Do ask but don’t answer

Add comment September 23rd, 2008

In the dust-up over Sarah Palin’s dealings as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, with a local librarian, some confusion has arisen over whether Palin posed “rhetorical’ questions or “hypothetical” ones.

It’s more likely they were the latter, because the former would be basically just for intimidation. Hypothetical questions use “what-if” scenarios: Let’s assume these conditions, then what would you do?

A “rhetorical” question is just for effect or emphasis, and an answer isn’t expected. For example: ”Wasn’t that the worst movie you’ve ever seen?” The questioner is really saying, “That’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen, and I assume you feel the same.”

“Rhetoric” is a word with classical origins whose meaning has been altered down through the centuries. It comes from the Greek “rhetor,” who was an orator or “a master or teacher of rhetoric.” And in those days, “rhetoric” was “the art of using words effectively in speaking or writing.” So being proficient in rhetoric was a good thing.

Nowadays, we are likely to ask a speaker to cut through the rhetoric, because the prevailing idea is that it’s “artificial eloquence; language that is showy and elaborate but largely empty of clear ideas or sincere emotion.”

And “rhetorical question” is a specific term born of this revamped meaning.

That doesn’t seem fair, does it?