4. Transposition of sentence meaning (rhetoric questions)

Rhetoric questions and other cases of syntactic transposition. Contextual environment of a language unit may change its initial meaning. A typical case of contextual transposition of meaning is rhetoric questions. It is syntactical SD which presents a statement in the form of a question, though requiring no answer. The answer may be supplied or left for the reader to infer.

E.g., Have I no reason to lament? What man has made of man?

In fact, rhetoric questions are not questions but affirmative or neg­ative statements put into the interrogative shape. A rhetoric question needs no answer, because the answer to it is quite obvious. Rhetorical questions are an indispensable element of publicistic style. The make the audience thinking about the subject and produce dramatic effect:

Why should I do it? means / shouldn't do it. Why doesn't he shut up? means He must shut up. What could I do in a case like that? means I could do nothing in a case like that.

Ax, кримська ніч! І хто тебе вигадав?! І навіщо ти така синя?! І навіщо ж ти така прозора?! Життя цілого не досить, а що є в людині, окрім життя?

A rhetoric question enhances the expressiveness of speech. Used in oratory style, rhetoric questions aim at catching the attention of the audience, making the sequential sentences sound persua­sive and significant.

There are some more varieties of contextual transposition of meaning:

1. Exclamatory sentences with inversion:

Much he knew about it 1 = He did not know much about it.

Дуже ти багато розумієшся на мистецтві! Натюрморт від пейзажу відрізнити не можеш.

2. Negative sentences implying emphatic affirmation:

I'll hang myself if it isn't Barney Woods who did it! = It is Barney Woods who did it.

3. Syntactic structures of the type "Me a liar?" (I am not a liar).

4. Syntactic structures with Subjunctive mood forms:

I wish I had not done it = I had done it.