1,721,002 research outputs found
From visual rhetoric to multimodal argumentation : exploring the rhetorical and argumentative relevance of multimodal figures on the covers of The Economist
No full textVisual rhetoric is more often than not identified with the search for patterns of visual form and content which convey meaning in ways that resemble the meaning construed by known rhetorical figures. Despite the numerous proposals for the classification of figures construed verbally or visually, there has been no systematic attempt to account for the different ways in which these may contribute to the argumentative structure of persuasive messages. In this article, the author studies comparatively the figures of metaphor, antithesis and allusion, cued visually or verbo-visually in the multimodal genre of front covers. He starts from the assumption that the front cover constitutes a multimodal argument in the sense that it invites the reader to buy the specific issue on the grounds of the featured story and the stance that the editors express over it. The goal is to identify the semiotic configurations that distinguish one figure from the other, and to establish conditions under which these figures can be shown to contribute meaning that serves the argument conveyed by the front cover.</p
Chapter 9. Embodied argumentation in public debates
No full textThis chapter examines argumentative talk-in-interaction in video-recorded public debates held in Switzerland, during which all the participants were temporally and spatially co-present. It focuses on the issue of segmenting talk into argumentative moves, by looking at the way gestures combine with the verbal mode to enhance and display the different steps of the ongoing argumentation (e.g. when the speaker moves from one argument to another, or from an argument to the conclusion). In other words, while the embodied dimension of argumentation in talk-in-interaction remains largely unexplored, the chapter provides empirical evidence for the way argumentation is multimodally produced and processed in context. Three specific gestures are considered: gestures claiming the floor, gestures pointing to a participant, and metaphoric grasping gestures. The chapter concludes with suggestions for further lines of research
Argumentative functions of visuals: Beyond claiming and justifying
Get PDFConference Papers and Commentary.Up until now, the study of the argumentative role of visuals has been restricted to the formal concept of argument as product, consisting of premises and conclusion. In this paper, I adopt the pragma-dialectical approach to argumentation as a social and discursive activity in order to explore argumentative functions of visuals that go beyond claiming and justifying. To do this I pay attention to the visual form and to the interaction between the verbal and the visual mode in argumentative discourse
Diglossic past and present lexicographical practices : The case of two Greek dictionaries
No full textThe publication of a dictionary is a means to describe, codify and ultimately standardise a language. This process is complicated by the lexicographer’s own attitude towards the language and the public’s sensitivity on language matters. The recent publication of the two most authoritative dictionaries of Modern Greek and their respective lexical coverage reveals the continuing survival of the underlying ideologies of the two sponsoring institutions concerning the history of the Greek language, as well as their opposing standpoints on the language question over the past decades, some 25 years after the constitutional resolution of the Greek diglossia, affecting the way they describe the synchronic state of language. The two dictionaries proceed from opposing starting points in attempting to influence and set a pace for the standardisation of Modern Greek by presenting two different aspects of the synchronic state of Greek, one of which focuses on the long history of the language and thus takes the present state to be only a link in an uninterrupted chain dating from antiquity, and the other of which focuses on the present state of Greek and thus takes this fully developed autonomous code to be the outcome of past linguistic processes and socio-cultural changes in response to the linguistic community’s present needs. The absence of a sufficiently representative corpus has restrained the descriptive capacity of the two dictionaries and has given space for ideology to come into play, despite the fact that both dictionaries have made concessions in order to account for the present-day Greek language
Qualifying Standpoints : Stance adverbs as a presentational device for managing the burden of proof
No full textA number of studies from pragmatics and discourse analysis have investigated the function of stance adverbs, such as clearly, fortunately, frankly, perhaps, and technically, when used to qualify utterances. Within the field of argumentation studies, scholars who have paid attention to these words have primarily focused on the so-called modal adverbs, and have not considered the insights that can be gained by treating the class of stance adverbs as the linguistic realisation of a certain move in an argumentative discussion. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating the strategic function of stance adverbs when qualifying an utterance that functions as a standpoint. In this study, stance adverbs are examined as a presentational device at the arguer’s disposal when putting forward a standpoint. The study is comprised of three parts. In the first part, the question ‘What is a qualified standpoint?’ is answered by combining illocutionary analysis of the move of advancing a standpoint with pragma-linguistic study of stance adverbs. In the second part, the question ‘Why would the protagonist qualify the standpoint?’ is answered based on the concept of burden of proof, which is essential to the move of advancing a standpoint. In the third part, the question ‘How does standpoint qualification function strategically in an argumentative discussion?’ is answered by postulating that the protagonist of a qualified standpoint is interested in managing the burden of proof, an assumption which builds on the results of the other two parts. The book is of interest to advanced students and scholars of argumentation and communication studies as well as those interested in an explanation of language use from an argumentative perspective
Commentary on: Leo Groarke's "On Dove, visual evidence and verbal repackaging"
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The Explicit/Implicit Distinction in Multimodal Argumentation : Comparing the Argumentative Use of Nano-Images in Scientific Journals and Science Magazines
No full textThe distinction between explicatures and implicatures as well as their varying degrees of strength acknowledged within Relevance Theory can help to capture the complex meaningmaking processes underlying the interpretation of multimoda ltexts as instances of argumentation. These pragmatic insights will be used to compare the ways in which arguments about the revolutionary character and societal impact of nanotechnology are constructed by computer-generated images of the nanoscale on the covers of scientific journals and science magazines
Analysing multimodal argumentation : Theoretical and methodological considerations
No full textThe chapter advocates for a multimodal understanding of argumentative communication, recognizing that verbal, visual and other semiotic modes all contribute to the expression of the core elements of the argument and to the understanding of the reasoning that connects them. It explores theoretical and methodological considerations related to three core questions that are common to the various approaches to the study of multimodal argumentation: the identification of arguments in multimodal communication, their reconstruction, and their evaluation. By discussing existing proposals and presenting analyses of examples of pictographs, photographs, and advertisements concerning plastic pollution, the chapter demonstrates how systematic attention to the semiotic properties of argumentative texts and their situational and institutional context enhances the interpretation and reconstruction as well as evaluation of multimodal argumentation, thereby improving the depth and quality of the argumentative analysis of communication
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