Have we really lost our minds? On forms and communicative functions of rhetorical questions in X posts related to the Gaza war

The paper investigates the use of rhetorical questions on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) by Francesca Albanese (a UN official) and Eylon Levy (a former Israeli government official), in posts related to the war in Gaza. The analysis, which is primarily qualitative and conducted within the framework of the speech-act theory, explores the primary forms and communicative functions of rhetorical questions, and their potential role in promoting opposing narratives about the conflict. The results indicate that, despite their diametrically opposed views, both individuals utilize similar forms of rhetorical questions, and mostly direct them at the general public, with criticizing being the predominant illocutionary force of such questions in both corpora, followed by accusing and ridiculing. Overall, the results show that rhetorical questions represent an important pragmatic tool for shaping narratives, and for engaging and influencing the public in a conflict-related social media discourse.