Për interpretimin e pyetjes retorike në gjuhën shqipe
Interpreting Rhetorical Questions in Albanian

Summary/Abstract: The object of this article is to represent the problems relating with the interpretation of rhetorical questions in Albanian language. Rhetorical questions have been object of different views, as part of rhetoric, as part of literature, and as part of grammars. We focus on the interpretation of them as a linguistic unit and interpret them in relation to their pragmatic, semantic and syntactic features. The main aim of this article is to find the proper features to describe rhetorical questions. In conclusion, rhetorical questions can be object of three different disciplines, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. We agree with the opinion of other researchers that rhetorical questions should be described also based on their pragmatic features or social context. Syntactic features are not enough to differentiate them from other questions; hence the rhetorical question should not be exclusively treated as a particular class or as a grammar class of interrogative sentences, but as a functional class of questions. It is a question used not to ask, but to carry out other communication functions, such as affirming or denying something, expressing an advice, an accusation, etc., with the intention of being more convincing for the interlocutor. Rhetorical questions, in contrast to common questions, are used in contexts in which both the addressee and the addresser have same or similar common information. This information plays the main role in their interpretation. As key features of rhetorical questions we distinguish: the form different from the function, the implication of a meaning other than the literal, the engagement of the speaker and interlocutor in its coding and decoding and multifunctionality. The use of rhetorical questions in different kinds of linguistic acts and syntactic features of rhetorical questions on Albanian language remain open to further investigation.

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