I don't know what you call this, but have you ever experienced it in real life?

[AG31]

It's a conversation convention. There's chatter about George between two other people. Person A asks a question about George, and person B, asks, "George?" before going on to respond.

Example:

Person A says, "A witness came to me and told me he lied."

Person B syas, "How did he find out where you lived?"

Person A says, "The witness? He asked Shelly."

Whatever it's called, I always get brought up short. Who says that in real life? I think. Am I the only one?

 

[StillStunned]

All the time.

Me: "How was dinner?"
Wife: "Fun. You know, yacking with the girls. The restaurant did cocktails as well."
Me: "Sounds like it got noisy. Were they affordable at least?"
Wife: "The cocktails? Not cheap, but they were good."

Mostly it's because the wife and I tend to have rambling conversations. They're not an orderly exchange of queries and information.

 

[MrPixel]

We have a term for that in our household: "Look! A squirrel!"

 

[TheLobster]

Person A says, "A witness came to me and told me he lied."

Person B syas, "How did he find out where you lived?"

Person A says, "The witness? He asked Shelly."

You mean the redundant question when person A speaks again?

That's a verbal tic, giving the person a few moments to either recall the information or (better) formulate what he already knows into words.
I don't know if it's a tic that has a distinct name; perhaps some LLM would be able to pinpoint it more precisely.

Me: "How was dinner?"
Wife: "Fun. You know, yacking with the girls. The restaurant did cocktails as well."
Me: "Sounds like it got noisy. Were they affordable at least?"
Wife: "The cocktails? Not cheap, but they were good."

This may be the same thing, but it may also be your wife clarifying that she's talking about cocktails specifically, as opposed to the restaurant as a whole which is the other possible referent for "they" in "Were they affordable?".

(Well, other than "girls", but presumably we're not talking about that kind of girls).

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Person A says, "A witness came to me and told me he lied."

Person B syas, "How did he find out where you lived?"

Person A says, "The witness? He asked Shelly."

Shouldn't it simply be:

"The witness?" he asked.

Wouldn't we assume that he was speaking to Shelley? (I am assuming that the Person A says part is not a dialog tag)

 

[TheLobster]

(I am assuming that the Person A says part is not a dialog tag)

But it clearly is.

There are four people involved here: A, B, the witness and Shelly; only A and B are part of the conversation. Witness had asked Shelly beforehand where A lived, and now A is relating this fact to B. Shelly isn’t present when A and B are talking, and neither is the witness.

 

[Cacatua_Galerita]

Whatever it's called...

The leading question? It’s a rhetorical question with the intention of clarifying the subject before proceeding.

It might also be considered an aporia – a declaration of (feigned) doubt for rhetorical purposes. But what would I know?

 

[AG31]

Person A says, "A witness came to me and told me he lied."

Person B syas, "How did he find out where you lived?"

Person A says, "The witness? He asked Shelly."

Shouldn't it simply be:

"The witness?" he asked.

Wouldn't we assume that he was speaking to Shelley? (I am assuming that the Person A says part is not a dialog tag)

That's my point. The convention I describe is quite common in fiction, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone use it, for the reason you state.

 

[crookedletter]

It's more common in my experience when there's some surprise at the -- perhaps obvious -- question.

"Was George there?"

"George? It was his party, dummy."

But as @TheLobster said it's also an occasional verbal tic. Useful maybe in dialog when you want to subtly -- or not subtly as in the below -- show your character is buying time to work on their lie.

"Was George there?"

"George? Uh, no, I haven't seen George in years. I'm certainly not sleeping with him or anything."

 

[NuclearFairy]

My roommate does it all the time. She'll partially rephrase what you just said in the form of a question before replying. For her it partially stems from growing up in an abusive household and wanting to be sure that she's actually answering what you said. It can get rather annoying though, so she's been working on not doing it all the time.

It's a compromise, we try not to be annoyed when she does do it, and she tries not to answer every question that way.

 

[Britva415]

Person A says, "The witness? He asked Shelly."

Shouldn't it simply be:

"The witness?" he asked.

Wouldn't we assume that he was speaking to Shelley? (I am assuming that the Person A says part is not a dialog tag)

"Person A says" is a dialog tag.

Person A literally says everything between the quote marks: "The witness? He asked Shelly." Person A is saying that the witness asked Shelly.

Person A is not asking Shelly if it was the witness. Person A is asking Person B in order to make sure that Person B is talking about the witness before confirming that it was the witness who asked about Shelly.

 

[Actingup]

The leading question? It’s a rhetorical question with the intention of clarifying the subject before proceeding.

It might also be considered an aporia – a declaration of (feigned) doubt for rhetorical purposes. But what would I know?

Either. The second one mostly as a joke ('the girls?' example above). The first if the listener's thoughts are wandering a little and they're pulling themselves into focus before answering the question. I've done both.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Yeah, that's me. I'm person A.

What you mention is a trope, and I'm always person A. Apparently it runs in my family.