On Mon 28 Mar 2016 at 17:02:46 (+0100), Lisi Reisz wrote: > On Monday 28 March 2016 16:37:16 David Wright wrote: > > I'm not interested > > in spending my time answering your easy-to-pose rhetorical questions > > The whole point of rhetorical questions is that they are not in fact > questions > and do not require an answer, and more than any other type of statement.
Strictly that is true. However, questions on a mailing list like this one are posed in different ways. Some are directly asking for information, some are anything but, and there's a spectrum in between. My saying "rhetorical question" is a shorthand way (two words) of giving you an idea of where on that spectrum I think questions lie. >From the wiki: "Though a rhetorical question does not require a direct answer, in many cases it may be *intended to start a discussion* or at least draw an acknowledgement that the listener understands the intended message." (my emphasis.) Cheers, David.