rhetorical\ question

риторический вопрос

peculiar interrogative construction which semantically remains a statement;

- does not demand any information but

- serves to express the emotions of the speaker and also

- serves to call the attention of listeners;

- makes an indispensable part of oratoric speech for they very successfully emphasise the orator's ideas.

Source: V.A.K.

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a) a special syntactical stylistic device the essence of which consists in reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence;

Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?

b) a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence;

c) an utterance in the form of a question which pronounces judgement and also expresses various kind of modal shades of meanings, as doubt, challenge, scorn, irony and so on;

Who is here so vile that will not love his country? (W.Shakespeare)

- is generally structurally embodied in complex sentences with the subordinate clause containing the pronouncement;

- may be looked upon as a transference of grammatical meaning

Source: I.R.G.

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вопрос, который не предполагает ответа, ставится не для того, чтобы побудить слушателя сообщить нечто неизвестное говорящему, а чтобы привлечь внимание, усилить впечатление, повысить эмоциональный тон, создать приподнятость

Being your slave, what should I do but tend // Upon the hours and times of your desire? (W.Shakespeare - Sonnet LVII) - Для верных слуг нет ничего другого // Как ожидать у двери госпожу. (пер. С.Я.Маршака)

Source: I.V.A.

See: order of words, negative-interrogative sentences, transposition, question-in-the-narrative, syntactical SDs