I'll tell you
I'll
tell you
In Brief
Figure of speech. Twice, Myles Crawford asks his
listeners a question which he proceeds to answer himself: "You
know how he made his mark? I'll tell you"; "Look at here. What
did Ignatius Gallaher do? I'll tell you." The rhetorical term
for such one-person Q&A is hypophora, a kind of
reasoning aloud that requires listeners to do nothing but
listen.
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Hypophora (hie-PAH-for-uh, from Greek hypo- = under +
phora = carrying) has much in common with so-called
"rhetorical questions" like anacoenosis and erotesis.
Anacoenosis makes a show of soliciting listeners' opinions
while directing them toward a very limited range of correct
answers. Erotesis implies an answer so obvious that no
audience participation is needed. Hypophora too eliminates all
audience involvement, but it expands the range of possible
answers. The speaker responds to his own question with a
considered, and often quite lengthy, reply. (Sometimes the
answer is called anthypophora, in the same way that sung
responses in a church liturgy are called antiphons. The
ancient Greek rhetorician Gorgias uses the word anthypophora
in this sense, as does the English writer George
Puttenham.)
Richard Nordquist (thoughtco.com) offers a host of examples
from TV ads ("What's the best tuna? Chicken of the Sea"),
songs ("Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? / Oh, what did
you see, my darling young one?..."), books ("Who wants to
become a writer? And why?..."), and speeches. One brief
example of oratorical hypophora may suffice here. In a 1970
commencement address, the poet Ogden Nash asked, "How are
we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than
witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best
chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry
acceptance of our predicament. We don't have to like it but we
can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is
ourselves."
Neither Gilbert nor Seidman lists hypophora among the rhetorical devices of Aeolus, but it seems appropriate to the question that the newspaper editor asks about the reporting of the Phoenix Park murders. Crawford has a detailed story to tell and he wants to tell in his own way, at length. But he introduces his lecture with a question: "What did Ignatius Gallaher do?"
