Rhetorical questions, a peeve

[Gitarre]

Originally Posted by ewalling

In Linguistics, the field of Pragmatics deals 'locutionary' and 'illocutionary force.' The first is what the words mean exactly. So, if we say "It's cold," the locutionary force of that statement is that the temperature is low.

The 'illocutionary force,' however, is what we intend the words mean, whatever their exact meaning might be. In certain contexts, if I say, "It's cold," the illocutionary force may be "Will you close the window, please?" Have you ever heard that example about the different meanings "I love you"? It can have a multiplicity of interpretations, depending on context and how it's said. Skilled language users have to be able to distinguish between locutionary and illocutionary force; otherwise, the world would descend into (perhaps hilarious!) chaos!

In this case, the illocutionary force of 'Do you mind if ..." is a polite phrase for requesting that you wait. If you focus on the locutionary (literal) meaning of the phrase, you're (perhaps willfully and roguishly! ) missing the linguistic point.

Thanks walling. You just explained that strange and frustrating feeling I occasionally get from my wife. It's the force, the illocutionary force.

[cmd612]

Originally Posted by Gitarre

Thanks walling. You just explained that strange and frustrating feeling I occasionally get from my wife. It's the force, the illocutionary force.

You mean that feeling when she says "fine" and you get the feeling that it isn't really fine, so you ask what's wrong, and she says "nothing?"

It is important not to misunderstand the illocutionary force of "fine" and "nothing."

[amyFB]

Some good comments here from other points of view!

My own practice is a little different: I politely but firmly say "excuse me I need to put you on a brief hold, I will be right back "

If I am juggling incoming calls, I put the new caller on hold with the same comment and go back to whoever is up in the queue.

It's a peeve for me today only because it's been a day of issues requiring customer service interventions.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kerbie]

Originally Posted by amyFB

" do you mind if I place you on a brief hold?"

one of these days, I'm going to say "Yes I do mind" just to see what happens next.

I'm willing to bet the person then places you on a brief hold...

[harmonics101]

Originally Posted by teleamp

When I order a hamburger and am asked if I would like cheese on it... I usually tell them that if I wanted cheese on it that I would have ordered a cheeseburger.

You know why they ask? They ask, because, 90% of the people that order a hamburger, actually want cheese,

H

[Otterhound]

Originally Posted by teleamp

When I order a hamburger and am asked if I would like cheese on it... I usually tell them that if I wanted cheese on it that I would have ordered a cheeseburger.

I will spare you the whole story , but I am a convicted litterbug because of this very scenario .

[HHP]

Well, I missed the news that world hunger and strife have been solved so our new global priority is rhetorical questions.

Everyone's mind needs an "ignore button" and know when to use it.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by harmonics101

You know why they ask? They ask, because, 90% of the people that order a hamburger, actually want cheese,

H

Nope, it's because a cheeseburger is 10% more expensive. It's called "selling up" and they are taught to ask. Think about it, 30 cents more for a Wendy's Cheeseburger than a hamburger. What do you suppose that little thin piece of "cheese" costs Wendy's. Same with everything in the fast food arena.
Do you really believe ordering "Supersize" of anything is a bargain?
It's a numbers game. The more of anything they sell the lower their cost per unit or weight.
A small fries is $1.69, a medium $1.99.
So you get maybe six to eight more fry slices for 30 cents more and the fact is those six or eight extra fries cost Wendy's virtually nothing.
Such a deal

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by harmonics101

You know why they ask? They ask, because, 90% of the people that order a hamburger, actually want cheese,

H

It's like

When I was working in NYC in 2001 for the first and "only" time. Being from the west I had no clue that when I ordered coffee and they asked if I wanted it "regular" that they would go an put milk and sugar in it. If I had wanted bad tasting hot chocolate I would have ordered that.

[muscmp]

Originally Posted by harmonics101

I got your back, how do you respond with that?

Thanks Man

H

it makes me continually look over my shoulder.

play music!

[jpd]

Originally Posted by Mr. Paul

"I'd like a 16oz Latte, please"

"Any flavor with that?"

"Well Geez I should hope so"

LOL

[Silly Moustache]

In the UK, we mostly have an option of changing our Gas/electricity provider.

Understanding charges is a nightmare, but I've made it my business to understand it, so when I give a provider history and they quote me a monthly payment that s competitive, I accept it.

Every three months, which tends to correspond to our seasons, they re-estimate the monthly direct debit.

So I ring up and say - you quoted £XXXX and now you are changing the deal.
Some providers will be flexible, and reduce the monthly direct debit, but I've now had two refuse, and one "Customer Service" actually once said to me "Mr P (that's me) you have NO influence on what we take from your bank account!"

I switched providers a day later.

Last year I changed to a small entry level provider. They did a similar thing. Suddenly raised the price (on a fixed price contract)
I said no, they said YES!,YES, Ok, no" then didn't honour their commitment.
I rang them, and deliberately spent an hour irritating the "supervisor" who swore that the agreement had never happened.

The following week, I changed providers. They would not send me a bill, said look it upon online. (Yes, I was being bloody minded). I refused, Finally I got a printed bill. It included early cancellation charges. I paid the actual fuel price by return with an explanatory letter.

They banked the cheque, put a debt collector on me! I sent the Debt collector a copy of the letter that the provider denied receiving (with the cheque they banked stapled to it.

The Debt collection company TOOK MY SIDE ! After about three months I got a hone cal from the provider saying "as an act of good will" they'd canceled the cancellation charges.

These providers quote an averaged out annual bill, but "re-estimate" quarterly payments enabling them to accrue millions of pounds, from people who just accept it.

If you've got the time and the gall...fight.

[frankmcr]

90% of the people that order a hamburger, actually want cheese,

STUDY SHOWS 90% OF HAMBURGERS SHOULD BE CHEESEBURGERS

SHOCKING STATISTICS RAISE DISTURBING QUESTIONS, EXPERTS SAY

POLITICIAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by Gitarre

Thanks walling. You just explained that strange and frustrating feeling I occasionally get from my wife. It's the force, the illocutionary force.

It's a force to be reckoned with, to be sure!

It's an interesting example, though, because there are times when we recognize the illocutionary force of a statement, but, because of our irritation or for some other reason, we break a conversational principle and choose to take it literally. Amy will have recognized 'Do you mind if ..." as equaling "Would you ..." or "Please ...." in meaning, but, as a result of her irritation, decided to take the phrase literally as in "Is it a problem?"

Another example could be when someone wants something, and we don't want to comply. When a fellow student says to us, "I'm having trouble with this exercise," s/he may really be saying, "Could you stop what you're doing and help me with it?" However, we may choose to ignore that meaning and say something like, "Yes, they don't give us an easy time here, do they?"

There are cultural divisions, too. I remember when I was living in Segovia, Spain, in the late 80s, I was once on a night out with some locals. Anyone who has spent any time in Spain will know that when Spaniards go out, they really go out. Forget sneaking off home at 12:00 midnight; you'll be lucky to get away by 2:30! Anyway, this night I was a bit tired and a bit bored, and I just wanted to go home and do my own thing. So, I did the time-honoured Britiah thing: I told a lie to excuse myself - "I'm afraid I have to go now. The thing is I have to be up early tomorrow because I have "some task" (forgotten exactly what I said) to do." Now any decent British person would immediately understand that the person wanted to go home and would take the matter no further. Not so with my Spanish friends - they began discussing how they could come round to my house the next day and help so that I could stay out a bit longer that night!

[Nyghthawk]

Another rhetorical device is the southern (US) habit of prefacing an absolute slam with, "Well bless her heart..." This is usually followed by something to the effect of "...but she dumb as a box of rocks." Or perhaps "...he couldn't find his *** with both hands and a road map."

To say that the individual was not "blessing their heart" is an understatement.