‘A che serve saperlo?’ Funzioni pragmatiche e variazioni intonative della domanda retorica

This study aims to explore the relationship between the prosodic realization of rhetorical questions (RQs) and their pragmatic function. A sample of 260 Italian semi-spontaneous RQs has been classified by functions and by intonational contours. As far the functions are concerned, we distinguished RQs aimed at amplifying from those used to mitigate the illocutive force of a message. The experimental results prove that the RQs functioning as amplifiers show, in the most cases, a falling contour (L%), while the RQs used as mitigators have a final rising contour (H%). Nevertheless, intonation cannot be assumed as the only distinguishing variable. Besides the influence of the context, the degree of politeness with which a RQ is produced is a very strong component able to modify the prosodic realization of RQs.