I just saw two sentences like
Doing this is right. Or is it?
To me it looks like the first sentence rephrases a common belief while the second announces the belief to be proved wrong later. Am I right?
The strange thing about this construction is that both sentences are positive. Logically I'd expect the question to be something like "Or maybe is it wrong at the end?" – this way it could be expressed e.g. in German. Is there an explanations while the English construction goes "the other way round"?
OK, it's metanoia, but I'm still stuck with the exact phrasing. Nowhere I've seen this form. Would a phrase like
Doing this is right. Or isn't it?
be correct as well and mean the same?
Best Answer
We, like children, often assert things as positive when in actual fact they are a little less than absolute truth, or even false. Posing a question after an assertion this way is a very strong way to indicate a truth value somewhere close to the middle, a truth of which there is considerable doubt [nowhere near absolute]. It introduces a certain state of mind in the reader.
In that sense, you are right. The initial belief is proved wrong later.
A positive statement is stronger than a negative one. So "Or is it?" introduces more doubt than "Or isn't it?" although both do mean the same.