Rhetorical Framework Research Articles

Neurorhetoric: Rhetoric Intersection with Neuroscience

Abstract: Neurorhetoric examines the cognitive and neurological underpinnings of successful persuasive communication. This article seeks to examine the convergence of rhetoric and neuroscience by looking at the rhetorical framework established by Aristotle, which includes ethos, pathos, and logos. The assumption is that the integration of rhetoric with neuroscience has the potential to greatly enhance the practical relevance of rhetoric approaches in fields such as education, politics, marketing, healthcare, etc. The study employs methods of desk research and critical review of foundational and contemporary scientific publications in the fields of rhetoric, neurorhetoric, and psychology. Future studies should prioritize the advancement of the theoretical and empirical foundations of neurorhetoric. Collaboration between experts in rhetoric, linguistics, and neuroscience among others, will facilitate the achievement of this goal. Collective efforts like this will enhance our comprehension of the complex interaction between the brain, lan¬guage, and persuasion. Exploring the neural mechanisms of persuasion is a rela¬tively new field of research, even though the art of persuasion and argumentation, known as rhetoric, has been practiced since ancient times. Neurorhetoric explores the intersection between different rhetorical canons, such as ethos, pathos, and logos, and specific brain functions. This investigation focuses on both real-world and virtual communication contexts. Keywords: rhetoric, persuasion, cognitive processes, neuroscience, neu¬rorhetoric.

Examination of state-level school safety data dashboard characteristics

Choices made on data visualizations guide how users make meaning of the information presented. This research investigates design decisions made on 115 state-level dashboards reporting school safety data. Using pre-determined codes drawn from a framework of visualization rhetoric, dashboard characteristics were described and analyzed. Analysis demonstrates that school safety dashboards vary significantly in types of school safety data included as well as how such data are presented. Most dashboards lack specific interpretative text or narration, meaning the messages and stories communicated by dashboards are influenced largely by choices in data included, how it is visually represented, and the interactivity provided to users. The choices craft divergent stories about school safety for dashboard users—including, but not limited to, those that foreground student behavior as the central threat, those that present school practices as problematic, and those that center community creation—which may shape public discourse around school safety. In concert, rhetorical choices reflect different perspectives on safety, students, and schools.

Cognitive rhetoric in super sports reporting: unveiling perspectives through multilevel analysis of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics from five international media outlets

ABSTRACT This study utilizes the Event-Domain Cognitive Model (ECM) within cognitive linguistics to analyze narrative construction in international news media coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Through qualitative analysis of 1673 news articles from five diverse media outlets, the research outlines a multilevel cognitive rhetoric framework to explore the integration of cultural, historical, and emotional factors in media discourse. At the macro level, cultural and historical contexts influence the selection of event subdomains. At the meso level, cognitive reference points shape portrayals of international diplomacy. At the micro level, rhetorical strategies, especially metaphorical language, reveal media knowledge structures and emotional responses. The study highlights the media's dual role in reinforcing shared humanistic values and exposing geopolitical rivalries. Findings indicate the Olympics as a global stage for uniting cultures through common values and manifesting political and ideological differences, with varying narratives reflecting each outlet's cultural and political context. The study underscores the importance of cross-cultural media literacy to develop a critically aware public and contributes to international media studies, cognitive linguistics, and communication by providing a comprehensive model for analyzing media narratives and encouraging further research into global media events.

Nooses and Nazi swastikas on U.S. campuses: an anti-racist call for a rhetorical reframing of hate symbols as violent technologies

ABSTRACT The terrorizing placement of nooses and Nazi swastikas on U.S. college and university campuses has sustained a climate of fear, trauma, and intimidation. University administration responses often invoke protest from targeted communities over their approach. Examining news reports and university statements between 2010 and 2023, we critique universities’ use of the rhetorical framework of “symbols” (e.g., “heinous symbols of hate,” “racist symbols”). We argue that the “symbolism” framework reflects and reinforces a problem of minimization, if not dismissal, when responding to the impact of these events. Drawing on works by rhetorical studies scholars like Matsuda, Altman, Butler, and Ore, we argue that nooses and swastikas must be understood and treated in relation to their material, violent, spatial, and agential oppressive power and viewed through the relationship between the academic environment of white Christian spaces and anti-Black and anti-Jewish violence and exclusion. Coining the term, “technologies of violence,” we invite a rhetorical shift from hate speech and symbols to acts of violent doing and doing to within the context of historical and contemporary phenomena of systemic racism and antisemitism in academia and society. We offer an anti-racist approach to responding to and studying terroristic objects and acts on campuses.

The Rhetoric of Radicalism: The Anti-Colonial Inspiration Behind Osama bin Laden’s Ideology

ABSTRACT A current debate in the terrorism studies literature regards the continued value of Rapoport’s famous “wave theory” of modern terrorism and a new alternative known as “strain theory.” Wave theory assumes that international terrorism has occurred in distinct, temporal cycles while strain theory accounts for the learning behavior that occurs between waves by way of tactical adaption and therefore deemphasizes the distinctiveness of temporal waves. The present analysis contributes to the debate by analyzing Osama bin Laden’s ideology and justifications for violence, which are shown to owe a great debt to the anti-colonial rhetorical framework that inspired earlier forms of terrorism. By establishing a rhetorical connection between the works of Frantz Fanon, one of the most important figures of the anti-colonial period, and bin Laden’s written and spoken statements, the article challenges the historicization of modern terrorism as one that has unfolded in distinct waves, makes a cogent defense of strain theory, and contends that advocates of the new approach should extend their analysis beyond strategic and tactical choices to learned ideological and normative justifications for violence as well.

Visual rhetoric in advertising of China’s new tea beverage industry, using HEYTEA as an example

In recent years, China’s tea market has undergone immense transformations, giving rise to a diverse range of novel products collectively known as new tea beverages. This market trend has led to intense competition, compelling brands to employ innovative advertising strategies to captivate consumers. This study focuses on the well-known Chinese new tea beverage brand “HEYTEA” as a case study. It employs the theoretical framework of visual rhetoric to analyze visual rhetoric in new tea beverage advertisements from two dimensions: visual image and rhetorical techniques. In terms of visual image, advertisements effectively convey messages through a rich array of visual elements, attracting target audiences and enhancing their overall impact. On the other hand, within the domain of linguistic visual rhetoric, advertising copy emphasizes the use of words, sentence structures, and rhetorical devices to accentuate product features, thereby stimulating consumers’ sensory experiences. The objective of this research is to explore the value of visual rhetoric in new tea beverage advertising.

Образы средневековой "независимости" и "государственности" в современной каталоно-испанской мемориальной конфронтации

Introduction. The author in the presented article analyses the forms and features of the development of historical politics in modern Catalonia through the prism of the representation of medievalist concepts in the memorial culture of the regional society. The purpose of the study is to analyse medievalist rhetoric in modern wars of memory and those memorial cultures that arise and develop in Catalan society. Methods. Methodologically, the article is based on the principles of interdisciplinary historiography proposed for the analysis of memorial culture, which makes it possible to analyse medieval images as a form of historical policy aimed at instrumentalizing history. Results. The author analyses the role and place of regional intellectual communities and political elites as the main participants in historical politics, defined as forms of development of nationalism and the Catalan nationalist imagination. The novelty of the research lies in the study of the current (modern) stage in the development of the historical politics of the regional Catalan society through the prism of the actualization of medievalist rhetoric. The article shows that the intellectual community in modern Catalonia is a systemic segment of modern historical politics and the development of a nationalist version of memorial culture. The author believes that the range of memorial practices of regional intellectuals of Catalonia is limited primarily by their participation in strengthening civic identity through the prism of actualization and visualization in public and political discourse of the concepts of “statehood” and “independence” localized in the medievalist coordinate system through the active use of medieval images of the historical experience of Catalonia. Conclusions. The author concludes that medievalist rhetoric actually became a form of nationalization of history, promoting the integration of historical imagination and memorial culture into the discourse of Catalan political nationalism. It is assumed that the participation of regional intellectuals in memory wars actualizes the situation of politicization and ideologization of history, its instrumentalization within the framework of medievalist rhetoric, emphasizing the political, ideological and ethnic heterogeneity of society.

ON THE FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE AND THE LANGUAGE OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF ABU NASR AL-FARABI

Al-Farabi's views on the issue of language largely coincide with Aristotle's. But unlike Aristotle, who limited the study of language to the framework of poetics and rhetoric, and did not accept language as an independent object of study at all, Farabi singles out language as a subject of scientific research, distinguishes it as a subject of scientific research, and includes it in the classification list of subjects that are considered as the main branch of science, which is an in-depth study requires. In the philosophical question of language, the main question is the question of the origin of language. This question has not always escaped the attention of scholars of the Arabic-speaking world, this issue has interested Arab linguists, Muslim theologians, and, of course, philosophers. The philosophy of language and philosophical language problems in the teaching of Abu Nasir al-Farabi: to analyze the history of the development of the main problems of the philosophy of language in order to study the relationship between language and consciousness, the continuity of logic and grammar, and the peculiarities of the formation of philosophical terms, to show their importance for the development of the scientific paradigm of social and humanitarian education, Determining the philosophical (ontological, methodological, epistemological, axiological) foundations of Farabi's teaching about language, formulating the philosophical problems of language in connection with logic, studying his opinions on terms and terminology, conceptual-categorical apparatus with explanations, etc. the critical tasks of providing a philosophical basis for the actual problems and methodological principles of research. The philosophy of language is not only a branch of philosophy that studies the relationship between thinking and language, but also allows to determine the communicative role of language, different forms of speech and speech in discourse, the role of consciousness and knowledge in cognition. Although al-Farabi's sociological, political, and partially logical views have been studied until now, the study of the relationship between words and thinking, grammar and logic, making a systematic philosophical analysis of his linguistic researches, will be an important indicator of the article.

Compulsory guesthood, social cohesion, and the politics of hospitality in Turkey

AbstractThis article explores hospitality as a key rhetorical framework for refugee management in Turkey by focusing on how host‐guest relations are mobilized to represent, interpret, and problematize the current state of affairs regarding Syrian refugees, as well as to formulate policies. It analyses the transformation of hospitality rhetoric, the notion of ‘compulsory guesthood’, and the most recent social cohesion initiatives. I argue that host‐guest metaphors are used to assert power and leverage both domestically and internationally by exerting sovereign control over a post‐imperial nation‐space, performing neo‐imperial guardianship over the downtrodden, and claiming an ethno‐religious, civilizational morality that exceeds the legalistic logic of human rights and entitlements.

Aktual'nyj istoricheskij storitelling v videoigrovyh kibertekstah: strategii memorial'noj mediaritoriki

The article is devoted to the practice of popular historical storytelling, implemented within the framework of video-game media texts, which today is a noticeable part of the discursive space of public history. The article emphasizes the significant role of non-academic historical texts in the formation of sustainable content structures of public historical consciousness. The nature of the formal-linguistic and conceptual-content adaptation of historical narratives to the semiotic framework of video game media rhetoric is considered. The fundamental differences in the architectonics of video-game storytelling and textual-narrative “stories about the past” are revealed.

Being an expert in pandemic times: negotiating epistemic authority in a media interaction

Since the so-called phase one of the Coronavirus pandemic, media professionals have shown great attention to communication about the epidemic, so much so that a “glottology of COVID-19” has even been advocated to reflect on war metaphors referring to the disease. Despite media solicitations, however, reflection on communication at the time of COVID was not immediately the subject of linguistic analysis, at least in the Italian context. However, the issue of the relationship between language and culture, society, and thought has recently been explored in the face of the limitation of only formal analyses on language at the time of COVID. In the first stage, it quickly became apparent that the people in charge of institutional communication were used to talking mostly with experts on public health problems or research results, without the necessary training to modulate their language according to the degree of specialization of the audience. Instead, it is currently possible to detect an improvement in communication skills, and to observe the emergence of opposing factions with respect to the new resources of both preventive and therapeutic medicine, respectively the pro-vax and no-vax movements. These issues have been the focus of many Italian TV talk shows, such as the program “Non è l'Arena.” In the episode of 9/25/21, which is the subject of this article, the positions expressed in favor of one argument or the other would seem to adopt different mechanisms for managing the epistemic mode of certainty/uncertainty, such as semantic-syntactic and rhetorical-pragmatic devices, as well as conversational moves. This paper is aimed at describing the management of certainty/uncertainty in a media context through the qualitative fine-grained analysis of the interactional exchanges between host and representatives of opposite views in the dual theoretical framework of classical rhetoric and conversational analysis (CA), which, although starting from different scientific paths, share the vision of the centrality of speech in human action. The CA analysis indicated that, whilst the interviewer maintained a neutral stance in conducting the interview, he showed a position of affiliation toward the doctor who recommended therapies not in line with the Italian medical guidelines. This was evident through the space provided to him to explain his expertise, as well as through the repetition and emphasis of the evaluative elements expressed. The rhetorical analysis, focusing on the participants' ethos, reveals that the interviewer deliberately intervened in the construction of the epistemic authority of the representatives of the two positions. The rhetorical analysis, focusing on the ethos of the three participants in the interaction, shed light on selected strategies and argumentative chains used to gain credibility and to prevail in the discussion. The linguistic-rhetorical mechanisms used do not pertain to the field of dialectical discussion and aim at a direct attack on the opponent's thesis. Nevertheless, the clash remained balanced without any epistemic authority overpowering the other: both the rhetorical and conversation analyses demonstrate a polarized dialogue, wherein the two sides are portrayed as representatives of two distinct and incompatible perspectives.

The Rhetorical Influence of Contemporary Evangélicas

This essay uses a cultural rhetoric framework to analyze Hermanas: Deepening our Identity and Growing Our Influence (2019), a multi-authored book by evangelical Latinas in the U.S. The distinct storytelling in the text—which layers the authors’ personal narratives with discussions of biblical texts—emerges from both white evangelical and Latina cultural contexts. This communal, activist approach to personal narrative enacts rhetorical leadership by confronting systemic injustices in U.S. evangelicalism and offering readers in that community new ways to engage with dominant evangelical rhetoric and with the stories of others.

The Alphafly Outcry: Distance Running, Technological Doping, and the Rhetoric of Stigma

Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two-hour marathon in 2019 generated both wide-ranging celebration and stern denigration from members of the running community. The latter, motivated by an unexpectedly superior result, turned to stigma rhetoric to protect what they saw as a danger to their sport: the Nike Alphafly. Stigma is an othering strategy that brands its objects as undesirable and threatening to the ideological center of a community. In Kipchoge’s case, his shoe was characterized as technological doping, and rhetors used the framework provided by stigma to imbue the shoe with a moral dimension to warn others away from the threat to the running community’s egalitarianism. This case demonstrates how sport communities perceive and respond to threats to their essential natures through common rhetorical frameworks.

The National Scientific Imperative in Wartime China and the Complex Motivations of Individual Scientists

Abstract Although by the 1930s both state and nonstate actors generally agreed that science was key to the development of a modern China, there was no consensus on what that meant. The Second Sino-Japanese War stimulated a shift toward applied science that framed engagement in applied scientific activities as patriotic. This way of thinking was prevalent in Nationalist institutions. Although most scientists and social scientists understood themselves to be serving the nation, they did not all share this devotion to applied science. This article examines the Nationalist wartime institutional and rhetorical framework for scientific development and the complex ways in which scientists engaged with that framework. It shows that although the Nationalist state sought to bring science and technology into the service of the state, scientists, technicians, and social scientists, though often framing their work in terms of national need, were in fact motivated by a variety of interests and concerns.

Oratio in adventu Francisci III Lotharingiae, Barri et Magni Etruriae Ducis ad Florentinos (Florencia, 1739), de Girolamo Lagomarsini (S. J.). Introducción, edición y traducción

The speech In adventu Francisci III Lotharingiae, Barri et Magni Etruriae Ducis ad florentinos (Florence, 1739), by the Jesuit Girolamo Lagomarsini (1698-1773), constitutes an excellent example of the epideictic oratory of his time. It is an address focused specifically on the figure of the man who later became Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. This article offers a critical edition of the speech, a translation into Spanish and a general contextualization in its historical and rhetorical framework, taking into account the oratorical production of the author.

Two Unnarrated Stories in Horace's Roman Odes (Carm.3.2.1–12 and 3.6.21–32): Echoes of Vergil's UnfinishedAeneidand a Lowlife Epigram

AbstractWithin the rhetorical frameworks of exhortation and illustrative exemplum, Horace's second and sixth Roman Odes offer compressed, contrasting images of a young person's education and transformation, presenting these as stories about apuerand avirgo, respectively, in a lyric mode that does not narrate. In the first of these stories (Carm. 3.2.1–12), Horace slyly usurps characters from Vergil's unfinishedAeneid, alluding to some of its distinctive narrative techniques, but also draws on the similes and plot structure of its Iliadic model. The second of Horace's stories (Carm. 3.6.21–32) plays off his first, as he converts theadulta virgowho figures inCarm. 3.2 into her antitype. This story has as its intertext an obscene Hellenistic epigram by Automedon. Horace makes both intertextual and metatextual use of his models, while his indirect references, through Homer, to Vergil's intended design for his emergingAeneidmay be considered under the new heading of extratextual.

NON-ARGUMENTATIVE RHETORIC: ASPECTS OF ZEN RHETORIC

This work aims to investigate on a meta-theoretical level the conceptual framework of rhetoric. Two spheres can be distinguished: the argumentative or persuasive rhetoric and the non-argumentative or non-persuasive rhetoric. Tracing the contemporary theoretical trends in the rhetoric field, we propose an alternative version of conceptualization. Using both the feminist invitational rhetoric and the comparative rhetoric, we propose an integrative synthesis. The alternative is found in the Buddhists texts and practices. Among the non-argumentative aspects of language we mention: negation, contradiction, silence, the story or the paradox. We believe that these elements of our daily life are worth emphasized and encompassed in an integrative perspective. It is possible not to evaluate.

Wolfgang Beltracchi and the authenticity of forgery: Not a moral failure

Reiner Schurmann’s Broken Hegemonies is a philosophical approach to how humans have historically created a rhetorical framework of ideas to operate in their existence. For this article, I will discuss Schurmann’s text, specifically his Hegemonic Fantasms of Nature and Modern Consciousness (as well as the associated concepts of the tragic condition and tragic denial) in order to understand Wolfgang Beltracchi as a skilled albeit complicated artist, researcher and art forger. Beltracchi operates within the Hegemonic Fantasm of Nature as the law (per Marcus Tullius Cicero and Marcus Aurelius) as well as with nature as the destitution of the hegemonic construct of nature (per Meister Eckhart) and the Hegemonic Fantasm of Modern Consciousness of the subject ‘self’ (per Luther and Kant), as well as the diremption of hegemonic concepts (per Martin Heidegger). I will further discuss Nature as the law of authenticity and provenance within the twentieth-century art market as discussed in Anthony Amore’s The Art of the Con, Arne Birkenstock’s documentary, Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery, as well as articles from Deutsche Welle (DW) and Times Magazine, and then define diremption as the self-reflexive gaze as discussed in Martin Heidegger’s essays from Basic Writings and Schurmann’s interpretation of Heidegger’s text, Contributions. While I am of the opinion that Beltracchi is operating under the particulars of laws and ‘ethics of naturality’ (via Roman Stoicism), he is also operating outside of Nature and into the narration of singularity that contradicts the Hegemonic Fantasm of Modern Consciousness. I will argue that Beltracchi utilizes the fantasm of the art market to operate within the fantasm of forgery and, in doing so, becomes an ‘obedient spirit that lets itself be broken’ and re-subsumed by art itself.

Rhetorical Construction of COVID-19 News in Chinese Context—A Corpus-Based Study

As a language practice, news discourse is rhetorical that responds to a given circumstance and conveys values and ideas to the target audience with specific goals. This study examined how the English official website in China represented COVID-19 news to affect the public under the rhetorical framework. Using Sketch Engine as the tool for data analysis on a self-built corpus, this study carried out a quantitative analysis of the linguistic features of the COVID-19 news on In Zhejiang, the official English website of China’s Zhejiang Province. Then, based on the data obtained from corpus analysis, this study applied both modern and classical rhetorical theories to conduct a qualitative analysis of the rhetorical mechanism, including rhetorical invention, rhetorical strategies, and style, of the COVID news on the website of In Zhejiang. The results showed that the COVID-19 news was a positive response to the COVID situation in Zhejiang province and China with the purposes of mobilizing the citizens and establishing favorable images of the government and the Zhejiang people. Meanwhile, the news was constructed within its cultural context and Chinese journalism conventions, making it more adapted to the home audience and limiting its appeal to a global audience and effectiveness for worldwide communication. By demonstrating that news discourse is a rhetorical construction, this study provides valuable insights for the news media, particularly Chinese official media, on how to approach the audience rhetorically to improve the persuasiveness of their news reports, as well as a new theoretical framework for the research of public health crises.

The visual and narrative rhetoric of mental health in Gris

Interdisciplinary game studies have long been fascinated by video games and their potential to improve mental health. Despite this interest, there is not yet a cohesive rhetorical framework to connect conversations about mental health with specific types of games. Following call to adopt the term ‘cosy’ for games which inspire feelings of safety in players, encourage self-actualization and utilize soft aesthetics helps clarify discussions of the games suited to help improve mental health and allow players to process complex emotions. This article uses a close reading of the Nomada Studios game Gris to argue that considering cosiness when studying the connection between games, emotion and mental health will help researchers find a connection between game aesthetics and the types of psychological issues that a game can address effectively.