Definition:
The conversational convention of casting an imperative statement in question or declarative form to communicate a request without causing offense. See also:
Etymology:
A blend of "whimper" and "imperative," coined by Jerrold M. Sadock in an article published in 1970.Examples and Observations:
- "Why do a speaker and a hearer willingly take on parts in a dainty comedy of manners?
"The polite dinnertime request--what linguists call a whimperative--offers a clue. When you issue a request, you are presupposing that the hearer will comply. But apart from employees or intimates, you can't just boss people around like that. Still, you do want the damn guacamole. The way out of this dilemma is to couch your request as a stupid question ('Can you . . .?'), a pointless rumination ('I was wondering if . . .'), a gross overstatement ('It would be great if you could . . .'), or some other blather that is so incongruous the hearer can't take it at face value. . . . A stealth imperative allows you to do two things at once--communicate your request, and signal your understanding of the relationship."
(Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, Viking, 2007) - "A sentence such as Why don't you play tennis any more? can be a straightforward question. If, however, a sentence in the frame Why don't you refers to a specific (non-habitual) action, and has a future time reference, as in:
Why don't you go and see a doctor tomorrow?
then the sentence cannot simply be a question: it must convey the assumption that it would be a good thing for the addressee to do the thing mentioned. Green (1975:127) has pointed out that the sentence: Why don't you be quiet? is an unambiguous 'whimperative,' whereas the sentence Why aren't you quiet? is an unambiguous question."
(Anna Wierzbicka, Cross-Cultural Pragmatics, Walter de Gruyter, 1991)
