Rhetorical Style Research Articles

The Causal Effect of Candidate Extremity on Citizens’ Preferences: Evidence from Conjoint Experiments

Abstract Previous studies demonstrate that politicians’ issue positions and rhetorical style have grown increasingly extreme. It remains unclear, however, whether extremity pays off electorally. Using two preregistered conjoint experiments conducted in the United States (N = 2,006) and Israel (N = 1,999), we investigate whether citizens reward or penalize candidates for taking extreme positions (i.e., proposing radical solutions to societal problems) and using an extreme rhetorical style (i.e., communicating in a way that signals rigidity and dogmatism). The results are consistent in showing that extremity is costly for candidates. Across countries, citizens penalize both in-party and out-party candidates for both extreme positions and an extreme rhetorical style, and the average penalty for being extreme is a 16-percentage-point decrease in candidate support. Our results are in line with scholarship demonstrating that citizens disapprove of elite extremity. They also indicate that citizens react independently to elites’ substantive policy positions and their communication style.

Carnival, charisma, and kayfabe: The delegation of intellectual labor through ludic layering in Donald Trump's rhetorical style

AbstractThe many aberrations of Donald Trump's political career are important to analyze not only with regard to the state of the union but also for how they challenge existing theories of rhetoric, power, and performance. Among the studies conducted during and after Trump's presidential term to explain his persistent appeal to millions of Americans, scholars have constructively focused on his particular style of authoritarian populism, his revival of a premodern form of charisma, and his entanglements with professional wrestling. Taken together, these theoretical foci inform my approach to an underexamined subset of Trumpian utterances: those that simultaneously evoke entirely incompatible meanings, from the frivolous to the aggressive. Examining a series of such perplexing verbal and visual rhetorical moments through the lenses of the carnivalesque, the berserk charismatic, and the fractal fictions of kayfabe, I develop a theory of the delegation of intellectual labor through ludic layering that accounts for some of the power of Trump's rhetorical performances and is potentially applicable to understanding polyvocality in other populists' rhetoric. I further show how this concept suggests improvements on existing recommendations for listening to and reporting on an authoritarian figure like Trump.

Wittgenstein’s Movements of Thought and the Socratic Tradition of Philosophy

By situating Wittgenstein's handwritten manuscripts in the Socratic tradition of philosophy, I argue that contrary to Wittgenstein's misjudgement about the role and impact of the Socratic conception of philosophy, his own way of doing philosophy has much in common with that of philosophers in the Socratic tradition in terms of orientation and rhetorical style. Focusing on Movements of Thought, the latest edition of Wittgenstein's Koder Diaries, I argue that the convergence of philosophical and personal remarks in Wittgenstein's handwritten manuscripts is the result of writing in the form of hypomnemata or private notes or exhortations to the self with the intention of capturing the movements of thought and working on oneself. Reading the Socratic dialogues, one has the feeling: what a frightful waste of time! What's the point of these arguments that prove nothing & clarify nothing. (Wittgenstein 1980: 14; 1998: 21)

Pedagogical Technique in Brown’s The Da Vinci Code Contrasted With Gaarder’s Sophie’s World

This article is a comparative and critical study, presenting Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code in relation to Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. The pedagogical matter in Sophie’s World is quite clear, nonetheless, this paper displays the possibility of pedagogy in The Da Vinci Code as well. Both novels contain a form of historical facts and philosophical knowledge with the purpose of educating the audiences. This article aims to analyze The Da Vinci Code and Sophie’s World from a pedagogical perspective in which Brown highlights a variety of notions when analyzing historical facts, to teach or explain to the woman Sophie, things which the reader comes to realize, are strongly desired for her to understand. This helps to display the types of sources of information people have access to nowadays. Gaarder also uses a unique technique to simplify different and difficult ideologies to be easily acquired by readers. Moreover, this paper intends to find answers to the questions of whether Gaarder has succeeded in keeping readers engaged in the imaginary story ‘Sophie’s World’ or whether the pedagogical narration impacts their engagement. There may be a constraint in how far Gaarder can use the pedagogical teaching in his novel. The authors force rhetorical style throughout the novels. This scholastic approach highlights a clear and effective explanation but this seems to take readers directly back to their role as students, which is quite passive. These philosophical interpretations might take readers out of the novel and show that the passage between imaginative and pedagogical teaching is more complex than it appears. Brown, in his novel The Da Vinci Code, uses a conspiracy thriller as a subgenre of thriller fiction to show philosophical interpretations of historical facts.

'Laughing at us'

That Donald J. Trump won the US Presidential Election of 2016 defied the expectations of almost all seasoned observers of the US political system. Scholarly explanations stress structural factors that produced a substantial cohort of identity-vulnerable voters in tandem with Trump’s personal populist appeal. Trump benefitted from his political outsider status, celebrity familiarity, heteronormative masculinity, and unconventional rhetorical style including humour, all of which were amplified (and also mocked) by extensive mainstream news media coverage. Trump’s distinctive political use of the social media micro-blogging platform Twitter (now known as X) in engaging those cohorts has also been emphasized. The research presented here sits at the confluence of prior scholarly work on structural causes of identity vulnerability, on contestation involving humour, and on the enhanced political usage of Twitter. It examines the historical record of Trump’s tweets and re-tweets to see if and how the demarcation of his ‘humour brand’ affectively engaged his substantial Twitter followers and may thereby have contributed to his electoral success in 2016.

Alienation, Ferocity, and Rhetoric of Confusion in Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party

Printer’s ‘The Birthday Party’ has received considerable recognition among literary critics over the last decade. This is mostly due to the fact that Pinter abandons the traditional portrayal of characters. Many critics, however, scarcely paid attention to the significance of the characters’ linguistic style, particularly, the extent the players’ rhetoric is used as a means for confusion and manipulation. As this research explains, Printer’s play exposes the ferocious and confusing functions of language beyond its normal function as a means of productive communication. To do so, the research concisely analyses the rhetorical style of the two main antagonists in The Birthday Party as they try to control and manipulate the main protagonist linguistically. The play also, as the research explains, reveals the link between the lack of communication among characters in a domestic space and the development of a sense of loss and alienation by the main protagonist.

Unethical Peer Review

ABSTRACT This paper calls for greater ethical standards in the peer review process. Critical analysis through the lens of the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers is performed on two reviews received on different versions of a paper from two different journals. Both are relentlessly negative. Neither is executed ethically. No justifiable significant criticism is evident. Both appear influenced by confirmation bias. One is characterized by apparent misreading of both the paper and the reviewer’s sources, plus failure to check criticism was valid. The rhetorical style of the other diminishes clarity, introduces ambiguity, and bewilders. It conveys overwhelming negativity with no supporting substance. This paper is the first to contribute to this theme in both the accounting and the accounting history literature. It is hoped it will encourage reviewers to be ethical, that it results in unethical reviews being more readily detected, and authors being better equipped to address reviewer comments.

Revisiting the rhetorical construction of political consent

Abstract How political leaders construct consent is a constant theme of studies in political rhetoric and theories of persuasion. We explore how populist linguistic strategies combine with traditional consensus-building to align populations with the speakers’ messages. We observe similarities and differences in discourse strategies across two contrasting polities, the UK, a foundational modern representative democracy and Russia, which is considered more autocratic. The data comes from speeches given by Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin during the Covid-19 crisis. They were analysed using Corpus Linguistics, compared in qualitative analysis that identities key lexico-grammatical features. The findings show a convergence in some of the strategies and linguistic styles, but also key differences which, we suggest, depend on cultural factors specific to the two nations. The results contribute to our understanding of the operation of these resources in modern political discourse, highlighting the way cultural factors influence rhetorical styles in very different political structures.

Providing evidence for a well-worn stereotype: Italians and Swedes do gesture differently

Across cultures and languages spontaneous speech is often accompanied by gestures. It is a popular belief that people in Italy gesture more than people in Northern Europe, such as in Sweden. Despite this general assumption few studies empirically investigate cultural differences in gesture frequency and gesture function under similar circumstances. This study compares the spoken and gestural behaviours of Italian and Swedish speakers, assumed to represent gesture-rich vs. gesture-sparse cultures. We examine the groups' gestural behaviour for frequency, and in terms of possible differences in rhetorical style probing the distribution of gestural functions (referential vs. pragmatic) across narrative levels (narrative, metanarrative, and paranarrative). The results show that (1) Italians overall do gesture more than Swedes; (2) Italians produce more pragmatic gestures than Swedes who produce more referential gestures; (3) both groups show sensitivity to narrative level: referential gestures mainly occur with narrative clauses, and pragmatic gestures with meta- and paranarrative clauses. However, the overall group preferences for different functions still lead to different styles. These findings indicate that the two groups differ in gesture rate and, more interestingly, in rhetorical styles, one focused on events and actions in speech and gesture (Swedish), the other alternating between events in speech and gesture, and the highlighting of the presentation of new pieces of information in gesture only (Italian). We propose that the findings suggest that the two groups conceptualise narrative production in different ways reflected in two different rhetorical styles revealed by gesture production more than by speech.

The Inclusion of Actions that Implies the Meaning of the Verbal Action in the Holy Quran and its Interpretative Connotations

This research addresses a portion of the inclusion of actions specifically related to the inclusion of the verb - such as "inspired" and "called" - to convey the meaning without its explicit mention. The research constitutes a foundational Quranic study of this topic that serves Islamic studies students and anyone interested. The significance of the research lies in exploring these actions, which amounted to forty-five verbs, and indicating the signs of including actions for the meaning of speech. It follows an inductive and descriptive-analytical approach aimed at distinguishing between the inclusion of the verb for the meaning of speech and the omission of speech. It also highlights the importance of context in producing these actions. The research focuses on literal aspects of these actions, their rhetorical styles, verbal similarities in their verses, studying them, and explaining their interpretative connotations and their impact on clarifying meaning.

The New Black Right: A Paranoid Turn in Black Conservatism?

Abstract Is there a uniquely Black paranoid style of conservatism, and, if so, how is that style articulated, and what are the potential impacts on conservatism, U.S. politics, and Black people in the coming decades? Despite our theoretical understanding that Black people can support white supremacy, the literature of far-right racism assumes that all white nationalists are white, and all Black nationalists are pro-Black. To address these issues, I use qualitative content analysis of 100 YouTube videos from ten Black conservative influencers. I find there are Black conservatives who express a uniquely nationalist form of paranoid reactionaryism. This style of political rhetoric is characterized by influencers’ claims that: 1) they have experienced status loss, not as Black people, but as moral, patriotic, and Christian Americans; 2) this status loss is the result of a coordinated campaign to weaken the country, traditional values, and Chrisitan hegemony; and 3) the campaigns are carried out by ungodly and un-American people within the country and that acting against them in self-defense is a moral and patriotic necessity. These findings force us to reconsider our approach to studying racism and recognize the agency of Black people who actively promote far right and racist rhetoric.

The Translation of (Jadal)Argumentation (Dialectic) Discourse in the Holy Qur’an into English: An Investigation of the Logical Construction of Dialectic in the Source Text

The present research seeks to investigate the equivalence of translating argumentative topics, which include the dialectic (controversial) style in the Holy Qur’an. It designs to know how the discourse of the Qur’anic controversy is manifested, based on a set of logical arguments and points of view. The research also aims to find out the extent to which the English translations succeeded in conveying the same dialectical logical structure connotation, taking into account the challenges faced by the translators: Hilali, Khan, and Abdel Haleem in translating the meanings of the Holy Qur’an, especially the dialectic style. Therefore, the translator must strive to convey the dialectical discourse with its stylistic features in terms of clarity, accuracy, and objectivity. The study adopts an eclectic method. It is a combination of a semantic approach, text discussion, analysis, and extracting a suggested translation, with applying the back-translation technique. All of this is in light of an applied approach to examples of the Holy Ayat (verses) for the controversial style. The study concluded that translating of the dialectical style and its links represent a real challenge for translators. So, they must resort to consult exegesis (tafsir), rhetoric books and other Arabic sources, in addition to the translation theories to overcome these challenges. The study recommends that the translator of the meanings of the Holy Qur’an must be familiar with the sciences of the Holy Qur’an and the Arabic language, such as interpretation, rhetoric, etc. The translator also need to seek help from language dictionaries to choose the specific meaning of the dialectical style. Moreover, the translator, before embarking on the translation, must consult scholars and experts when submitting a suggested translation. This suggested translation must be emanating from authentic Islamic visions. This due to verify the intended Qur’anic meaning for argumentative (Al-Hajjaj) dialectical and others rhetorical styles.

Rhetorical Styles of the Theoretical Framework in Thesis Reports of English Language Education Students: Problems and Suggested Actions

This paper began with concerns about the lacks of sharp rhetorical styles in writing, the methods of citing references, and the formulations of theories and arguments within the conceptual framework in thesis reports written by students of the English Language Education Department. The study was carried out to explain the rhetorical styles of students’ theoretical framework in their thesis report, to reveal weaknesses or the lack of strong arguments in conveying ideas in a straightforward and structured manner, and to suggest actions to prevent the problem form reoccurring in the future. The data were collected from the final project manuscripts written by students of the English Education Study Program, totaling 110 works. The analysis followed the stages of data collection, data display, data reduction and drawing conclusions. The general results of the research showed that the students did not include too many elements of critical thinking in their thesis literature review. In general, they used attribution quite excessively (78%), followed by elements of establishing links between sources (15%), and comparing their own findings or interpretations with other sources 4%. Meanwhile, the elements of application, evaluation, and statement of use had the smallest portion, each 1%. Problems found in the sample were listed based on the comparison between the data and the standard commonly used to regulate the procedure of writing a scientific paper. Recommendations were then formulated which can be used as guidelines for final project writers or any other parties related to writing scientific papers in general; they are training students of the importance of using all rhetorical styles in their citation when preparing a strong conceptual framework.

The Effect of Rhetorical Styles on Metadiscourse Choices of Culturally Diverse Authors

There is a perception that the influence of culture-specific rhetorical styles means that academic writing can include a great deal of variety. This study aims to test this hypothesis by exploring the role of rhetorical styles in the choice of interactional metadiscourse by academic writers with different cultural backgrounds. Linguistics research article abstracts by L2 writers from Asian and Slavic countries were used in this contrastive study based on Hyland’s (2005a) model of metadiscourse. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis methods, the study revealed that English-language academic discourse by Slavic writers contained a larger number of hedges and attitude markers and a smaller number of boosters. In contrast to Slavic writers, Asian scholars left far fewer traces of themselves and took more explicitly involved positions. The paper contributes to intercultural pragmatics and may have some implications for English as a lingua franca in academic settings.

Enlightenment Rhetoric Reconsidered: Hume’s Discursive Transcendence in “Of Eloquence”

ABSTRACT The phrase “Enlightenment rhetoric” typically denotes discourses bent on rejecting classical oratorical styles in favor of purportedly scientific ones. Likewise, scholars often associate Enlightenment rhetorical styles with the scientific epistemologies that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This article reconsiders Enlightenment rhetoric by analyzing David Hume’s 1742 essay “Of Eloquence.” More specifically, the article argues that the Scottish Enlightenment context necessitated a rhetoric that compensated for the discursive limitations of new scientific worldviews. In so doing, the article argues that Hume verbalizes the transcendent dimension of classical eloquence in ways commensurate with the emphasis on perspicuity emerging in English culture, a rhetorical maneuver that the author calls discursive transcendence. Hume’s “Of Eloquence” thus serves as a case study demonstrating how an Enlightenment writer advanced a rhetoric that both rejects and pulls from prior rhetorical traditions, constituting a new understanding of Enlightenment rhetoric.

RHETORICAL IDEAL AND RHETORICAL IDENTITY. METHODS OF CREATING THE WORLD PICTURE IN ZHYRAU'S POETRY

The article deals with a topical problem - the study of cultural and national identity of Zhyrau poetry. The object of review is the techniques of creating the world picture. Attention is paid to the concepts of the rhetorical ideal and the rhetorical identity. The structure of the rhetorical ideal is analysed in its relation to the author's and national concept sphere. The national world picture is being studied from the position of cognitive methods of the poet's influence on the addressee. The systematisation of rhetorical arguments, strategies and techniques, rhetorical argumentative models is shown in the songs of Zhyrau - Shalkiyiz, Zhiyembet, Aktamberdy, Umbetey, Kaztugan, and Bukhar. Rhetorical word forms and statements have been analysed and their use in communication has been carried out. The scientific ideas of cultural memory have been developed to present a wide range of interpretations of the world in Zhyrau's poetry. The undertaken approach contributes to the understanding of the forms and ways of constructing cultural and national identity. By analysing the world picture in Zhyrau's poetry, it has been shown that the rhetorical ideal is built on the value ideas of the people about family, friendship and unity. The images of nature and the surrounding world explain the wide presence of antithesis, parallelism, and such units of rhetorical style as comparison, hyperbole, and epithets in the system of tropes. The presented experience contributes to the understanding of rhetorical identity and to the description of medieval Kazakh poetry in the aspect of identity.

Mother Ira's Communication Style In Thesis Educational Content On @buiramira's Tiktok Account

Communication style refers to a person's ability to regulate their behavior in sending and receiving messages. Every individual has their way of communicating. A person is unique, and unique is what differentiates him from others because the more interesting the communication style used, the easier the person is to be recognized. This research, which uses the concept of Aristotle's Rhetoric, aims to determine Mrs. Ira's communication style in the thesis educational content on the TikTok account @buiramira. The qualitative descriptive content analysis method was used in this research by carrying out data collection techniques using observation, documentation, and interviews. The research results show that the rhetorical style used by Ira Mira in her educational content is less formal and could be more the Ethos aspect; it can be seen through extensive knowledge and honesty so that the message conveyed can be trusted. The Phatos aspect can be seen through a voice style that makes a lot of nonverbal affirmations. Meanwhile, the Logos aspect can be seen through Ira's mother tongue, which is concise, clear, and easy to understand. Mrs. Ira uses more imaginary expressions and hand movements to emphasize the message in the Logos aspect

Political communication on TikTok: from the feminisation of discourse to incivility expressed in emoji form. An analysis of the Spanish political platform Sumar and reactions to its strategy

In a context of permanent electoral campaign, an increasing number of political communication specialists are trying to unravel the resources with which government officials and their parties seek to influence TikTok users. From a broad perspective, the theme is more current than novel, however, in the specific case of this research, an academic void is identified by combining the identification of idiosyncratic traits of the feminization of political discourse in TikTok with the study of reactions (text and emojis) that audiovisual content imbued with this trend provokes in users. The intention is to find out whether the inclusive tone of the feminized rhetorical style can be extrapolated to the Chinese-origin social network and, if so, whether its particular characteristics mitigate forms of incivility. To carry out the checks, the first seven months of activity on TikTok by the political platform Sumar with its leader, Yolanda Díaz, as the protagonist of most of the videos, are selected. The mixed methodology of analysis on audiovisual content and comments allows to verify that, although the new Spanish party does not apply a strategy perfectly adapted to the social network under study, the anti-polarization rhetoric and the storytelling techniques manage to neutralize extreme forms of flaming.

Presentism, Spectacle, Unreality

Abstract This essay engages the dismissal of presentism and identity politics by the former president of the American Historical Association. In doing so, the essay argues that his essay shares a rhetorical style with other intellectuals and politicians that can aptly be called the spectacle of transgression. The essay argues that this spectacle works to obscure the material conditions of higher education in general and of history in particular.

Elegy in Al-Khansa's poetry: A Study of contrast

this paper: "Lamentations in Al-Khansa's poetry: A Study in Contrast" is an attempt to define Ratha' (elegy) and to understand the rhetorical style of contrast in Al-Khansa's elegies for those who had strong bonds of kinship with her. Using the descriptive and psycho-analytical method.The study begins with an introduction about "elegy" according to poets, writers and critics followed by an attempt to explore contrast in Al-Khansa's poetry and then a critical analysis of her use of contrast in her elegies. The study reached at some conclusions such as the diversity of Al-Khansa's elegies and her view of death as an enemy and