Conceptual silencing as a rhetorical tool. A cognitive lexical semantics study of the lexical item Europe

Przemysław Wilk

doi:10.29107/rr2021.1.7

Abstract

Taking a cognitive lexical semantics perspective, the article introduces the concept of conceptual silencing as a rhetorical tool. Understood as a process of conceptual dissolution of meaning to offer a more coarse-grained sense of an expression, conceptual silencing is demonstrated to have a potential rhetorical value in that it allows for more opaque reproduction of ideology. From a cognitive linguistic standpoint, the process of conceptual silencing hinges upon a polysemous nature of a lexical item and boils down to triggering a given sense of a given lexical item in a given context. To illustrate the workings of conceptual silencing, the article reports on a case study of the lexical item Europe in the Guardian press discourse. It is demonstrated that the ultimate effect of conceptual silencing is silencing the ‘European Union’ senses under the guise of the lexical item Europe.

Highlights

The concept of silence seems relatively easy to define as its primary site of operation is the domain of sound, and silence can be most straightforwardly defined as the lack of sound
Analyzing a corpus of the Guardian’s news texts with the focus on the lexical item Europe, I attempt to demonstrate that conceptual silencing can be considered a rhetorical tool in that it allows for the reproduction of non-transparent and opaque ideologically-invested propositions, which may constitute an interpretative challenge for discourse consumers
The main goal of the article has been to argue that conceptual silencing, defined as a process of conceptual dissolution of meaning to offer a more coarse-grained sense of an expression, can be perceived as a rhetorical tool which allows for less transparent ideology reproduction, which is more challenging for a discourse consumer to demystify

Summary

Introduction

The concept of silence seems relatively easy to define as its primary site of operation is the domain of sound, and silence can be most straightforwardly defined as the lack of sound. The expression She is a good mother, for instance, will be meaningful in terms of a given situational context (we can be witnesses to a particular desirable behavior), and partly with respect to the concept of ‘bad mother’ functioning in a particular culture and society (we seem to know what kind of practice motherhood should not be defined by) This example demonstrates that what is silent, that is, lacks any linguistic form (here the linguistically unexpressed concept of ‘bad mother’), can have a conceptual basis, as it can be evoked and made conceptually available to the speaker by another expression (here the linguistically overtly expressed concept of ‘good mother’). In light of the above example, conceptual silencing obtains in “erasing” the ‘EU member states’ sense, for example, under the guise of the lexical item Europe

A construal approach to ideology reproduction

Data selection and processing

Analysis and discussion

Conclusions