promotes perlocutionary effects like anger, humour, ridicule, irony, etc.; rhetorical 'questions' give to the audience; they don't ask the audience.

Purpose & Usage

The ancient Greeks and Romans had many terms for what we today call 'rhetorical questions,' but they disagreed on the key question: What is a rhetorical question? - (I give you my topic.)

'Questions' are grammatically correct interrogative structures that end with a question mark. Is this any more insightful than saying all 'sentences' begin with a capital letter and end with a period?  - (I give you my feelings in my answer, 'no.')

The shapes and components of language are as nothing compared to their collective purposes. Rhetorical questions look like questions but don't ask questions. And they have many purposes.

Wilhelm von Humboldt
Language makes infinite use of finite means.

Language performs its infinite dances with many words, figures, structures, styles. The rhetorical question is one figure capable of achieving the following purposes.

Giving Yes/No Answers

We can use rhetorical questions to say 'yes' or 'no' and to reveal our mood.

Question: Would you like a beer?
Answer: Is the Pope Catholic?

The Pope is Catholic so, 'yes' is the real answer. The answerer could just have said 'yes, please,' but the rhetorical-question answer is more emphatic: The answerer really wants a beer.

Question: Do you think we'll get a pay rise next year?
Answer: Who knows the mind of our mighty leader?

The answerer does not, and perhaps cannot, know the answer, so, 'probably no', is the real answer. The answerer could just have said 'I don't know,' but the rhetorical-question answer reveals another purpose: to mock the employees' 'mighty leader.'

Question: Did you bake this cake?
Answer: What do I know of baking?

Introducing and Framing Topics, Purposes & Reasoning

We can use rhetorical questions to introduce topics, purposes and reasoning more directly and engagingly.

Wilfred Owen

       What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
      Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
      Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
      Can patter out their hasty orisons.

Bill Clinton

Now, are we where we want to be today? No. Is the president satisfied? Of course not. But are we better off than we were when he took office? The answer is yes.

The poet describes the slaughter of his fellow soldiers in the WWI trenches. However, his real purpose is to lament that the soldiers who die like beasts for their country will not be honoured.

The President concedes his presidency has not been entirely satisfactory, but his real purpose is to praise his successful handling of the economy.

Showing & Generating Emotions

We can use rhetorical questions to powerfully convey negative emotions and judgments.

Nigel Farage Upbraids the E.U. President at the E.U. Parliament, 24 February, 2010

"You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. And the question that I want to ask […] that we're all going to ask, is: Who are you? I'd never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you. I would like to ask you, President: Who voted for you? And what mechanism? Oh, I know democracy's not popular with you lot. And what mechanism do the peoples of Europe have to remove you? Is this European democracy? Well, I sense, though, that you're competent and capable and dangerous. And I have no doubt that it's your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation states."

Farage asks questions he knows the answers to. His real purpose is to berate the E.U. president and the process of his selection. Repeated rhetorical questions that reproach, inveigh or express grief are Classically called erotema or epiplexis.

Amplifying & Expanding, Deprecating & Contracting

We can use rhetorical questions to convey positive emotions as well as negative ones.

How cute is the koala?

How is someone who's never run anything going to run our country?

When have we ever had a better president?

Why should I bother? Would you notice? Do you ever notice? What's the bloody point?

Bonding

We can use rhetorical questions to bond with our audiences. Bonding is essential in persuasive communications. We can use rhetorical questions and other inclusive bonding expressions to join ourselves and our audience members together.

Barack Obama
My fellow Americans, is this how we want to treat our veterans?

Being Ironic & Comic

We can use rhetorical questions to express irony, comedy and ridicule.

Traffic Cop
Do you suppose the speed limit doesn't apply to you?

Protestant Marriage Script
Marriage is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by God.

H.L. Mencken
Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

Giving to the Audience

Rhetorical questions are dialogic. Rhetorical questions move, engage and give to our audience. But we must ask ourselves whether these gifts are appropriate.

We must use rhetorical questions carefully and sparingly. We must ask ourselves whether they are appropriate for our audience and for the delivery style they expect from us. 

Rhetorical questions are less appropriate or unacceptable in some situations, especially wherever pathos appeals are disfavoured. See also climax.

Not all rhetorical questions seek pathos effects, however. Did I not say that rhetorical questions have many purposes? We can use them to stick our ideas together as well - for coherency, to make logos appeals:

Rhetorical Questions in Teaching and Presenting

How should we respond to this problem? One thing we can do is [answer].
So what have we learned from this case? Well, the main thing we now know is [answer].