Between rhetorical questions and information requests: A versatile interrogative clause in Estonian

Abstract

This article investigates the pragmatic and functional aspects of an interrogative question pattern in Estonian: questions introduced by the adjective huvitav ('interesting'). Despite appearances, this question is usually not used to elicit an answer in an information request. Instead, its uses vary from self-addressed to rhetorical questions, also allowing the addition of a biased (critical, ironical) positioning to the interrogation. It can be related to subjective as well as intersubjective dimensions of language use. Examples primarily from two corpora are discussed: fiction texts and their translations (Estonian-French) from the Estonian-French bilingual corpus; excerpts from the debates of the Estonian Parliament; and to a lesser extent, examples from conversations are also included in the analysis. Like similar devices described in other languages (vajon in Hungarian, oare in Romanian), this pattern is impossible to use in situations where a clearly competent addressee is in a position to answer the question directly and the speaker is aware of it; instead, it is especially for cases where, for different reasons, the competence of the addressee is not questioned or challenged directly: asking tentative questions, using rhetorically designed questions to convey critics, or other biased meanings.