Rhetorical Devices Research Articles

Framing the shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in English and Arabic news headlines: a critical discourse study

The study aims to investigate the ideological manipulation of language within news media headlines regarding the killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. This study employs Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive model of Critical Discourse Analysis to conduct a comparative qualitative analysis of 100 Arabic and 100 English news headlines, exploring linguistic features at both microstructure and macrostructure levels. The analysis delves into identity construction for the victim and perpetrator, revealing the discursive linguistic manifestations of underlying ideologies in two distinct linguistic and cultural contexts. The microstructure analysis reveals the preference of Arabic headlines for active voice structure, rhetorical devices of numeration, emphatic language, and metaphors. On the other hand, English headlines preferred the passive voice structure and the rhetorical device of litotes. The macrostructure analysis unravels the cognitive interplay between news media outlets and their target audience, demonstrating how selective headlines significantly impact public opinion. It shapes their comprehension and interpretation, particularly within the broader context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ultimately, this research highlights the dynamic interplay between language, ideology, and power in news media, offering key recommendations for understanding their comparative impacts.

Hamlet and Inoculation

ABSTRACT This article surveys Shakespeare’s biopolitical thought, with a focus on the semantic feature of “inoculat[ion]” in Hamlet. Today, the word “inoculation” means a way to produce artificial immunity by inserting a pathogenic material taken from an external entity through a small incision. This medical procedure, widely practiced in the eighteenth century, is called inoculation because it was like grafting—mixing one body with another. By using “inoculat[ion]” as a rhetorical device, Hamlet explores the politics of immunity before the dawn of modern immunology. Shakespeare’s work negotiates legal and medical thoughts on immunity: in particular, Hamlet is an intriguing text because it balances two different features of immunity, signifying at once juridical exception (as a signature of sovereign authority) and the negative protection of a body (through the metaphor of corpus politicum). Like the metaphor of inoculation (i.e. grafting), a practice that needs the other’s body, Hamlet shows that the body politic can be secured only when the realm elects the same invading foreign entity. In Shakespeare’s early modern imagination, immunity is not a strict boundary between self and non-self; rather, it is a much more negotiable boundary open to alterity and creaturely existences.

A Stylistic Study of Diraar’s Description of Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib (AS)

Stylistics is the study of the distinctive styles found in particular literary genres and in the works of individual writers. Stylistic analysis is the analysis of various language styles to extract the meaning or message contained in the text. This study focuses on the stylistic analysis of the description of Diraar to Imam Ali (AS). The aim is to examine the linguistic features and techniques employed in the description, shedding light on the stylistic choices made by the author. By analyzing the syntactic structures, lexical choices, and rhetorical devices used, this study aims to uncover the stylistic elements that contribute to the overall effect and impact of the description. The findings of this study show that Diraar’s descriptions of Imam Ali (AS) transcend a mere portrayal; it is a masterful composition that weaves together language, imagery, tone, and paradox to convey the Multifaced nature of this revered figure..

Negative sentiment – a rhetorical device to reconstruct relationships of power (between tribal-ancient and new populist leadership)

This article presents the role of negative sentiment as a tool for re-constructing power relationships in socio-cultural relations as intentionally used by political and religious leaders across cultures. Negative sentiment facilitated the symbolic disempowerment of enemies and was an important part of the anti-language for the creation of a new or alternative reality across cultures and times. Irony, contempt and disgust have played a special role, which despite cultural changes and qualitatively new rules of public life, have returned to the public space in the 21st century due to populist leaders, with the most notable example being the previous president of the USA and global business man, Donald Trump and his leadership. Cross-cultural management as a discipline has been criticised strongly as being blind to power relations. This paper is aiming at advancing the discourse of power relations by connecting it with theoretical reflections of emotions, anti-language discourses and new populist leadership. It provides examples of different eras and cultural contexts. Further, a major aim of this article is to demonstrate that although the toxic anti-language of populists – who have historically and psychologically rooted notions of disgust or contempt – enables them to achieve a powerful position as politicians, business men and leaders, this comes at the cost of a profound destruction of public life and is in fact a form of return to tribal forms of governance that are currently inadequate. The impact of populists can, however, be tempered by the same method, that is by anti-language but with respect and acceptance of difference at its centre.

Anti- Judaic polemics in the Polish sixteenth- century printed books

The author analyzes the features and main directions of the discussion, within the framework of which the Jewish question arose in Polish printed texts throughout the 16th century. Both spiritual and secular authors of this period used religious logic, argumentation and motivation in the narratives of the studied works, which testifies not to the “anti-Jewish” or “anti-Semitic” (ethnogenetic) nature of the polemics, but to its anti-Judaic property. The image of the Jew is important for Polish literature of the Early Modern Period, and the Jewish question occupied a significant place, in particular, in the printed embodiment of this literature (the works of S. F. Klonowicz, M. Rej, P. Skarga, M. Bielski, etc.). However, printed texts that directly appealed to the Jewish readership with proselytizing purposes are quite few in number: the majority of anti-Judaic works published in the 16th century in the territory of the Polish Kingdom were not polemicized with Jews, but with opponents of another Christian confession (pamphlets of Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans and Calvinists against anti-Trinitarians, and so on; the exception is the discussion of M. Czechowicz with Jakub of Bełżyce). Such texts include the works of B. Herbest, J. Górski, W. Neothebel, Grzegorz Pawel of Brzeziny and others. Thus, the main expression of the Jewish question in the Polish press of the 16th century was the intra-Christian polemic, within which the appeal to Judaism either directly arose from the issue under discussion (such as the question of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments), or was used as a rhetorical device in criticizing the opponent.

“Biden’s Saigon”

Abstract This study examined the Russian state-sponsored outlet “Sputnik’s” metaphorical use in covering American withdrawal from Afghanistan to explain rhetorical devices used to disseminate discourse about Russia’s geo-political rival, the United States. Using the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP), the study analyzed 28 main metaphors and metaphorical expressions in “Sputnik’s” coverage during the week of the American pullout. Metaphors such as Biden’s Saigon, puppet government, or Night of the Long Knives suggest the existence of a discourse criticizing the rival and historicizing the event. The results are interpreted in light of using metaphors in the media’s conflict coverage.

Mecelle’nin Külli Kaidelerinde Yapılan Söz Sanatları ve Bunların Yeni Külli Kaide Yazımındaki Örnekliği

The Majallah is of great importance not only because it is the first legal text about Islamic law but also because it is a product of historical significance for Turkish literature. Particularly, the 99 general principles at the beginning of the Majallah are an abstract representation of many issues in Islamic law, expressed through various rhetorical devices. Although the Majallah, one of the rare texts where the relationship between law and literature can be evaluated, has been expressed by different authors to have employed various rhetorical devices in its general principles, no study analyzing them has been encountered. This study aims to identify the rhetorical devices used in the general principles, thereby creating a perspective on which rhetorical devices can be applied in the writing of general principles that will be easily memorized like proverbs, and become part of the vernacular. For this purpose, data was collected using the document review method, and the content analysis method from qualitative research methods was applied. The 99 general principles and the rhetorical devices in Turkish literature were examined together, matching the principles with the relevant rhetorical devices and categorizing them. As a result of the research, 9 different rhetorical devices found in the general principles were identified. Suggestions have been made on which types of legal principles these arts were used in the production and which arts could be utilized in which legal situations in the writing of general principles hereafter. Keywords: The Majallah, general principles, rhetorical devices, law, literature

Toward a rhetorical understanding of Chinese political internet memes amid a Chinese governance crisis

ABSTRACT The global trend of social media communication renders internet memes increasingly popular as democratic-oriented discursive tools in online ideological contests. However, scholarly attention to the rhetorical aspects of memetic political discourse has predominantly been Western-centric, leaving their counterparts in non-Western socio-political environments, especially during times of social crises, relatively unexplored in the existing literature. To bridge this gap, this article employs a social-semiotic-rooted multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) to investigate how Chinese netizens utilize internet memes for ideological contestation during a societal-level Chinese governance crisis in the 2020s, characterized by a series of iconic ideological upheavals. The research examines 357 memes from the “My Post” community on WeChat, one of China’s prominent social apps, to unveil their symbolic processes and rhetorical functions in Chinese online politics. This empirical study reveals that Chinese political internet memes serve as strategic rhetorical devices that: (1) enable civic ideological expressions within an authoritarian media landscape dominated by standardized ideological narratives; (2) foster a dynamic process allowing negotiation among political authority, media institutions, and netizens to establish a discursive space accommodating contentious topics and acceptable compromises; and (3) signify a paradigm shift in rhetorical function, elevating internet memes from online communicative artifacts to a democratic perspective.

A Study of Metaphor Translation Strategies in C-E Translation of The Seventh Day

Purpose: Taking the English translation of Yu Hua s novel The Seventh Day as a case study, this paper analyzes the metaphorical effects in literary works and examines the metaphor translation strategies employed in the English translation of The Seventh Day to provide insights for the metaphor translation. Methodology: Elaborating on the cultural implications of metaphors in the original text and using conceptual metaphor theory as a research framework, specific metaphor translation cases in its English translation are studied. Results: Through the study of the original text of The Seventh Day, it is found that the author employs various metaphorical rhetorical devices, imbuing the work with profound philosophical meanings and cultural nuances. Analysis of its translation reveals that translators utilize various strategies to handle metaphors, balancing the literary flavor and cultural implications with the acceptance of target language readers. However, challenges arise in fully conveying the deep meanings of certain metaphors due to cultural differences and differences in language expression habits. Conclusion: Metaphorical language often carries cultural characteristics. To achieve effective metaphor translation, translators should prioritize serving readers, deeply understand the cultural backgrounds of both source and target languages, and employ flexible translation techniques to faithfully convey the style and emotions of the original work.

The Patterns of Reforming in the Legacy of Al-Imam Al-Sajjad (PBUH):A Rhetorical Pragmatic Analysis

This paper deals with the study of pragmatic strategies and rhetorical devices to demonstrate the patterns of reforming: self,social , and moral reforming in the legacy of Imam Al-Sajjad(pbuh) ,that is represented by prayers and supplications .This heritage combines the spirit of revolution against tyranny and jihadist enthusiasm against deviations in all aspects of life . Imam Al-Sajjad(pbuh) adopts several ways for reforming including preaching ,calling people to have morals , directing people to know the truths ,causes of happiness and misery . These ways are intended to warn people against mindlessness by addressing the mind ,spirit ,and emotion .Hence ,this study focuses on the persuasive discourse in which pragmatics and rhetoric are integrated and aims at investigating the pragmatic strategies and rhetorical devices that are utilized as analytical tools to analyze the supplications and prayers of Imam Al- Sajjad (pbuh) delivered under the topic of reforming . Accordingly ,the study attempts to answer the following questions: What are the pragmatic strategies and rhetorical devices that Imam Al- Sajjad (pbuh) uses in this verbal legacy ? How are the pragmatic and rhetorical devices are utilized to present the idea of reforming ? The study hypothesizes that Imam Al- Sajjad (pbuh) uses many pragmatic and rhetorical devices that contributed significantly to highlight the idea of reforming of all its kinds as a model of stupendous legitmate literature. Additionally ,the rhetoric devices are connected with the three rhetorical appeals: logos ,ethos , and pathos .The study is finalized with some conclusions that these pragmatic and rhetorical devices reflect sympathy , mercy ,and emotional involving through which Al-Imam (pbuh) conveys a reformist message that could be called a message of spirit and insight . It is worth to mention that any translation of Arabic texts within this paper is the researcher's humble effort except the experts.

The weather proxy: the racial technics of algorithmic surveillance

ABSTRACT This article examines the political work performed by the weather within contemporary big data predictive analytics. As a sociotechnical construction, the weather has long served as a predictive medium for forecasting human behaviour across historical contexts in order to reinforce settler colonial and imperial projects of spatial domination. Now, within twenty-first century big data systems, the weather has become a proxy for predicting human activity. Examining industrial materials from the predictive policing software HunchLab and the social media sentiment analysis platform Social Doppler, I argue that the weather proxy underwrites claims to prediction by collapsing the distinction between correlation and causation. Key here is how the proxy remediates the mechanism of impressibility that structured the weather as a racial technique for population management within nineteenth century statistical research. Through the weather proxy, big data programmes channel biopolitical frameworks of impressibility – or impressibility by proxy – in ways that causally bind individual behaviour to group-differentiated vulnerabilities of environmental exposure. At stake is how the weather proxy serves as a universal baseline condition for predicting population-level behaviour, which aims to mitigate accusations of racial bias by deferring to environmental conditions beyond human design. As a cultural construction tied to ubiquity, the weather thus is a rhetorical device that works to legitimate predictive analytics as impartial and universal while simultaneously effacing the violence that inheres within algorithmic technologies. Ultimately, by taking a comparative historical approach to the weather, I argue that we might better grasp the transformations in data science that underpin how ubiquity operates as a site of racial violence within contemporary surveillance systems.

ЛИНГВОПРАГМАТИЧЕСКИЙ АСПЕКТ ИЗУЧЕНИЯ МЕДИАТЕКСТА

The study delves into the linguopragmatic aspects of media texts, emphasizing their significance in shaping public opinion and cultural norms. Media texts are dynamic communication forms that convey messages within specific media formats and genres, necessitating precise semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic accuracy. This article explores key approaches to the linguopragmatic analysis of media texts, identifying their unique characteristics and practical applications. The methods employed include linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, cognitive analysis, and psycholinguistic analysis, aimed at uncovering the interaction between language elements and social contexts. The findings highlight the importance of headlines, rhetorical devices, and interactive elements in engaging audiences and enhancing the pragmatic effect of media texts. The study also underscores the emotional and cognitive impact of media texts on audiences, influencing their perceptions and behaviors. Future research may focus on detailed analysis of specific media text types and their interaction with diverse social and cultural contexts.

What if Nature Fought Back? Multimodal Metaphor in Green Non-Profit/Social Advertising

Creating a conscious environment culture which highlights our commitment to protecting natural resources has been steadily increasing. The use of multimodal metaphor is a crucial rhetorical device for understanding the complexities of the global climate change crisis. More specifically the exploitation of multimodal metaphor in genres such as public awareness campaigns aims at triggering the audience’s attention. In light of this, this paper investigates the use of multimodal metaphor in green non-profit/social advertising to understand to what extent these advertisements may be effective when promoting and encouraging change in behaviour patterns concerning environmental protection and climate change. For this purpose, a corpus of 130 multimodal advertisements containing metaphors on environmental awareness has been investigated. The study uses an adaptation of previous procedures designed for the identification of verbal, visual and multimodal metaphor (Alousque, 2014; Hidalgo-Downing & O’Dowd, 2023; Pragglejaz, 2007; Šorm & Steen, 2018; Steen et al., 2010). Results confirm the effectiveness of metaphorically conceptualising environmental themes such as climate change, global warming, and pollution. Moreover, the findings show that the pragmatic effect of metaphor used by non-profit organisations aims at creating a conscious environment culture, while the majority of the metaphors suggest a mixed or negative evaluation of environmental issues. Further research will include the investigation of metonymy in these campaigns.

How Plastics Came to Pollute the Technical Literature

Today, we know a great deal about how plastics invade the oceans, but we know less about how these same pollutants begin to colonize the world upstream, even before the manufacturing process, when inventors draft their patents. This paper addresses this gap through a textometric study of the corpus of US facemask patents over a century. Patents are highly constrained by specific laws and rules: they must focus on utility, and only on utility, thus preventing moral concerns such as care for the planet from being part of the patenting process. They must also be generic, which prevents them from focusing on specific materials. Despite these limitations, the empirical analysis of our corpus reveals the linguistic tricks and cultural patterns that have allowed plastics, but also health and environmental concerns, to circulate in patents. The use of certain rhetorical devices, such as “preferably” and “or any other suitable material(s),” helps to mention specific materials while preserving the genericity of patents; in addition, the reference to market-based components contributes to externalize environmental and health considerations. As the analysis shows, most of these patterns contribute to deepening the production of ignorance in contemporary societies, although recent developments offer a glimmer of hope: the reference to external pressures for sustainability, or the transformation of the concept of sustainability into a material property, has helped to transform ethical concerns into useful facts, thus facilitating the replacement of plastics with more sustainable materials in the patent literature.

التناص: تحولات الشعرية البلاغية إلى الوظيفة النسقية

The study revolves around the intertextuality orbit in terms of its systemic attachment with cultural critique, where this rhetoric approach assumes a rhetoric capacity that exceeds the deliberative dimensions which are based on showing the poetic aspect of intertextuality and its ability to express the ideas of the text and that is done through creating a new post for it. This post is known as the systemic post and is originally associated with cultural critique and is based on procedural tools designed to create the cultural trick through which the profound meaning is passed. The meaning which Strauss added to the hidden meaning and Iceberger drafted in the underlying structure of the text. The study followed the possibility of this post manifesting itself in Arabic rhetoric and the western intertextuality theory, and did not find a clear impact. Therefore, it assumes that this post is new to intertextuality and this assumption is proven by an applied study which has been conducted on a creative text from the Abbasid Era. This text is Sahl bin Haroun’s letter on stinginess. The research concluded after careful study with results: intertextuality - the rhetorical device known in both Arab and foreign cultures - has a well-known pragmatic function related to the aesthetic and intellectual enrichment of the text linked with various quotations; intertextuality can be utilized in cultural critical studies by establishing the systemic function it possesses. In light of a systemic reading of intertextuality in the message of Sahl ibn Harun on miserliness, it became evident that the writer challenged the image of Arabs by reversing the trait of generosity and placed it on a low moral scale. Therefore, The study recommends following Arabic rhetoric research and studying it within a new vision so that the procedural tools are effective in adopting cultural critique.

The Power to Move the Eiffel Tower: Conceptual Metaphor and Persuasion in L2 Argumentative Writing

This article analyses conceptual metaphors produced in argumentative writing by learners of English as a second language (L2). Founded on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it explores the linguistic metaphorical expressions which reflect an underlying conceptual metaphor. By drawing on Critical Metaphor Analysis, this research adopts a qualitative approach to analysing the concealed motivations behind a conceptual metaphor use. The data of this study comprise five argumentative essay samples collected from foundation year students at a private university in Malaysia. This study reveals how a conceptual metaphor is evoked to frame an argument in a way that is advantageous to the participants, particularly in establishing their stance on the proposition that social media is advantageous rather than disadvantageous to its users. Seven conceptual metaphors identified from the five samples of writing are related to social media, namely global mass gathering, loudspeaker, free society, accommodation, teacher, strong force and maze. While the first six metaphors serve as rhetorical tools to aid the participants in establishing arguments, the last metaphor is raised in the counterclaim section to illustrate how the opposition could equally rely on conceptual metaphors to establish its viewpoint. In instances where the metaphors are deployed as rhetorical devices, the participants’ covert intention to convince readers of their standpoint is achieved by utilising the conceptual metaphors to illuminate abstract ideas, arouse positive or negative emotions in readers, indicate positive or negative evaluations and evoke an ideology.

ARABIC POETRY IN TIMBUKTU DURING THE 19th AND 20th CENTURIES: A MODEL STUDY

The written Arabic literary tradition of the Malian desert in West Africa remains largely unknown to the region's inhabitants and the wider Arab and Islamic world. Despite its distance from the traditional centers of Arabic poetry in the Arabian Peninsula, this literature deserves far more attention than it has received. Unfortunately, it has not been given the scholarly consideration it deserves in the research and studies conducted on this country, which could reveal its unique characteristics as a form of Malian African literature written in Arabic and its undeniable value regarding its scientific, cultural, and historical significance. The people inhabiting the Malian desert, including the Soninke, the Berbers, and particularly the Tuareg tribes, developed an Arabic sensibility and literary flair, leading them to compose works in various genres, including religious, linguistic, and literary texts, all at a high level. They also served as living models for others when writing poetry in classical Arabic. The literary renaissance in the northern Malian region emerged in the first half of the 19th century, spearheaded by poets from prominent Arab tribes such as the Tuareg, the Ansar, and the Kunta, as well as their disciples and the 20th century witnessed the rise of numerous poets who excelled in various literary fields. Tuareg poets have written on different subjects, including love, praise, elegy, description, satire, supplication, and prayer. Their poems incorporate many rhetorical and stylistic devices and are characterized by their beauty and sweetness of style.

Territorial Images of Yorùbáland Cartographic Styles and Symbolic Representation in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

In the nineteenth century, Euro-American maps of Africa in the cultural contact of Europeans and Africans were also rhetorical devices, which articulated the politics of territorial conceptions of the geographical space. I contend that cartographic styles visually prompt alternative territorial perspectives with insights into past geographies. The paper examines three nineteenth-century maps of Yorùbáland in West-Central Africa highlighting cartographic styles, symbolic representations and territorial politics. Through a historical-stylistic analysis, I explore the cultural motivation of map production, their composition and the semiotic evaluation of their representations to stress alternative map appearances. These maps worked in territorial power relations, which highlight map styles as a persuasive element in the social construction of territorial identities and interests. Overall, the paper stresses maps are vital devices in the nineteenth century territorialisation of Yorùbáland, which exemplify the cultural interdependence of Europeans, Americans and Africans.

Gastroimaginaries: a framework for conceptualizing narratives of food and place in the American South

ABSTRACT This article develops the concept of gastroimaginaries – narratives that use food as a rhetorical device to define and encapsulate what are believed to be the essential characteristics of a people, place, and time. The article adapts the concept of social imaginaries – defined by Taylor (2023) as “the ways people imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others … ” – to underscore the significance of food-related narratives for shaping, reinforcing, and potentially contesting regional identity and place-making projects, and for signaling membership within a particular group or imagined community. I apply the gastroimaginary framework to an analysis of food media representations of the American South, arguing that dominant gastroimaginary frames – which emphasize potent but generally uncritical ideas like hospitality and nostalgia – generally elide the realities of food system labor and environmental and other externalities; alternative or subversive gastroimaginaries, however, can both attend to these past and present realities while imagining more radical futures.

The Rhetoric of Irony in the Book of Esther

The Book of Esther is a complex narrative rich in rhetorical devices, with irony being one of its central characteristics. The study delves into the intricate layers of irony that are present in Esther and examines how it functions as a rhetorical tool to convey diverse themes – such as the triumph of the innocents. Through a detailed analysis of situations and key passages, the various forms and purposes of irony employed throughout the text are highlighted. Additionally, by exploring the interplay between dramatic, situational and verbal irony, the paper tries to decipher the profound rhetorical sophistication of Esther and its implications for understanding the narrative's deeper meanings.