NP; Good as Gold: rhetorical questions

[Mike Jing]

I should have mentioned that in the book, Lieberman was characterized as a
poor writer who overly relies on rhetorical questions. So I thought this
was an obvious joke on him. The problem is that the common Chinese
translation of the term "rhetorical question" doesn't seem to include cases
such as these, thus ruining the joke.


On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 7:03 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for the reply. The reason why I asked was that there are two ways
> to translate the term "rhetorical question" into Chinese and one of them
> does not include the case in this passage. I guess that's what people
> conventionally mean by rhetorical question, as you have mentioned, which
> does not include hypophora. In any case, I thought there was a joke in
> there, and also later where Lieberman changed the title of one of Gold's
> articles into a long-winded (rhetorical?) question.
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 6:34 PM <protomen at protonmail.com> wrote:
>
>> It is a question and it is rhetorical, so there's at least a minor joke
>> in there, though I don't believe that's what people conventionally mean by
>> rhetorical question nowadays. See "hypophora".
>>
>>
>> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
>> On Saturday, January 5, 2019 5:39 AM, Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Just to make sure I got this right. In the following passage, Lieberman
>> > first says "No more rhetorical questions", then immediately proves
>> himself
>> > wrong by using a rhetorical question in his own article. Is that
>> correct?
>> >
>> > Producing from somewhere inside his soiled and rumpled clothing a copy
>> of
>> > the next issue of his magazine, he swept open the pages until he at last
>> > found the one he wanted, his regular feature boldly headlined “An
>> Outspoken
>> > Editor Speaks His Mind, by M. G. Lieberman, Editor.” “Listen to what
>> I’ve
>> > got coming up,” he cried with excitement and prepared to read. “No more
>> > rhetorical questions,” he exclaimed and began, “‘What, then, shall we
>> say
>> > to those who argue this may lead us into war? I say, unflinchingly, then
>> > let us have war.’ How’s that? I express nothing but opprobrium and scorn
>> > for the failure of nerve of all the members of the cowardly Eastern
>> liberal
>> > establishment. That’s a phrase,” he could not hold himself back from
>> > footnoting, “I got from Henry Kissinger.”
>> >
>> >
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
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>>
>>
>>