query abt rhetorical questions [off topic]

Lynne Murphy lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK
Wed Mar 27 17:05:45 UTC 2002


--On Wednesday, March 27, 2002 11:18 am -0500 David Bergdahl
<einstein at FROGNET.NET> wrote:

> Would you consider a rhetorical question as a discourse-opener to reflect
> an oral or a written style?  Specifically, if someone writes
>
> Should a language be restructured in order to make it easier to learn? I
> don't know if that is such a good idea--it reminds me, more than anything
> else, of the Newspeak of George Orwell's 1984, where grammar was
> simplified, an affix-based English was used, and words (and, according to
> the logic of the book, concepts) like 'freedom" didn't exist....
>
> is s/he trying to sound like speech or like print?

Sounds like a textbook to me.

Lynne



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