Epiplexis (e-pi-plex’-is): Asking questions in order to chide, to express grief, or to inveigh. A kind of rhetorical question [–the speaker does not expect an answer].
What is North Korea up to? Will its threats ever be carried out? Is the Chubby Dictator going to launch a missile attack?
These are questions that we’d like to get definitive answers for, but the Chubby Dictator is a blustering enigmatic idiot.
However, if the past is a predictor of the future, it is most likely the case that North Korea is up to nothing–that the threats will not be carried out and the Chubby Dictator will launch no missiles, but rather, he will continue to launch insults directed toward the US & most likely toward President Trump (whose chain is easily yanked).
Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Bracketed text added by Gorgias.
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