A PRAGMATIC STUDY OF RHETORICAL QUESTIONS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT an‎d HAMLET

This paper is an attempt to study rhetorical questions (RQs) in Shakespeare‖s Twelfth Night and Hamlet. The study is hoped to achieve the following aims: (1) investigating the numbers, employments and the functions of RQs in the two plays; (2) showing the most common pragmatic functions of RQs from both Speech Act and Argumentation points of view; (3) examining the influence of context on the pragmatic interpretations of RQs; and (4) displaying how one function is used for different literary purposes in these plays.