Persuasion Across Genres: A Linguistic Approach (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series)

Persuasion, in its various linguistic forms, enters our lives daily. Politicians and the news media attempt to change or confirm our beliefs, while advertisers try to bend our tastes toward buying their products. Persuasion goes on in courtrooms, universities, and the business world. Persuasion pervades interpersonal relations in all social spheres, public and private. And persuasion reaches us via a large number of genres and their intricate interplay. This volume brings together nine chapters which investigate some of the typical genres of modern persuasion. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the authors explore the linguistic features of successful (and unsuccessful) persuasion and the reasons for the variation of persuasive choices as realized in various genres: business negotiations, judicial argumentation, political speech, advertising, newspaper editorials, and news writing. In the final chapter, the editors tie together the two themes — persuasion and genres — by proposing an Intergenre Model. This model assumes that a powerful force behind generic evolution is the perennial need for implicit persuasion. Persuasion Across Genres......Page 2 Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 LCC data......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Part 1. Introduction......Page 10 1. Persuasion across genres......Page 12 1.1. Ethos, pathos, and logos across genres......Page 14 1.2. Audience and the interactive nature of persuasion......Page 15 2. Genre......Page 19 3.1. From private to public: Overall structure of the book......Page 23 3.2. Presenting the chapters......Page 26 References......Page 32 Part 2. Focusing on private and semipublic discourse......Page 34 2. Persuasion in business negotiations......Page 36 1.1. What counts as persuasion?......Page 37 1.2. Where are the persuasive elements to be found?......Page 41 1.3. How is persuasion achieved?......Page 42 2. Two cases for analysis......Page 45 2.1. Rockley......Page 46 2.2. The bridge......Page 57 3. Conclusion......Page 63 References......Page 64 3. Persuasion in judicial argumentation......Page 68 Persuasion and legal discourse......Page 70 Judicial Opinions......Page 73 1. Material and methods......Page 74 1.2. The audience......Page 75 1.3. Description of the corpus......Page 76 2. Persuasive argumentation and Judicial Opinions......Page 78 2.1. The author's comment......Page 79 2.2. Analysis......Page 81 2.3. Authority......Page 96 3. Summing up......Page 103 Notes......Page 105 Table of Cases......Page 106 References......Page 107 Appendix 1......Page 110 Part 3. Focusing on public discourse......Page 112 4. In search of "successful'' political persuasion......Page 114 1. Question-and-answer sessions......Page 117 2.1. Lexical similarities......Page 120 2.2. Traditional persuasive strategies: An Aristotelian approach to the data......Page 125 3. In conclusion......Page 139 References......Page 141 5. In a nutshell......Page 144 Notes......Page 158 References......Page 159 6. "Polls and surveys show''......Page 162 1. Methods and materials......Page 163 2. Corpus study......Page 164 2.2. Clustering......Page 165 2.3. Collocation......Page 168 3. The optimal pattern of vagueness and assertiveness?......Page 176 4. Placement......Page 178 5. Mediating polling discourse in editorials......Page 181 6. Comparisons with adjacent genres......Page 184 7. Conclusions and implications......Page 185 References......Page 188 Part 4. Theoretical considerations......Page 190 1. Towards a notion of 'implicit collocation'......Page 192 2. Introduction to persuasiveness......Page 200 3. Pragmatics as implicit anchoring: The case of you know......Page 202 4. Persuasive discourse......Page 208 5. Persuasion as taboo......Page 210 6. Implicit collocations......Page 211 6.1. Propaganda......Page 212 6.2. Manipulation......Page 213 6.3. Persuasion......Page 215 7. Conclusions......Page 217 Notes......Page 218 References......Page 220 8. Generic patterns in promotional discourse......Page 222 Generic structure of advertisements in terms of rhetorical moves:......Page 223 2.2. Discoursal resources for product differentiation......Page 225 3. Colony of promotional genres......Page 227 4. Invasion of territorial integrity......Page 228 5. Concluding remarks......Page 233 References......Page 234 Part 5. Concluding remarks......Page 236 1. Implicitness of persuasion and generic change......Page 238 1.1. An example......Page 241 2. A model of persuasion......Page 245 2.1. Generic intertextuality, minimizing intertextual gaps, and persuasion......Page 246 2.2. Generic change and maximizing intertextual gaps......Page 248 2.3. Generic change and minimizing interdiscursive gaps......Page 249 2.4. Juxtaposing genres and blurring their boundaries as persuasion......Page 251 References......Page 252 Author index......Page 254 Subject index......Page 258 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series......Page 267 P&BNS 130 Persuasion Across Genres 2 Editorial page 3 Title page 4 LCC data 5 Table of contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Part 1. Introduction 10 1. Persuasion across genres 12 1. Persuasion 14 1.1. Ethos, pathos, and logos across genres 14 1.2. Audience and the interactive nature of persuasion 15 2. Genre 19 3. Persuasion across genres: Presenting the chapters 23 3.1. From private to public: Overall structure of the book 23 3.2. Presenting the chapters 26 References 32 Part 2. Focusing on private and semipublic discourse 34 2. Persuasion in business negotiations 36 1. What is persuasion and why are they saying such terrible things about it? 37 1.1. What counts as persuasion? 37 1.2. Where are the persuasive elements to be found? 41 1.3. How is persuasion achieved? 42 1.4. Conclusion 45 2. Two cases for analysis 45 2.1. Rockley 46 2.2. The bridge 57 3. Conclusion 63 References 64 3. Persuasion in judicial argumentation 68 Persuasion and legal discourse 70 Judicial Opinions 73 1. Material and methods 74 1.1. Description of the communicative purpose 75 1.2. The audience 75 1.3. Description of the corpus 76 2. Persuasive argumentation and Judicial Opinions 78 2.1. The author's comment 79 2.2. Analysis 81 2.3. Authority 96 3. Summing up 103 Notes 105 Table of Cases 106 References 107 Appendix 1 110 Part 3. Focusing on public discourse 112 4. In search of "successful'' political persuasion 114 1. Question-and-answer sessions 117 2. State of the Union addresses 120 2.1. Lexical similarities 120 2.2. Traditional persuasive strategies: An Aristotelian approach to the data 125 3. In conclusion 139 Note 141 References 141 5. In a nutshell 144 Notes 158 References 159 6. "Polls and surveys show'' 162 1. Methods and materials 163 2. Corpus study 164 2.1. Overall frequency 165 2.2. Clustering 165 2.3. Collocation 168 3. The optimal pattern of vagueness and assertiveness? 176 4. Placement 178 5. Mediating polling discourse in editorials 181 6. Comparisons with adjacent genres 184 7. Conclusions and implications 185 References 188 Part 4. Theoretical considerations 190 7. Persuasion as implicit anchoring 192 1. Towards a notion of 'implicit collocation' 192 2. Introduction to persuasiveness 200 3. Pragmatics as implicit anchoring: The case of you know 202 4. Persuasive discourse 208 5. Persuasion as taboo 210 6. Implicit collocations 211 6.1. Propaganda 212 6.2. Manipulation 213 6.3. Persuasion 215 7. Conclusions 217 Notes 218 References 220 8. Generic patterns in promotional discourse 222 1. Traditional forms of promotional discourse 223 Generic structure of advertisements in terms of rhetorical moves: 223 2. Sources of promotional input 225 2.1. Product differentiation in advertising 225 2.2. Discoursal resources for product differentiation 225 3. Colony of promotional genres 227 4. Invasion of territorial integrity 228 5. Concluding remarks 233 References 234 Part 5. Concluding remarks 236 9. Towards understanding modern persuasion 238 1. Implicitness of persuasion and generic change 238 1.1. An example 241 2. A model of persuasion 245 2.1. Generic intertextuality, minimizing intertextual gaps, and persuasion 246 2.2. Generic change and maximizing intertextual gaps 248 2.3. Generic change and minimizing interdiscursive gaps 249 2.4. Juxtaposing genres and blurring their boundaries as persuasion 251 Note 252 References 252 Author index 254 Subject index 258 The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 267 "This volume brings together nine chapters which investigate some of the typical genres of modern persuasion. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the authors explore the linguistic features of successful (and unsuccessful) persuasion and the reasons for the variation of persuasive choices realized in various genres: business negotiations, judicial argumentation, political speech, advertising, newspaper editorials, and news writing. In the final chapter, the editors tie together the two themes - persuasion and genres - by proposing an Intergenre Model. This model assumes that a powerful force behind generic evolution is the perennial need for implicit persuasion."--Jacket