Rhetorical Theory Research Articles

From Faces to Feels: The Impact of Human Images on Online Review Usefulness

This research draws upon visual rhetoric theory to investigate the influence of user-generated photos containing human images on the perceived usefulness of online reviews, the mediating role of perceived support, and the moderating effect of rebate disclosure. We conducted six empirical studies, including a social media analytics study and five experimental studies. The results indicate that online reviews containing human images, especially those with facial features, are perceived as more useful than those without, regardless of the reviews’ valence. Perceived support mediates this effect, while rebate disclosure weakens it. This study offers a fresh theoretical perspective and insights into the role of user-generated photos with human images in online reviews. Findings suggest that managers should prioritize visual rhetoric by incorporating human images in their communication with target customers, while also encouraging tourists to include these images in their posts, signifying support for the audience and improving content effectiveness.

Tacitova sentencioznost / Tacitus’ Sententiousness

This work focuses on sententia, a rhetorical element which Tacitus skillfully incorporated into Annals. The introduction provides a brief history of sententia and its definition in ancient and rhetorical theory. As Tacitus belonged to a specific literary style (Seneca’s “new style”), his way of writing was characterized by short and antithetical sentences, stylistic and rhetorical embellishments, unusual word choices, and a predilection for proverbial or sententious observations. Such sententious expression, as a hallmark of the sublime style, reinforced the impression of truth in Annals. In a pessimistic tone, the historian speaks about human greatness as well as weaknesses, and their role throughout history. To better understand Tacitus’ sententiousness, the second chapter discusses the general aspects and specificities of sententiae in Annals. The general aspects include themes and social issues, i.e. social deviations that the historian dealt with in his sententiae. As sententiae were used to reveal deeper truths, their use has been called “rhetoric of disclosure” by some, while others, due to their connection to historical context, call it “sociological rhetoric”. The specificities of Tacitus’ sententiae relate to their form, grammatical-syntactical, and stylistic properties. The third chapter deals with the structuring technique of sententiae in Annals, which in Tacitus’ case, is related to historical context. Their function was to portray various historical personalities, as well as for the historian to express his own view of history. Wth that in mind, they were classified as sententiae in the speeches of historical personalities or sententiae used in direct narration. In addition to classification, a linguistic-stylistic analysis was carried out, revealing many stylistic and rhetorical figures, as well as poetic expressions. Based on the analysis of selected material, certain conclusions about sententiae were drawn. In addition to their moral and ethical content, we noticed the general, as well as specific aspects of sententiae, their structuring technique, function, and classification, as well as their epigrammatic and poetic stylization in Tacitus’ Annals.

Troubling rhetoric: discourse theory and Irish Republican Army narratives (1962–1972)

ABSTRACT This paper examines rhetorical theory and narrative creation in the history of militant Irish Republicanism. The splintering of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was predicated on numerous ideological differences during the 1960s; these shifts were underpinned by modalities of discourse and performative speech. Drawing on Ronald Krebs’ work, the IRA’s internal narrative conflicts from the period of 1962–1972 are analysed. Further, it adapts the philosophy of communicative action to show how discourse – spoken and written – was deployed within the pre-split IRA organization and among the Republican community during the turbulent period of 1968–1970. The ideological changes conducted by IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Goulding and his allies offer opportunities to study the competing nationalist narratives and intra-organizational conflict. This work explores the rhetorical foundations of Goulding’s narrative contestations and argues their ‘moment’ was hampered by self-created political hurdles, due to their modes of linguistic deployment. The further application of discourse analysis – through an examination of ‘resistance communities’ – demonstrates how forms of ‘coercive speech’ allowed the fledgling Provisional Irish Republican movement to adapt during and after the split. These theoretical frameworks add to the historiography of this turbulent period and reassesses the how’s of narrative reformation.

Analisa Jejaring Sosial dan Retorika Deliberatif

The aim of this research is to examine the phenomenon of deliberative rhetoric using the hashtag #SepakatDamai on Twitter to motivate the public. After the tragedy of riots between football supporters at the Kanjuruhan Stadium, it succeeded in triggering public attention and became a trending topic on Twitter. Many football supporters and the general public take an active role in voicing peace to reduce fighting. Through the hashtag #SepakatDamai, the public is persuaded to get involved in carrying out peace agreement actions so that, in the future, there will no longer be any hostility between football supporters. In the end, tweets from actors involved in peaceful demonstrations form social network patterns that can be utilized in deliberative rhetorical actions. The hashtag #SepakatDamai plays a role in mobilizing public opinion support for the peace agreement between football supporters. This discussion emerged spontaneously on Twitter and was widely discussed until it became a trending Twitter topic. This research uses the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method and then connects it with the Digital Movement of Opinion and Rhetoric Theory. This research stage began by determining the most dominant actor in the hashtag #SepakatDamai. After that, the researcher carried out an analysis of the posts made by that actor to determine the rhetorical phenomenon. The results of this research found that the hashtag #SepakatDamai succeeded in mobilizing public opinion about the football supporters' peace agreement. The most dominant actor is @mafiawasit, with a network structure value of degree 1.471, closeness 1.0, betweenness 0.000238, and eigenvector 1.0. The @mafiawasit account carries out deliberative rhetoric for the public by showing the facts that have occurred regarding the peace agreement between football supporters through posts on Twitter and retweeting similar posts so that the public follows the peaceful demonstration.

Strategi Kreatif Konten PPID Kota Semarang Dalam Memperkenalkan Informasi Layanan Melalui Media Sosial Instagram

<p><em>This study focuses on explaining the creative strategies of PPID Kota Semarang in introducing information to the public and to find out the supporting factors and describe PPID information services. Using a qualitative approach method. Using a case study field research strategy, in goal-oriented research to understand the characteristics of individuals and groups, institutions, certain settings in depth. The results of the findings and discussion of the Analysis of the Content Creative Strategy of PPID Kota Semarang in Introducing Service Information to the Public through the Instagram Social Media Platform, several points can be taken, namely the content creative strategy carried out by PPID Kota Semarang, creative idea discovery, content topic discovery, division of labor, content production implementation, information sources or data, content management and content strategy evaluation. Overall, creating a content strategy using Rhetoric theory can help content creators build stronger and more persuasive arguments in their writing. By identifying rhetorical appeals.</em></p>

The theory of rhetoric between the attraction of originality and the temptations of modernity, Abd el-Malik Murtad and Muhammad el-Omari

Recent monetary changes give rise to many new terms and concepts; it is necessary to stand on the terms, adjust their significance, and take note of the circumstances of their development remove interference from the receiver; critical jurisprudence tried to adjust many terms, such as rhetoric, the subject of intervention.

The Retrait of Rhetoric

This article argues that rhetorical theory will never dominate a quasi-originary and ontolg ising rhetoricity that nonetheless calls for it. This rhetoricity is not simply a game played ‘in the world’, to borrow Derrida's phrasing; it is—like writing, like metaphoricity, like the ‘yes-yes’ or (en)gage—one more name for ‘ the game of the world’. To get some traction on this undeclinable yet unmasterable rhetoricity, we’ll examine what Derrida calls ‘a danger of rhetoricism’ in de Man's work, a tendency to overestimate the authority of the linguistic, the verbal, the discursive. The goal is not so much to substantiate Derrida's suspicions about de Man's ‘rhetoricism’ as it is to get on the tail of a rhetorical force that is irreducible to it, an ineluctable affect ability or respons ivity that is bound up in the very structure of sur-vival.

STATVS THEORY AND CICERO'S DEFENCE OF TEACHING IN ORATOR 140–8

AbstractThis article offers a structural analysis of Cicero's Orator, sections 140–8. Situating Cicero's defence of a form of educational activity in relation to his earlier denials that he is teaching anything, the article proposes an explanation for Cicero's apparent reversal of position rooted in status theory, the conceptual framework developed by Greek and Roman rhetorical theorists for schematizing the points at issue in a case and the corresponding lines of approach that a defender should take. Understanding the status-inspired organization of Cicero's self-defence affords readers smoother passage through a text that is often difficult and obscure. Furthermore, this analysis shows how Cicero deploys rhetorical techniques in defence of his educational endeavours both to support his claim to continued relevance and to exemplify the versatility of the ideal orator whom he portrays in the Orator.

COVID-19

When a country is faced with a crisis, the President, as the chief policy maker and Head of State, is the first person expected to act. With the power vested in him by the Namibian constitution in the article 26 (1), Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia declared a State of emergency on 17 March 2020 in response to the global pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19). A national crisis is one of the important occasions of a presidency as a rhetorical institution. In this regard, words are an important source of power. Therefore, this paper analysed the language and rhetoric of emergency used by Geingob as his political tool to respond to this pandemic. The analysis is guided by the rhetorical theory (Bitzer, 1968) and Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs of ethos, pathos and logos. It is important to note that national crises such as COVID 19 are linguistic constructions in the sense that it is largely through presidential rhetoric that the country deals with them.

Reader-Writer Relationship: A Rhetorical Narrative Analysis of A Tale for the Time Being

Ruth Ozekis work A Tale for the Time Being has piqued world-wide interest in its thematic extensity and unique style. Previous theme studies on one of the novels most fundamental topics reader-writer relationship, proves insightful in understanding the novels artistic construction. In light of Phelans rhetorical theory of narrative, the paper intends to build on the interpretation of the novels aesthetic value by employing three of the core concepts of Phelans theory four dimension readers, narrative progression and narrative judgements to better demonstrate the significance of readers involvement not only in building, but also propelling and revealing the dynamics of the multilayered reader-writer relationship. By analyzing various engagements readers have with characters and the implied author, the paper shows that rather than through overarching explanations, the novel preserves the relationships elusive nature through a multilayered reading experience.

Nietzsche’s Mad Eloquence

Abstract This article argues that Nietzsche advanced a rhetorical theory that enacted an attitude of creative destruction by subverting the norms of traditional, yet effective, Greco-Roman rhetoric with a dizzying, distasteful, untimely, unteachable, and impractical mad eloquence. The argument draws particular attention to two aphorisms from The Gay Science. Nietzsche partially described what I call mad eloquence in the obscure aphorism “Two Speakers” (Zwei Redner) and exemplified it with the performance of the madman in the infamous aphorism of the same name (Der tolle Mensch). The first speaker affirmed and then questioned the Greco-Roman rhetorical tradition, but the second blew it up. After establishing how and why Nietzsche confirmed the utility of traditional rhetorical theory, this article demonstrates how he redefined rhetoric as the art of discovering the available means to cultivate confusion and alienate audiences with reconceived parrhēsia, obnoxious delivery and ethos, impropriety, uncommonplaces, logical irrationality, unteachable inimitability, a very delayed persuasive effect, and an insufferable style.

Study on the Translation of the Key Terms of Chinese Culture in Insights into Chinese Culture

Insights into Chinese Culture, a book which systematically and comprehensively introduces the Chinese culture from four aspects, that is, wisdom and beliefs, creativity and exchange, art and aesthetics and folk customs, has played a pivotal role in spreading the brilliant Chinese culture to Western countries since its publication in 2008. The 21st century has witnessed the “going global” of the Chinese culture gradually developing into a national strategy. Under this overall background, this book has been studied from various perspectives such as Western rhetoric theory, audience awareness, the image of China it presents, the strategy of translating culture-loaded words involved and the complex philosophical thoughts explained within and so on, among which, however, a systematic study on the translation of its key terms of Chinese culture is in dire need currently in translation community since it is a book that aims to deliver the great and profound Chinese culture to Western readers. Therefore, following Susan Bassnett’s Cultural Translation Theory, from the perspective of cultural fidelity and the acceptability of English readers, this thesis discusses and analyzes the translations of the representative terms of Chinese culture, such as “仁(ren)”, “礼(li)”, “自然(zi-ran)”, “无为(wu-wei)”, “天(tian)” and “龙(long)”, to examine whether they accurately convey the cultural connotations or to some extent may lead to cultural misunderstandings. This study suggests that the accurate translation of key terms of Chinese culture, which is of great significance in promoting Chinese culture to go global, requires translators’ full and deep grasp of their philosophical connotations and cultural backgrounds instead of the superficial interpretation of their literal meanings.

The interconnection between syntax and the theory of eloquence in the Russian linguistic tradition: rhetorical devices in grammars of the 18th–19th centuries

The idea that until the beginning of the nineteenth century the sentence theory was considered in writings about the theory of eloquence has long been a locus communis in works on the history of Russian linguistics. Russian grammars contained «slovosochinenie» (i. e. syntax) as a syntactic section which stated the rules for connecting different parts of speech into combinations built according to the type of agreement and government. This «commonplace» of syntax historiography deserves a new addition. It is necessary to study the reverse influence issue and answer the question what role the first Russian grammars played in the development of rhetorical theory. The article analyses eighteenth- and nineteenth-century grammatical writings using the methods of extracting, commenting on, and interpreting fragments concerning rhetorical devices. As a result, the study has revealed a close connection between the Russian grammars by M. V. Lomonosov, A. A. Barsov, N. I. Grech, F. I. Buslaev and the theory of elocution. It is particularly true in terms of considering figures of speech, as well as in the sections on the rhetorical period types and the sequence order of the sentence parts. For instance, M. V. Lomonosov in his «Russian Grammar» analyses the examples of «transfer» and «omission», that is, inversion and ellipsis (omission) of sentence «parts». A. A. Barsov, who lists and defines nine «syntactic figures», developed this tradition further. N. I. Grech in his «Practical Russian Grammar» considers reverse word order, ellipsis, «tozhdeslovie» / tautology (intensifying lexical repetition) and «deviation» from strict grammatical agreement of names and verb forms (syllepsis). F. I. Buslaev, enlarging the syntactic section in his «Experience of Historical Grammar» with lexicological topics, gives close attention to tropes that demonstrate different ways of meaning transfer, i. e. metaphor and metonymy (for instance, synecdoche). The paper concludes that Russian linguists of the mid-tolate eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries aspired to add a section on the expressive use of grammatical language resources to the syntactic theory.

Rhetorical Strategies in Selected Nigerian Print Media Advertisements

The study “Rhetorical strategies in selected Nigerian print media advertisements” sought to investigate the interconnectedness between rhetoric and advertising. Privileging Aristote’s theory of rhetoric (1991), Halliday’s (2014) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and van Dijk’s (1993) Socio-Cognitive Approach (SCA) as theoretical frameworks, the study which adopted a descriptive qualitative case study research design and a purposive data collection method carried out a linguistic stylistic analysis as well as a critical discourse analysis of the selected data. The findings from the linguistic stylistic analysis showed that advertisers deploy various attractive and attention-seeking rhetorical strategies at the different levels of linguistic analysis in order to grab the interest and attention of the listener, while the critical discourse analysis revealed that the rhetorical strategies are employed as persuasive devices to cause a change in the buying choices and behaviour of customers. The critical discourse analysis further revealed that the advertisements aside selling a product also communicate socio-cultural values and ideologies. The study concluded amongst other things that rhetoric is a significant component of advertising and that the rhetorical strategies prevalent in the linguistic analysis of the advertisements function as persuasive elements that inform about the availability of goods and services as well as function in transmitting the socio-cultural values and ideologies of the environment in which they are created.

Crises, Fast and Slow: A Contract-grading Response in Digital Humanities Pedagogy

In the midst of COVID-19, I adapted an upper-year-undergraduate digital editions class to a contract grading method. I struggled to find models that suited the needs of my class. My course demanded a single, core final assignment (a digital edition), but almost all models are for smaller, cumulative assignments with which students make up their contracted grade level. The intervention of this article is methodological: what might contract grading look like in a way that supports scaffolding to a single, larger assignment? And it is critical and theoretical: how does this particular case study interact with theories of improved learning and equity and accessibility in the classroom? Jordana Cox and Lauren Tilton’s theories of argument or rhetoric as ‘gift’ in the context of the digital public humanities provides a framework through which to consider the ways that contract grading and student DH projects together might imagine co-operative argumentation.

We Speak the Truth: Rhetoric, Epistemology, and Audience Participation in John 3:1–21

This article explores the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3:1–21, highlighting the ways omissions, multivalency, and intratextual and intertextual links invite audience participation and encourage listeners to see themselves as re-generated children of God. In this way, persuaded audiences assent not just to the content of the Gospel, but to its epistemology—how it instructs them to receive and seek truth. As classical and contemporary rhetorical theories indicate, when audiences participate to create the world of the Gospel, they are more likely to be persuaded by it and to use it to craft the reality in which they live.

The Unbearable Obliqueness of Rhetoric

ABSTRACT This short essay explores oblique approaches to rhetorical theory and practice and, in doing so, accidently arrives at a renewed appreciation of Aesthetics.

What Makes a Joke Bad: Enthymemes and the Pragmatics of Humor

Abstract Bad jokes are not simply non-humorous texts. They are texts that are humorous for someone––their author at least––but not for their audience. Bad jokes thus involve a contextual––pragmatic––dimension that is neglected in the semantic theories of humor. In this paper, we propose an approach to humor based on the Aristotelian notion of surprising enthymemes. Jokes are analyzed as kinds of arguments, whose tacit dimension can be retrieved and justified by considering the “logic” on which it is based. However, jokes are based on specific pragmatic conditions: they are regarded as arguments grounded on a generalization that is at the same time uncommon, retrievable, and acceptable or plausible for the audience. This perspective integrates the “local logic” of jokes within a broader rhetorical theory that ultimately rests on the communicative notion of common ground.

A Sociolinguistic Comparative Analysis of Chinese and English Anti-Epidemic Slogans

From the perspective of sociolinguistics, based on the sample slogan corpus and with the help of the theory of social psychological rhetoric, this paper explores the external text features of the Chinese and English anti-epidemic slogans through a detailed description of their rhetorical devices and at the same time, starting from the four social psychological functions of rhetoric, further explains the social psychological foundation behind rhetoric devices. The rhetorical similarities between the two types of slogans are that, based on their own language usage habits, they both adopt a variety of figures of speech to achieve the basic mobilization effect of slogans. While the difference lies in that in Chinese slogans, the figures of speech are more focused on realizing the power intention of slogans, and it is necessary to borrow the public power to ensure that the slogan can give full play to the maximum communication efficiency and executive effectiveness in a short time. English slogans, on the other hand, focus on the realization of the enlightenment intention. First ensure the audience's recognition of the slogan itself, and on this basis, further exert the effectiveness of slogans.

Theorizing rhetoric: A transatlantic perspective

This article presents the results of a comparative study on the leading theories used in European and North American rhetorical research. The aim of the study was to examine European rhetorical theories on their own terms and their relations with North American rhetorical practice. Using a mixed-method approach, the study addressed normative, declarative, and pragmatic dimensions of unity and theoretical diversity in contemporary Western rhetorical research. Study findings supported the premise that a Western theoretical community of knowledge of rhetoric scholars exists in the midst of the plurality of rhetorical research. The combined findings reveal strengths and shortcomings of North American and European perspectives, indicating how each draws from and/or pushes back against ways of thinking suggested by the other.