Inproceedings,
Deriving the interpretation of rhetorical questions
Proceedings of West Coast Conference in Formal Linguistics, 16, page 237--253. Stanford, CSLI, (1998)
Abstract
this paper is (1) to show that RHETORICAL QUESTIONS and ORDINARY QUESTIONS do not pattern alike with respect to various well-formedness conditions, (2) to provide a way of deriving the interpretation of rhetorical questions as assertions, and (3) to address the question of why rhetorical questions get the interpretation that they do, While an ordinary question seeks information or an answer from the hearer, a rhetorical question does not expect to elicit an answer. In general, a rhetorical...
