Showing papers on "Rhetorical question published in 1994"

Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction

Abstract: Preface From Individual Knowledge to Communal Construction The Impasse of Individual Knowledge Crisis in Representation and the Emergence of Social Construction Constructionism in Question Social Construction and Moral Orders Criticism and Consequence Social Psychology and the Wrong Revolution The Cultural Consequences of Deficit Discourse Objectivity as Rhetorical Achievement From Self to Relationship Self-Narration in Social Life Emotion as Relationship Transcending Narrative in the Therapeutic Context The Communal Origins of Meaning Deceit: From Conscience to Community Notes References Index

Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome

Abstract: The careers of two popular second-century rhetorical virtuosos offer Maud Gleason fascinating insights into the ways ancient Romans constructed masculinity during a time marked by anxiety over manly deportment. Declamation was an exhilarating art form for the Greeks and bilingual Romans of the Second Sophistic movement, and its best practitioners would travel the empire performing in front of enraptured audiences. The mastery of rhetoric marked the transition to manhood for all aristocratic citizens and remained crucial to a man's social standing. In treating rhetoric as a process of self-presentation in a face-to-face society, Gleason analyzes the deportment and writings of the two Sophists - Favorinus, a eunuch, and Polemo, a man who met conventional gender expectations - to suggest the ways character and gender were perceived. Physiognomical texts of the era show how intently men scrutinized one another for minute signs of gender deviance in such features as gait, gesture, facial expression, and voice. Rhetoricians trained to develop these traits in a "masculine" fashion. Examining the successful career of Favorinus, whose high-pitched voice and florid presentation contrasted sharply with the traditionalist style of Polemo, Gleason shows, however, that ideal masculine behavior was not a monolithic abstraction. In a highly accessible study treating the semiotics of deportment and the medical, cultural, and moral issues surrounding rhetorical activity, she explores the possibilities of self presentation in the search for recognition as a speaker and a man.

Why Do People Use Figurative Language

Abstract: In this article, we examine the discourse goals that are accomplished by the use of eight forms of figurative language: hyperbole, idiom, indirect request, irony, understatement, metaphor, rhetorical question, and simile. Subjects were asked to provide reasons why they would use a particular figure of speech. Based on their responses, a discourse goal taxonomy that includes each of the eight figures was developed. The goal taxonomy indicates that each figure of speech is used to accomplish a unique constellation of communicative goals. The degree of goal overlap between the eight forms was also calculated, and the results provide support for theoretical claims about the relatedness of certain figures. Taken together, the goal taxonomy and overlap scores broaden our understanding of functional and theoretical differences between the various kinds of figurative language.

The rhetoric of charismatic leadership: A theoretical extension, a case study, and implications for research

Abstract: Despite apparent consensus about the importance of leader rhetoric, the topic has not received systematic attention from leadership scholars. The purpose of this article is to advance the study of the relationship between rhetorical behavior and charismatic leadership in three ways: first, by presenting theoretically derived propositions about the expected contents of charismatic leaders' speeches; second, by offering a thematic content analysis of a representative speech by a charismatic orator, in order to demonstrate the content themes suggested by the propositions; and third, by specifying the requirements for more systematic studies of the relationship between speech content and charisma.

All hits are flukes: institutionalized decision making and the rhetoric of network prime-time program development

Abstract: Drawing upon institutionalist theory this artcle analyzes how the introduction of new cultural objects produced for a mass audience is managed through an organized discourse. Data come form annoucements of prime-time television series in development for the 1991-92 season by the four U.S. television networks. Maximumlikelihood logit analyses support the conclusion that network programmers working in a highly institutionalized context use reputation, imitation, and genre as rhetorical strategies to rationalize and legitimize their actions. This study contributes to institutionalist theory and the sociology of culture by explaining the content and consequences of business discourse in a culture industry.

Academic Literacy and the Nature of Expertise: Reading, Writing and Knowing in Academic Philosophy

Abstract: The first full-length account integrating both the cognitive and sociological aspects of reading and writing in the academy, this unique volume covers educational research on reading and writing, rhetorical research on writing in the disciplines, cognitive research on expertise in ill-defined problems, and sociological and historical research on the professions The author produced this volume as a result of a research program aimed at understanding the relationship between two concepts -- literacy and expertise -- which traditionally have been treated as quite separate phenomena A burgeoning literature on reading and writing in the academy has begun to indicate fairly consistent patterns in how students acquire literacy practices This literature shows, furthermore, that what students do is quite distinct from what experts do While many have used these results as a starting point for teaching students "how to be expert," the author has chosen instead to ask about the interrelationship between expert and novice practice, seeing them both as two sides of the same project: a cultural-historical "professionalization project" aimed at establishing and preserving the professional privilege The consequences of this "professionalization project" are examined using the discipline of academic philosophy as the "site" for the author's investigations Methodologically unique, these investigations combine rhetorical analysis, protocol analysis, and the analysis of classroom discourse The result is a complex portrait of how the participants in this humanistic discipline use their academic literacy practices to construct and reconstruct a great divide between expert and lay knowledge This monograph thus extends our current understanding of the rhetoric of the professions and examines its implications for education

The roles of rhetoric in the public understanding of science

Abstract: In the public understanding of science, rhetoric has two distinct roles: it is both a theory capable of analysing public understanding and an activity capable of creating it. In its analytical role, rhetoric reveals two dominant models of public understanding: the deficit model and the contextual model. In the deficit model, rhetoric acts in the minor role of creating public understanding by accommodating the facts and methods of science to public needs and limitations. In the contextual model, rhetoric and rhetorical analysis play major roles. Rhetorical analysis provides an independent source of evidence to secure social scientific claims; in addition, it supplies the grounds for a rhetoric of reconstruction, one that reconstitutes the fact and facts of science in the public interest.

Ancient rhetorics for contemporary students

Abstract: Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Ancient Rhetorics: Their Differences and the Difference They Make. INVENTION. 2. Kairos and the Rhetorical Situation: Seizing the Moment. 3. Stasis Theory: Asking the Right Questions. 4. The Common Topics and the Common Places: Finding the Available Means. 5. Logical Proof: Reasoning in Rhetoric. 6. Ethical Proof: Arguments from Character. 7. Pathetic Proof: Passionate Appeals. 8. Extrinsic Proofs: Arguments Waiting to Be Used. ARRANGEMENT. 9. The Sophistic Topics: Define, Divide, and Conquer. 10. Arrangement: Getting It Together. STYLE, MEMORY, AND DELIVERY. 11. Style: Composition and Ornament. 12. Memory: The Treasure-House of Invention. 13. Delivery: Attending to Eyes and Ears. RHETORICAL EXERCISES. 14. Imitation: Achieving Copiousness. 15. The Progymnasmata, or Rhetorical Exercises. Glossary of Terms. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.

The materiality of discourse as oxymoron: A challenge to critical rhetoric

Abstract: Recent rhetorical theory has adopted two versions—variously idealist and relativist—of the proposition that discourse is influential in or even constitutive of social and material “reality.”; This idea, which underpins much critical communication scholarship, I am calling the “materiality of discourse hypothesis.”; This essay documents and criticizes the idealism and relativism of the materiality of discourse idea in postmodernist and post‐Marxist rhetorical theories, illustrates the critique with an extended critical analysis of Persian Gulf War news coverage, and defends materialist ideology criticism as an alternative to a critical rhetoric that has become increasingly affirmative of the social order and detached from reality.

Aristotle's Rhetoric: an Art of Character

Abstract: In this contribution to philosophy and rhetoric, Eugene Garver shows how Aristotle integrates logic and virtue in his treatise, the "Rhetoric". Garver argues that Aristotle raises and answers a central question: can there be a civic art of rhetoric, an art that forms the character of citizens? By demonstrating the importance of the "Rhetoric" for understanding current philosophical problems of practical reason, virtue and character, Garver treats the "Rhetoric" as philosophy and connects its themes with parallel problems in Aristotle's "Ethics" and "Politics". Garver explores how Aristotle, instead of looking at the motives of rhetoricians or the effects of rhetorical practices, addresses the very activity of rhetoric and subjects it to rigorous rational analysis. On Aristotle's view, such rhetorical activities as giving advice, making policy decisions and persuading others in legal matters can be understood as artful, but not deceptive, activities in which the rhetorician brings to bear character, emotion and reason.

Abstract Generation based on Rhetorical Structure Extraction

Abstract: We have developed an automatic abstract generation system for Japanese expository writings based on rhetorical structure extraction. The system first extracts the rhetorical structure, the compound of the rhetorical relations between sentences, and then cuts out less important parts in the extracted structure to generate an abstract of the desired length. Evaluation of the generated abstract showed that it contains at maximum 74\% of the most important sentences of the original text. The system is now utilized as a text browser for a prototypical interactive document retrieval system.

Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric

Abstract: Apocalyptic expectations of Armageddon and a New Age have been a fixture of the cultural landscape for centuries. With the approach of the year 2000, such millennial visions seem once again to be increasing in popularity. Stephen O'Leary sheds new light on the age-old phenomenon of the End of the Age by proposing a rhetorical explanation for the appeal of millennialism. Using examples of apocalyptic argument from ancient to modern times, O'Leary identifies the recurring patterns in apocalyptic texts and movements and shows how and why the Christian Apocalypse has been used to support a variety of political stances and programmes. The book concludes with a critical review of the recent appearances of Doomsday scenarios in politics and culture, and a meditation on the significance of the Apocalypse in the nuclear age.

Learning to Read Biology One Student's Rhetorical Development in College

Abstract: This longitudinal study examines the reading processes and practices of one college student, Eliza, through eight semesters of undergraduate postsecondary education. Specifically, the study traces ...

Abstract generation based on rhetorical structure extraction

Abstract: We have developed an automatic abstract generation system for Japanese expository writings based on rhetorical structure extraction. The system first extracts the rhetorical structure, the compound of the rhetorical relations between sentences, and then cuts out less important parts in the extracted structure to generate an abstract of the desired length.Evaluation of the generated abstract showed that it contains at maximum 74% of the most important sentences of the original text. The system is now utilized as a text browser for a prototypical interactive document retrieval system.

A rhetorical schema for the evaluation of visual imagery

Abstract: In this essay, a schema is proposed for the evaluation of visual imagery from a rhetorical perspective. In the schema, judgments of quality about a visual image are made in terms of the function communicated by the image. Three processes are involved in such judgments— identification of a function or functions communicated by an image, assessment of the degree to which substantive and stylistic dimensions of the image support the communication of the function, and evaluation of the legitimacy of the function. The schema is illustrated in applications to a chair from the Memphis design consortium and to The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The discourses of science

Abstract: Preface Introduction: The Cartesian Syndrome 1: The Paradox of Scientific Method 2: From Method to Rhetoric 3: The Rhetoric of Science 4: Scientific Dialectics 5: The Dialectical Model of Science 6: Epistemology and Rhetorical Strategies 7: Rhetoric and Scientific Progress Notes References Index

Natural Images in Economic Thought

Abstract: This 1994 collection of interdisciplinary essays was the first to investigate how images in the history of the natural and physical sciences have been used to shape the history of economic thought. The contributors, historians of science and economics alike, document the extent to which scholars have drawn on physical and natural science to ground economic ideas and evaluate the role and importance of metaphors in the structure and content of economic thought. These range from Aristotle's discussion of the division of labour, to Marshall's evocation of population biology, to Hayek's dependence upon evolutionary concepts, and more recently to neoclassical economists' invocation of chaos theory. Resort to such images, contributors find, was more than mere rhetorical flourish. Rather, appeals to natural and physical metaphors serve to constitute the very subject matter of the discipline and what might be accepted as the 'economic'.

Rhetorical Strategies in Student Persuasive Writing: Differences between Native and Non-Native English Speakers.

Abstract: Persuasive/argumentative writing is an important and difficult mode of discourse for student writers. It is particularly problematic for non-native speakers, who often bring both linguistic and rhetorical deficits to the task of persuasion in English. This study analyzed 60 persuasive texts by university freshman composition students, half of whom were native speakers and half of whom were non-native speakers of English for 33 quantitative, topical structure, and rhetorical variables. The results showed clear differences between the essays of native and non-native speakers. These results and their implications for second language composition instruction are discussed.

Rhetoric and marxism

Abstract: This book is the first extended study about the relationship between Marxism and the rhetorical tradition. Aune suggests that the classical texts of Marx and Engels wavered incoherently between positivist and romantic views of language and communication–views made possible by the decline of the rhetorical tradition as a cultural force. Though Western Marxism attempted to resolve this incoherence, it lacked a satisfactory theory of its own. Aune argues that the liberating impulse of Marxist tradition, ultimately, would be better served if we paid closer attention to the rhetorical history of the labor movement and to the role of public discourse in arousing or quieting revolutionary consciousness.

Machiavellian Rhetoric: From the Counter-Reformation to Milton

Abstract: Historians of political thought have argued that the real Machiavelli is the republican thinker and theorist of civic virtue. This study argues in contrast that Renaissance readers were right to see Machiavelli as a figure of force and fraud, rhetorical cunning and deception. Taking the rhetorical Machiavel as a point of departure, Victoria Kahn argues that this figure is not simply the result of a naive misreading of Machiavelli, but is attuned to the rhetorical dimension of his political theory in a way that later thematic readings of Machiavelli are not. Her aim is to provide a revised history of Renaissance Machiavellism, particularly in England: one that sees the Machiavel and the republican as equally valid - and related - readings of Machiavelli's work.

What else can I tell you?: A pragmatic study of English rhetorical questions as discursive and argumentative acts

Abstract: What else can I tell you? : a pragmatic study of English rhetorical questions as discursive and argumentative acts

Science in the New Age : the paranormal, its defenders and debunkers, and American culture

Abstract: In "Science in the New Age," David Hess explores ideologies of the paranormal in the United States. He offers a map of the labyrinth of views put forward by parapsychologists and skeptical debunkers, spirit channelers and crystal healers, Hollywood poltergeist scripts, and prophets of the New Age. Adopting a cultural perspective, Hess moves beyond the question of who is right or wrong to the cultural politics of how each group constructs its own boundaries of true and false knowledge. Hess begins by looking at each group s unique version of knowledge, science, and religion and at its story about the other groups. Comparing the various discourses, texts, writers, and groups as cultures, he shows how skeptics, parapsychologists, and New Agers may disagree vehemently with each other, but end up sharing many rhetorical strategies, metaphors, models, values, and cultural categories. Furthermore, he argues, their shared paraculture has a great deal in common with the larger culture of the United States. The dialogue on the paranormal, Hess concludes, has as much to do with gender, power, and cultural values as it does with spirits, extrasensory perception, and crystal healing."

The Body of Persuasion: A Theory of the Enthymeme.

Abstract: he generally prevailing concept of the enthymeme, or the one most frequent in the world of rhetoric and composition studies, tends to define it either as a kind of elliptical, informal syllogism based on probable rather than certain premises and on tacit assumptions shared by audience and rhetor, or as a kind of "Toulmin argument," or as a general mode of intuitive reasoning representable in syllogistic or Toulminian terms, or, most simply, as the juxtaposition of any idea with another that is offered as a reason for believing it. All such thinking starts from Aristotle's famous dicta that the enthymeme is a "kind of syllogism" or "rhetorical syllogism," and that rhetoric is a "counterpart" of dialectic (Rhetoric 1.1 [1355a]; 1.2 [1356b]; 1.1 [1354a]).' This prevailing definition, however, has recently been put in question (see in particular Conley, "Enthymeme"; Gage, "Theory"). And, as we will see, it is inadequate. In what follows, we will first reexamine the primary (and not exclusively Aristotelian) ancient sources from which a more adequate concept of the enthymeme can be derived. Then, we will consider the relevance of that concept to the analysis of modern discourse-specifically, to the analysis of Roland Barthes' "The World of Wrestling" and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," both of which appear in popular anthologies used in composition courses, and both of which provide good examples of modern-but unrecognized-enthymeming.

A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF ABUSE: Connecting the Personal, the Rhetorical, and the Structural

Abstract: Narrating experiences of intimate, interpersonal violence is a means by which abused women make the violence coherent to self and to others. Narratives demonstrate that abusive relationships have courses, that women's actions within these relationships are rational and reasonable, and, further, that these actions can be made understandable to others. By using the theoretical literature on narrative structure, this analysis of one woman's (“Jane” 's) story of intimate, interpersonal violence elucidates a system of social meanings that can facilitate the processes by which other abused women, and their supporters, can make existential sense of violence from an intimate partner. This article is a detailed analysis of one woman's violent relationship. Jane's is a story of abuse, not the story of abuse.

Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and the Book of Jonah

Abstract: Phyllis Trible examines rhetorical criticism as a discipline within biblical studies. In Part One she surveys the historical antecedents of the method from ancient times to the postmodern era: classical rhetoric, literary critical theory, literary study of the Bible, and form criticism. Trible then presents samples of rhetorical analysis as the art of composition and as the art of persuasion. In Part Two, formulated guidelines are applied to a detailed study of the book of Jonah. A close reading with respect to structure, syntax, style, and substance elicits a host of meanings embedded in text, enabling the relationship between artistry and theology to emerge with clarity. Rhetorical Criticism has many distinctive features. It is the first comprehensive treatment of biblical rhetorical criticism as it has emerged within the latter half of the twentieth century. a didactic treatise that combines theoretical discussion, practical guidelines, and detailed exegesis interdisciplinary in approach, engaging the rhetorical study of the Bible with expanding developments in secular literary criticism (structuralism, poetics, reader-response criticism, and deconstruction, for example) and in the similarly burgeoning field of contemporary rhetoric itself a model of the rhetorical analysis that it describes accessible both to the novice and to the scholar

‘Internal Marketing’ As an Approach to Human Resource Management: A New Perspective Or A Metaphor Too Far?

Abstract: Colin Hales, who is a Lecturer in Management Studies at the University of Surrey, reviews the different meanings of the term ‘internal marketing’ and develops a critique of its application to the management of human resources. He argues that, while the concept has certain merits, it also has significant limitations. As a re-statement of normative HRM, it merely re-labels a questionable concept, while as a concept in its own right, it is ambiguous and highly rhetorical. As a metaphor, it seriously distorts the process of HRM and, as a broad approach and set of techniques, it is essentially manipulative, spuriously ‘scientific’ and riven with contradictions.