Stylistic devices based on interrogative and negative constructions (rhetorical question, litotes)

_{23. Rhetorical Questions, Litotes}

_{The rhetorical questions}_{a special syntactical stylistic j device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical mean-j ing of the interrogative sentence. In other words, the question is no" longer a question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. Thus there is an interplay of two structural meanings:}

_{1) that of the question and}

_{2) that of the statement (either affirmative or negative).}

_{Both are materialized simultaneously.}

_{Rhetorical questions are generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing the pronouncement.}

_{There is another structural pattern of rhetorical questions, which is based on negation.}

_{Negative-interrogative sentences generally have a peculiar nature. There is always an additional shade of meaning implied in them: sometimes doubt, sometimes assertion, sometimes suggestion. In other words, they are full of emotive meaning and modality.}

_{The intonation of rhetorical questions, according to the most recent investigations, differs materially from the intonation of ordinary questions. This is also an additional indirect proof of the double nature of this stylistic device.}

_{Rhetorical questions may also be defined as utterances in the form of questions which pronounce judgments and also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning, as doubt, challenge, scorn, irony and so on.}

_{The rhetorical question re-enforces this essential quality of interrogative sentences and uses it to convey a stronger shade of emotive meaning. Rhetorical questions, due to their power of expressing a variety of modal shades of meaning, are most often used in publicistic style and particularly in oratory, where the rousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at.}

_Litotes

_{Litotes is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This positive feature, however, is somewhat diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature.}

_{1. It's not a bad thing.—It's a good thing.}

_{2. He is no coward.—He is a brave man.}

_{Litotes is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic effect. It is not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation. Therefore here, as in the case of rhetorical questions, we may speak of transference of meaning,}

_{The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation. If we compare two}

_{like other stylistic devices, litotes displays a simultaneous materialization of two meanings: one negative, the other affirmative.}

_{Litotes is a means by which this natural logical and linguistic property of negation can be strengthened. The two senses of the litotic expression, negative and positive, serve a definite stylistic purpose.}

_{A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in not unlike, not unpromising, not displeased and the like. Here, according to general logical and mathematical principles, two negatives make a positive.}

_{They may truly be regarded as deliberate understatements, whereas the pattern structures of litotes, i. e. those that have only one negative are much more categorical in stating the positive quality* of a person or thing.}

_{Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those which may be called the matter-of-fact styles, like official style and scientific prose. In poetry it is sometimes used to suggest that language fails to adequately convey the poet's feelings and therefore he uses negations to express the inexpressible.}

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