Page 428 - Makino,Tsutusi.DictionaryOfIntermediateJGrammar

Rhetorical Question

(f) @C:-?Aa%f~blz 2#3$bC;tT75'i+bb>Ceab>($).
(How could you expect him to understand such a difficult thing!)

<
Q
; t r , A . 2 , A W Wb tLP6 Ht W L ~
7?TG;t7'sb>$,
(The man shouted, "Open sesame!" And look what happened: the rock
(lit. rock door) opened with no sound!)

1. Rhetorical questions take various forms, as seen in the Key Sentences.
Typical endings include potential verbs (KS(A), Exs.(a) and (b)), mono
desu ka and its variations (KS@), Exs.(b) and (c)), dar6 ka and its vari-
ations (KS(C), Exs.(d) and (e)), (nai) de wa nai ka and its variations
(KS(D) and Exs.(f) - (h), no ka and its variations (KS(E) and Ex.(i)) and
- nai ka (KS(F) and Ex.(j)). No matter what form it takes, however, a
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. -
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.
: =
: R g rhetorical question always uses falling intonation. Note that in Japanese,
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genuine questions always use rising intonation.
2. Rhetorical questions in some forms are equivalent to their correspond-
ing negative sentences in meaning. For example, KS(A), @), and (C)
are semantically equivalent to (I), (2), and (3), respectively.
2
(1) -?/va8bT;t)>Lvz Ii&%ab'o
(I couldn't do such an embarrassing thing.)
(2) %B &AaAG:$3&aA$G?s ab>o
(No one would lend money to such a person.)
(3) +sI;liil$k~tz2b~ab~,
(There is nothing to hide now.)