Monday, February 2, 2015

phrases - What do you call a suggestion/statement that's phrased as a question? (e.g., "Maybe you should/n't have ...")



I'm talking about something like this:




Well then, if you didn't want to get mugged, maybe you shouldn't have been carrying around that big purse in the middle of the city at night?





It's clearly spoken as a question with an upward inflection, and it seems proper to end it with a question mark, but it's less of a question and more of a suggestion/statement. Calling it a "loaded question" doesn't seem correct.


Answer



A rhetorical question




(of a question) asked in order to produce an effect or to make a statement rather than to elicit information:
Examples:






  • the general intended his question to be purely rhetorical

  • It might be a rather petulant rhetorical question, or he might just be trying to keep me on the phone.

  • Kyle didn't offer him the time to answer the rather rhetorical question.

  • It was a statement, a rhetorical question, and just by looking at her he was sure that it had made her angry.


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