Rhetorical Patterns Research Articles

Reformulation Markers in Spanish and Korean: An Intercultural Rhetoric Study

The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of Spanish and Korean reformulation markers against the backdrop of a contrastive / intercultural rhetoric approach (Kaplan, 1966; Hinds, 1987; Clyne, 1994; Connor, 2008, 2011). In order to carry out the analysis, following a line of previous research papers in Murillo (2007, 2012), an empirical study using Spanish and Korean journalistic corpus was performed. The results obtained demonstrate significant disparity between the use of Spanish and Korean RMs when approached from a linguistic-intercultural rhetoric perspective, more specifically as to the use of double reformulation -the repetition of the Korean markers (jeuk… jeuk… / got… got…)-, some particular rhetorical patterns of the Korean marker got, denoting its cultural idiosyncrasy, and the discourse processes, such as ‘definition’, ‘denomination’, and ‘conclusion’, utilizing the selected markers in the two languages.

The Articulation of Counter-Resistance in Muin Bseiso’s “Footsteps”

The present paper argues that Bseiso’s “Footsteps” is a counter-hegemonic ideological poem. Bseiso employs powerful rhetorical patterns in order to subvert the hegemonic and ideological concepts practiced and promulgated by the Zionist occupation. It also proves that “Footsteps” challenges Zionist colonial and imperial narratives and instills the Palestinian resistance poetry into the core of the national struggle against the Zionist tyranny and injustice. It also proves Bseiso is an organic intellectual in Gramscian terms.

Virtual Exchange Genres: what Can Genre Theories Inform us about the First Synchronous Session?

Virtual exchange or telecollaboration refers to pedagogical practices that connect geographically distant learners who work together towards a common goal. Despite the growing interest in telecollaborative practices and research, few studies have concentrated on investigating the genres that emerge in such contexts. This study shares the understanding that genres are goal-directed events organized in rhetorical patterns and used by members of a discourse community. It aims to explore the first synchronous session between dyads in a telecollaborative project directed to language learning, Teletandem, from a genre perspective. In particular, this paper describes the rhetorical organization patterns of the genre. Data were selected from MulTeC (Multimodal Teletandem Corpus) and comprise transcripts of ten initial Teletandem Oral Sessions (itos) – the first synchronous encounter – from three learning scenarios, which were held in Portuguese and English and recorded between 2012 and 2015. The research involved analyzing each transcript to describe the genre patterns and discuss the specificities in itos organization relative to the learning scenarios. Results show that itos has a flexible and scenario-dependent structure in which the actions of greetings and introduction, information exchange, negotiation, and saying goodbye are prevalent.

Analysis of Language Arts in Japanese Language and Literature in a Cross-Cultural Context

In the contemporary era of rapid globalization, cross-cultural communication has had a profound impact on the language arts of Japanese language and literature. This paper explores the language arts in Japanese language and literature from the perspective of cross-cultural communication, focusing on how different cultural elements have been integrated into Japanese language and literature under the background of globalization, and how this integration has changed the use of vocabulary, syntactic structure, rhetorical patterns and expressive techniques, and the creation of contexts and the construction of imagery in the Japanese language. Cross-cultural influences have not only led Japanese language and literature to innovate in form but also to become richer and more precise in conveying deep cultural and emotional expressions. The significance of these changes for future research and practice of Japanese language and literature is conducive to the promotion of intercultural understanding and communication through literature. These findings not only enhance the appreciation of Japanese language and literature but also strengthen the role of literature as a bridge in global cultural exchange.

The Impact of AI Models on Students' Writing Competence and Writing Motivation in the Context of Learning German as a Foreign Language in India

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education may encourage instructors to rethink their teaching methodologies. However, due to the rapid advances in technology, the involvement of digital agencies in education has increased manifold. This paper seeks to discuss the implications of such agencies for academic writing in German. Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is an artificial intelligence-generated text (AI-generated content) model that is based on artificial intelligence (AI). This paper uses a case study to explore the impact of ChatGPT on students' writing competence and writing motivation in the context of learning German as a foreign language in India. The results of this case study indicate that two factors become most challenging for Academic Writing in a Foreign Language (FL): "Limited Experience" and "Personal Writing Style". The findings of this study confirm the prevalence of cross-cultural rhetorical patterns and reinforce the importance of the setting of writing. The paper also analyses the role of manual human agencies in teaching as well as learning Academic Writing in foreign languages.

Challenges in Achieving Coherence and Cohesion: A Discourse Analysis of Chinese EFL Students’ Essays

This paper aims to highlight the prevalent challenges faced by Hong Kong Chinese students in utilizing connectives and ensuring coherence in their English academic writing. Research indicates that constructing fluent, effective, and cohesive English written texts that maintain logical flow poses a significant challenge for Chinese learners studying English as a foreign language (EFL). This difficulty is likely attributed to the substantial cultural differences between the English and Chinese languages, regardless of the learners’ grasp of English grammar and vocabulary usage. In order to raise awareness among EFL teachers regarding the struggles Chinese students encounter in mastering connectives and cohesion in English writing, this qualitative study analyses five sample English term papers written by Hong Kong university students majoring in English in 2023. The findings reveal that the Hong Kong EFL participants tend to present their arguments in an indirect and circular manner within their English essay assignments. Additionally, due to cultural norms and politeness, the true intent of their writing is often withheld, and the thesis statement is implicitly inferred towards the end of the essay rather than being explicitly stated at the beginning in the introduction. Furthermore, a focus group interview with the student participants conducted after the written analysis demonstrated that their English academic essays reflect the influence of Chinese social interaction norms on rhetorical patterns. The relevance of this study lies in its potential to inform EFL instruction, enabling educators to better support Hong Kong Chinese students in navigating the complexities of English academic writing and to adapt pedagogical approaches that bridge cultural and linguistic gaps.

Nuclear zelus: climate-oriented imaginaries among nuclear energy professionals

ABSTRACT This essay engages rhetorics of zeal, a common genre of contemporary discourse that merits further study. To focus on a representative example, we draw from multi-sited rhetorical fieldwork at nuclear science conferences and supplementary texts, examining the rhetoric of nuclear professionals’ zealous advocacy of nuclear power as a response to climate change and energy poverty. A common set of arguments appears throughout our texts: jealousy or envy over renewable energy technologies; protectiveness over perceived unfair policy treatment; love or devotion for nuclear energy as a savior technology; and passion or zeal to share the story of nuclear support with others. To describe these and similar rhetorics, we theorize the nuclear zelus trope. Drawing from the mythological and etymological history of the term “zeal,” zelus rhetorics are characterized by a general narrative of passionate advocacy. Through a series of rhetorical patterns that channel passion into a call to action, nuclear zelus names white savior and racialized tropes that position nuclear energy technology as a global savior and supporters of nuclear energy as driven by a sense of righteousness. The conclusion addresses implications for further understanding zeal as an important rhetorical frame across various contexts.

The Significance of Ijaw Linguistic Features in Ebi Yeibo's The Fourth Masquerade

Stylistics is a branch of linguistic studies, which uses the linguistic features in analysing literary texts and other works of art. Stylistics is also seen as the academic study of styles, where a scholar can look at the language and style of any author he chooses to study. This research work looks at the Ijaw linguistic features Ebi Yeibo employs in The Fourth Masquerade to send his intended messages to his readers. The work's title is The Significance of the Ijaw Linguistic Features in Ebi Yeibo's The Fourth Masquerade. The Ijaw linguistic features are identified and interpreted to the readers. The theoretical frameworks chosen as guides to the study are: Leo Spitzer's Philological Circle and Geoffrey N. Leech's Style as Deviation models. The study adopts the Qualitative Approach as the methodology because it is interpretative, descriptive, analytic and evaluative in nature. The aim of the study is to project the fact that code-mixing and code- switching are veritable linguistic tools in a language contact situation. The data of the study is collected through primary and secondary sources, which include: the careful reading of the primary texts, excerpts from a personal interview with the author, and comments from other critics. The work is significant to both researchers, scholars, critics and the society in general because it reveals that an analysis of a literary text from a linguistic standpoint is possible. The study explicates that Yeibo uses lexical borrowings, Ijaw idioms/proverbs, native rhetorical patterns, semantic extension and dislocation, etc. to address the themes of corruption, oppression, poverty, protest, bureaucratic inefficiency of government and institutional and moral decay of the Niger Delta.

Relay interpreting (chongyi) as auspicious rhetoric in discourse on China-bound diplomatic visits

Abstract Interpreting is considered no more than a technical necessity in modern times. Yet millennia ago, China-bound relay interpreting, chongyi 重譯, could symbolize auspiciousness, often foreshadowed via anomalies in plants or astrology. Its subtle ideological associations can be inferred by analyzing related tokens of usage. Drawing on texts and treatises circulated and written before seventh-century China, this article reports, from a close analysis of four texts, a rhetorical pattern on the formulaic references to chongyi. Interestingly, these texts all depict “diplomatic visits to China through chongyi” as an event validating an auspicious sign in nature spotted earlier. My analysis suggests that the documentation of chongyi bears more of a figuratively auspicious, rather than a sheer mediating, connotation. The elevation of a relay interpreting act to a cultural icon or ideological dimension is ubiquitous in the Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE) writings, which served to leverage the state-sanctioned Confucian and divination overtones to reinforce the emperor’s mandate. This article aims at examining the epistemology and ideology of classical references to chongyi and identifying a rhetorical pattern denoting the conceptual link between chongyi and auspiciousness in the broader Confucian framework.

Sociology of the Contrapuntal: The Holocaust and the Rhetoric of Evil

The essay dwells on the construction of a sociology of the contrapuntal that revolves around the social and symbolic patterns concerning the representation of mass human annihilation, as in the case of the Holocaust. In this view, Roger Silverstone’s metaphor of media contrapuntuality – inspired by the analysis of some narrative masterpieces focused on imperialistic and colonial exploitation – may support the development of a sociological pathway supporting the analysis of the “rhetoric of evil” historically permeating the reflection on the refusal and the oppression of Otherness. Contrapuntuality deals with communication, memory and identity, since the rhetoric patterns of media discourse are shaped not only by the negative issues, but also by good deeds and intentions that rarely are attractive to journalists. The proposal of such a sociology of the contrapuntal, inspired by the counterbalance of good and evil in the public sphere, complies with the increasing complexity of our mediascapes, in which mass massacres and identity annihilation, including the Holocaust, are constantly media represented, in line with the need to contrast cultural marginalization and existential displacement.

Genre Structure and Writer Identity in EFL Students’ Application Letters

Writing for academic and professional purposes has been increasingly challenging for applicants as it requires a certain degree of proficiency to promote themselves as potential workers in the desired position. Considering the significance of English as the global lingua franca, there is an increasing need to ensure that formal writings, in different fields and contexts, adhere to the generic and linguistic standards necessary for effective written communication. This study presents an examination of genre features and rhetorical strategies of job application letters written by Tunisian Business students. More specifically, it intends to investigate how far novice non-native English candidates are able to successfully use the genre components and persuasive strategies of the target language. A corpus of 30 undergraduate job application letters was subject to move analysis, using top-down approach, basing on Khan and Tin’s (2012) model as an analytical framework. The results indicated that the participants showed different types of rhetorical patterns preferences used in various sequences and frequencies to articulate the same communicative purpose of the genre. The analysis revealed also that Addressing, Establishing credentials and Ending politely proved to be the most preponderant moves in the corpus. Yet, although the majority of applicants have commonly attempted to use an appropriate schematic structure in writing their job application letters, most of them failed to prove any creativity in elaborating their unique characteristics and achievements. The paper concludes with the possible linguistic and pedagogical implications of the study.

Rhetoric and semiotic systems in the analysis of Baroque secular instrumental music

Statement of the problem. The issue of musical rhetoric has not lost its relevance for musicologists for almost a century. Unfortunately, early treatises do not provide a clear definition of this subject. Therefore, during the process of developing perceptions about it, some stereotypes have emerged, which have led to misunderstandings that require analysis and explanation. One of these stereotypes is the consideration of rhetoric as a semiotic system. Recent research and publications. The chosen problematicy has determined the reference to four groups of studies. The first group includes the works focusing on the subject of semiotics, the relationship between semiotics and music, and critical comparative views on the semiotic system (Dunsby, 1983; Turino, 1999; Dahl, 2019). A thorough critical analysis of various methodological approaches to semiotic concepts is presented in the studies of N. Cook (1996) and K. Guczalski (2005). The second group comprises important historical “rhetorical” treatises, without which it is impossible to develop an appropriate approach to the problems of musical rhetoric (Nucius, 1613; Kircher, 1650; Bernhard, 1660; Printz, 1678; Praetorius/Lampl, 1957; Mattheson/Lenneberg, 1958). The third group of researches consists of modern works, in which musical rhetoric is considered as a set of rhetorical figures with certain symbolic sense (Cameron, 2006; Komenda, 2010; Popova, 2015; Zgółka, 2016; Lebedev, 2016; Bashmakova, 2017). And the last group contains research works with a critical approach to stereotypical interpretations of musical rhetorical figures. G. G. Butler (1977) examines the musical processes related to the use of figures taking in account the rules of Dispositio canon. R. Callahan (2010) and B. Karosi (2014) explore the figures as a component of improvisation. B. Vickers (1984) considers it reasonable and logical that the greatest attention of scholars was paid to the rhetorical canon Elocutio, which operates with rhetorical patterns, but takes a critical approach to the use of verbal and rhetorical terminology in music. The analysis and comparison of the aforementioned studies allows to refute the idea of the expediency of absorption of the rhetorical system by the semiotic one. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to differ the systems of rhetoric and semiotic through the demonstration that rhetoric is not just a set of rhetorical figures with a certain semantics, but can be interpreted as a system of composition (poetics). Separating the perceptions of rhetoric from the semiotic projections, determining rhetoric as a holistic system and highlighting the differences between these two spheres actualizes the topic of the study. Such an analytical approach is first realized on the example of chamber music and Concerto for violins without bass by G. Ph. Telemann. The study involves the use of historical, comparative, semantic, and typological methods. Results and conclusion. The study has shown that musical rhetoric is a much wider concept than a semiotic system, as it includes the principles of composition, performance issues. It appears to be a clear canonical structure, on the basis of which an appropriate comprehensive analysis of the composition can be made and a convincing performance version can be prepared. Rhetorical figures, the presence of which is not denied, in contrast to a “sign” or “symbol”, do not have a stable semantic meaning, but rather obtain it only in the context of style, genre, harmonic, counterpoint and other forms of expression. Semiotics is currently presented as a collection of methods with numerous options and ways of understanding and interpreting them. Based on the statements above, we come to the conclusion that rhetoric cannot be interpreted as a semiotic system, therefore, in the process of analysis Baroque music, it does not seem necessary to turn to semiotics. However, if a scholar or interpreter considers this approach reasonable, this should not deter them from attempting to gain a deeper knowledge of a musical work and from referring to various concepts, which, nevertheless, are subject to argumentation. We also do not exclude the possibility of further separate research on this particular aspect.

Verbal and visual resources in graphical abstracts: Analyzing patterns of knowledge presentation in digital genres

Nowadays, open science communication is facilitated with the affordance of multimodal semiotic resources. Against this backdrop, graphical abstracts have emerged as a digitally mediated genre and have become an important means of knowledge communication in academic settings. While its interactive visual designs have been discussed in the literature, the rhetorical patterns of verbal and visual resources used in this genre warrant more empirical investigation. Therefore, based on a corpus of 90 graphical abstracts from journals in biology, chemistry and engineering, this study explores the organizational use of verbal and visual resources to mediate knowledge presentation. Five moves were identified in the textual components of the graphical abstract: reference to visuals, research background, report of results, interpretation of results, and implications or applications of the research. Furthermore, we examined what and how contents are visualized in the graphical abstracts. We found that the most visually displayed contents are the results and the overview of research, and that the duplication of pictures in the full article is a dominant source of the graphical abstracts. Additionally, the most commonly used layout patterns in the graphical abstracts are narratives or ‘evolutions’.

Is stylistics a hard science? Intersubjective positioning in Language and Literature research article abstracts between 2013 and 2022

The extent of authorial intervention in research writing is partly a personal expression of individuality but largely an attempt to demonstrate disciplinary affiliation and attain disciplinary recognition in the form of publication and citation. To reach this goal, writers draw upon discourse practices and rhetorical patterns that circulate within the discourse community. Using Hyland's model of interaction in academic discourse, the present study explores patterns of personal and interpersonal intrusion (aka stance and engagement) in abstracts of research article by stylisticians. The objective is to examine whether stylisticians' textual and rhetorical choices intersect more with the disciplinary practices of the soft or hard disciplines. To this end, I use the LancsBox corpus analysis tool to compile a corpus of 181 research article abstracts drawn from the Language and Literature journal, which publishes theoretical and empirical research in stylistics, and search for frequencies of stance markers and engagement features in the corpus. Findings from the corpus-assisted analysis are set against frequent patterns of academic interaction in the soft and hard disciplines in order to determine if stylistics can be claimed to be a hard science.

Nepal’s Diplomacy through Rhetorics at UNGA

The paper concentrates on investigating Nepal’s Diplomacy through rhetorics. To do so the discourse of the diplomatic speeches presented by Nepal in UN general assembly are critically examined. A special category of communication known as the language of diplomacy is employed in all kind diplomatic endeavors. Diplomatic language is formal, accurate, disciplined, and is mindful of its use of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary to make it easier for people of all nationalities and cultures to communicate clearly and effectively. Euphemisms or indirect language is employed to communicate to avoid aggressive language which can be offensive. Respecting all cultures is must hence diplomatic language is culturally sensitive. Diplomatic discourse is fundamental device to cultivate global cooperation and resolve differences. The paper essences on primarily exploring the speeches of Nepal’s Statespersons: Minister of Foreign Affairs Chuda Nath Sharma (1958), Prime Ministers BP Koirala (1960),Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bist (1968) and Sailendra Kumar Upadhyay (1988) at UN General Assemblies respectively from the lenses of critical discourse analysis. Hence, it confines itself within the speeches (the selected primary texts), their rhetorical patterns, contents delivered through diplomatic language, their domestic ideology and power politics.

Are Zhuzi contentious? A rhetorical investigation of speech/word radicals in ancient Chinese texts

Abstract In communication, rhetors are inclined to employ contentious rhetorical modes designed to win or compete. Consequently, noncontentious rhetorical modes, such as invitational rhetoric, are underappreciated. This study fosters a better understanding of the rationale and possibility of noncontentious rhetorical modes rooted in texts by traditional Chinese intellectuals. We identify, classify, and interpret indigenous terms identified with speech/word radicals in nine Chinese philosophical classics across five major schools of thought in ancient China using a corpus-driven approach and key concepts of rhetorical studies to delineate the pattern, components, and modes of ancient Chinese rhetoric. The results show that (1) characters with speech/word radicals in ancient Chinese texts follow a pattern between rank and frequency; (2) basic components of rhetorical acts in ancient China can be described based on these terms, and characteristic rhetorical components are identified upon similarities and differences among five schools of thought; and (3) studying rhetorical modes of ancient Chinese rhetoric with speech/word radicals reveals that intellectuals in ancient China adopted both the contentious modes and the noncontentious modes of rhetoric. This study also demonstrates the possibility of studying semantic radicals in texts through digital methods to delineate ancient Chinese rhetoric.

Framing, moral foundations and health taxes: interpretive analysis of Ethiopia’s tobacco excise tax policy passage

BackgroundIn 2019–2020, the Ethiopian government ratified a suite of legislative measures that includes levying a tax on tobacco products. This study aims to examine stakeholders’ involvement, position, power and perception...

False Identities and Interpretations of Paganism in Russian History: Between the 21st and 12th Centuries

The paper investigates the problem of the national identity and modern attempts of its deconstruction. Neopaganism as a serious challenge to Russian and all-Russian identity is examined. The author believes that the main danger lies in the fact that neopagan concepts are rooted in the discourse of the national museum, cultural and educational communities. The paper provides examples of successful dissertations that, from the author’s point of view, cater for the idea of a real change of identity among Russian residents, including schoolchildren. The so-called modern Merya ethno-futurism movement is described, which promotes the abandonment of the Russian identity by the inhabitants of Central Russia and its substitution with some supposedly real traditions of the Finno-Ugric Merya tribal union. This union actually disappeared almost a thousand years ago. The author believes that modern neopagan developments are largely based on the reconstruction of Slavic paganism made by researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Those, in turn, relied on a number of written sources. The author proves the necessity to subject these literary monuments to new critical studies, verifying the reliability of the information about Slavic paganism contained therein. For example, he draws research conclusions on the basis of ancient Russian morals (preaching). However, these morals were compiled by the Old Russian scribes who were centuries apart from the time of the baptism of Russia, received a pro-Greek education in a monastic environment and strictly adhered to Byzantine rhetorical patterns. One example is the well-known Word (Slovo) about Idols. As a result, these morals, from the author’s point of view, cannot give a real picture of Slavic paganism. The author shows the reasons for the emergence of false pseudo-historical literary myths about Slavic paganism in the Laurentian Codex and the Legend of the Construction of the City of Yaroslavl. He believes that the modern neopagan identity, actively planted not only by marginals, but also by representatives of the cultural and educational community, relies in reality on literary myths generated by carriers of the non-Russian identity of the past.

Anti-Transgender Ideology, Laws, and Homicide: An Analysis of the Trifecta of Violence

In this study we explore homicides and fatal violence against transgender individuals using the framework of the trifecta of violence—violent ideology, violent policies and laws, and violent actions. In recent years, researchers, activists, and the media, particularly the news media, have been warning that the increase in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, especially but not exclusively online, coupled with a surge in anti-transgender legislation, has resulted in increased instances of violence against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people. In this article we examine patterns of transphobic ideology and rhetoric, anti-trans legislation, and fatal violence against transgender people in the United States from 2015 to 2022. We find that increases in all three occurred over this time period, with all three aspects of the “trifecta” correlated.

Online collaborative writing in an online EFL writing class

Most learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) consider writing a challenging task, and they experience difficulties such as organizing thoughts, selecting relevant words to represent their views, and producing rhetorical patterns specific to the target culture. Research into L2 writing suggests that collaboration in the classroom can assist students to set goals, generate ideas, write and edit, and reflect on the task. The effects of collaboration in online classes, however, remain unknown. This quasi-experimental study aims to examine the effect of online collaborative writing (OCW) in an online EFL writing class on students’ writing performance in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, and fluency. A four-week OCW intervention was carried out with 26 university students enrolled in an online English writing course at A2 level in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Data were collected using writing tasks administered as pre- and post-tests. Fluency, syntactic and lexical complexity were measured and analyzed across tasks. The results showed that OCW in an online EFL writing course improved the lexical complexity and fluency of the writings of students with an A2 level of English proficiency but had no effect on their syntactic complexity. Based on the findings, it is possible to conclude that OCW can be employed to promote students’ writing performance in online EFL classes.