Abstract :
[en] “(Pseudo)-Interrogative Sentences and Associated Phrases in Speech Captions in Private Tombs”
In this paper, I discuss the (pseudo)-interrogative phrases, both those that are introduced by an
interrogative word as well as those that are not. My aim is to provide a synchronic and diachronic
study of such sentences and to illustrate a few of their uses in the Reden und Rufe corpus. After
a short introduction (section 1), the predicate questions (jn and jn-jw) are considered in section
2 and adjunct questions built with the interrogative pronouns jSs.t, zy, m and the interrogative
adverb Tn(y) in section 3. Section 3 will further discuss a couple of affirmative and exclamative
sentences, which have to be linked with the rhetorical question jSs.t pw A. The fourth and last
section before conclusions is devoted to three cases studies relevant for this investigation, i.e.
the proclitic particle js, which allows the speaker to distance himself from his words through an
ironic statement (4.1), interrogative phrases without interrogative words (4.2), and the particle
Xy hitherto known from letters only (4.3). As a result 50 examples from Old Kingdom mastabas
to Late Period tombs have been considered. Even if real (or ordinary) questions (OQs) arose
in a few cases, there is a clear majority of rhetorical questions (RQs), which are uninformative
and assertive. Both OQs and RQs can be expressed by means of the same syntactic structure, be
it predicate questions, adjuncts questions, or interrogative phrases without interrogative words.
Some are however preferred for RQs, and vice versa. The RQs as adjunct questions, which are predominant in this text corpus, invoke a predetermined answer from the addressee, being
either jnk pw or jnk + nominalized participle. As such they reveal a first rhetorical strategy in
which the answer is the counterpart of the question with exactly the same syntactic structure
(jSs.t pw A – jnk pw, zy pw A – jnk pw, and (j)n-m + participle – jnk + participle). The jSs.t pw
A and (j)n-m + participle patterns expose a further rhetorical strategy in which the speaker and/
or the addressee is/are objectified.
