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English
Etymology
From Latin epiplexis (“rebuke”), from Ancient Greek ἐπίπληξις (epíplēxis, “rebuke”), from ἐπιπλήσσω (epiplḗssō, “to chastise”), from ἐπι- (epi-, “upon”) (see epi-) + πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”).
Noun
epiplexis (plural epiplexes)
- (rhetoric) A rhetorical device where a sequence of rhetorical questions is used to criticise or blame, or more generally, to elicit an emotional response.
2013, Jean Godefroy Bidima, “La Palabre: The Legal Authority of Speech”, in Law and the Public Sphere in Africa: La Palabre and Other Writings, page 24:Afterwards, questioners employ the rhetorical figure called epiplexis. This interrogative figure is designed to blame the addressee, posing trick questions whose goal is to reveal whatever the speaker considers to be his or her faults. Epiplexis is backed up by cataplexis.
2018, Danyal Freeman, Seductive Academic Writing, page 83:Remember also to structure epiplexes with one of the patterns for figures with multiple elements we met in chapter three. Repeated rhetorical questions can move from general to specific, from short to long, from broad to narrow, but should always unpack like Russian dolls.