Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 11:51:45 -0400

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: Re: A new oxymoron?



As I see it, "uninformed question" is not and oxymoron if we accept the

definition of such as "contradictory or incongruous word combinations.

Not all questions are uninformed; indeed, the best questions probably

emerge from a good sense of the problem considered. Questions may serve

several functions in conversations (e.g. some may be rhetorical). And in

a court of law, there is an adage: "never ask a a witness any question to

which you don't already know the answer." Thus, not all questions come

from a condition where one is uninformed.



you seem to be denying not that "uninformed question" is an oxymoron,

but instead that it's redundant, which as your argument points out,

it's not. the question of whether it's oxymoronic would require us

to debate whether it's true or not that no questions are uninformed

(rather than all questions are uninformed).



lynne



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