Abstract
In this paper authors analyse figurativeness in speeches of presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in Croatia in 2009/2010. This paper explores how the usage of rhetorical tropes in speeches of presidential candidates influenced the election results and number of votes of each candidate. In contrast to the other figures of speech, tropes are more closely related to content than to form or structure. Rhetorical tropes fulfil many different purposes in political discourse, especially in regard to positive political self-presentation and negative political other-presentation. Rhetorical tropes analysed in this paper are divided according to the Burke’s (1969) classification: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony. The metaphor is analysed and outlined as one of the master tropes. In Croatian political discourse metaphor is most commonly drawn from the sports and military terminology, for example, the expressions “political competition“, “presidential race“, “leading the political battle“. Authors compare usage of rhetorical tropes with the success of presidential candidates in the above mentioned presidential campaign. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p23
Highlights
1.1 Figures and their ClassificationWithin the antique rhetorical tradition, in the part concerning speech configuration, central place doubtlessly belongs to the study of types of figures
Presidential campaign in Croatia provided all kinds of tropes involving different semantic fields
In Croatian political discourse metaphor is drawn from the sports and military terminology, for example, the expressions political competition, presidential race, leading the political battle
Summary
Within the antique rhetorical tradition, in the part concerning speech configuration, central place doubtlessly belongs to the study of types of figures. Figures are just semantically equivalent substitutions for simple words. Since Cicero and Quintilian, definitions of figures refer to the concrete usage in rhetoric because they included speaker (ethos), audience (pathos) and speech (logos). We can define rhetorical figures as a deviation from the ordinary mode of expression. Very often figure is considered to be deviation from ordinary language, is called speech ornament (Aristotle, 1989)
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