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From Toni Morrison's Beloved: "They beat you and you was pregnant?"

This is asked by Paul D in response to Sethe who describes that she was beaten when she was pregnant. Paul D knows the answer, this is more of an incredulous question, also angry, in disbelief... any particular way to classify it?

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    There is no auxiliary inversion here, or wh-question-word plus inversion (Were you beaten? / Have you any witnesses? Did you fight back? Where/When/Why ... did this take place? ...). "They beat you." is a declarative statement, and with the correct intonation "They beat you?" is a declarative question. Some might be tempted to double-punctuate here, adding an exclamation mark to the question mark.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Feb 10, 2022 at 14:20
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    I feel like I shouldn't be answering this.
    – Mitch
    Commented Feb 10, 2022 at 14:32
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    The question mark is acting like musical notation. And the musical notation of raising the voice at the end turns it into a question. This usage makes an interrogative of rhetorical disbelief.
    – Tuffy
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 19:30
  • I wouldn't object to the label rhetorical. But I hear an actual question, though in disbelief. "Can this be? Are you for real? In shock here, can I be getting this right?" You hear of a crash, all dead, and ask "She's dead? And she was pregnant?"
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Sep 27 at 13:38

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It is erotesis - a type of rhetorical question that conveys a passionate affirmation or denial.

Erotesis, which is also known as erotema, eperotesis and interrogation is another type of rhetorical question that conveys a strong or passionate affirmation or denial.

Or said another way:

A manner of phrasing a question that presupposes an answer that is either a strong affirmative or, more often, a strong negative.

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    I took a look at the link and I’m not convinced OP’s question is erotesis based on the examples given.
    – Jim
    Commented Jan 15, 2021 at 21:30
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    I'm sorry you're not convinced. I am, though. :)
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Commented Jan 15, 2021 at 21:35
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    My take is that erotesis is “answering a question with another question”- one that has a presupposed answer. Q: Do you want ice cream? A: “Do birds live in trees?” (Strong affirmative YES!) OP’s question expressed incredulity but I see no erotesis.
    – Jim
    Commented Jan 15, 2021 at 21:44
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    No, I think you misunderstand. The erotetic question IS the answer, it does not seek an answer.
    – Jim
    Commented Jan 15, 2021 at 22:02
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    @Jim Your point is that when A said "Do birds live in trees?" those words amounted to the word "Yes" as a response to Q's earlier question, "Do you want ice cream?" I see that distinction, but the ice-cream-discussion is the only example in that category. In OP's Toni Morrison quotation and in the quotations of MLK and Burke, a single question implies its own firm answer, not the answer to another earlier question. They beat you? [Yes they did!] How can segregation exist in the true church? [Of course it cannot!] Etc. So the link supports the classification of OP's example as erotesis. No?
    – Chaim
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 3:36

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