Apart from these more obviously rhetorical uses, the question as a grammatical form has important rhetorical dimensions. For example, the rhetorical critic may assess the effect of asking a question as a method of beginning discourse: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" says the persona of Shakespeare's 18th sonnet. This kind of rhetorical question, in which one asks the opinion of those listening, is called anacoenosis. This rhetorical question has a definite ethical dimension, since to ask in this way generally endears the speaker to the audience and so improves his or her credibility or ethos. The technical term for rhetorical questions in general is erotema.

Related Figures

• erotema
• anacoenosis
  Asking the opinion or judgment of the judges or audience.
• anthypophora
  A figure of reasoning in which one asks and then immediately answers one's own questions. Reasoning aloud. Anthypophora sometimes takes the form of asking the audience or one's adversary what can be said on a matter.
• dianoea
  The use of animated questions and answers in developing an argument
• aporia
  Deliberating with oneself as though in doubt over some matter; asking oneself (or rhetorically asking one's hearers) what is the best or appropriate way to approach something.
• epiplexis
  Asking questions in order to chide, to express grief, or to inveigh.
• exuscitatio
  Stirring others by one's own vehement feeling (sometimes by means of a rhetorical question).
• pysma
  The asking of multiple questions successively (which would together require a complex reply).
• ratiocinatio
  Reasoning (typically with oneself) by asking questions.

• Tropes: Semantic Inversions
• Invention
• Stasis
• Questions for determining the issue (status)
• Progymnasmata: Thesis or Theme
• Arguing two sides of a question: in utrumque partes
• Basic questions for doing rhetorical analysis