The document discusses various aspects of rhetoric, text, and discourse. It defines rhetoric as the art of discourse aimed at informing, persuading, or motivating an audience. Text is seen as a linguistic message, while discourse is interactive communication between speakers and listeners. The document then examines principles of textual organization including segmentation, sequence, salience, end-focus, coordination, subordination, and loose vs. periodic sentence structures. Examples are provided to illustrate how these principles shape the form and interpretation of written and spoken communication.
1. The Rhetoric of Text
Group 8 :
1. Lailatul Rahmi (15019048)
2. Nesia Monika A.N (15019052)
3. Larassati Alya S.N (15019066)
2. The Rhetoric of Text and Discourse
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, wherein a writer or speaker strives to
inform, persuade or motived particular audience in specific situation.
Discourse is linguistic communication seen as a transaction between speaker
and hearer, as an interpersonal activity whose form is determined by its social
purpose.
Text is linguistic communication seen simply as a message coded in its
auditory or visual medium.
Rhetoric of text dealing with the superficial expressive form of language, it is
determined by syntax, phonology, and graphology.
4. THE LINEARITY OF TEXT
Texts are communications seen as physical transactions between
addressers and addresses.
Rhetoric in ordinary language use can be seen as a set of principles or
guidelines for getting things done by means of language.
Linear text is traditionally how a book is written, left to write, line to
line, down repeating the pattern of rules in grammatical system.
Linearity can thus be seen to be a characteristic of the media of spoken
and written language but not of the messages that they convey.
5. THE LINEARITY OF TEXT
The overriding property of text is linearity: Speech occurs linearly in time, and
writing, imitating speech, occurs linearly in space.
Speech is acoustically ongoing, it is necessary for the hearer, in decoding the stream of
sound, to segment it into units.
The key unit in speech is the “Tone unit”, or unit of intonation.
Linearity entails segmentation, and segmentation involves a hierarchy of units.
From the point of view of phonology, therefore, three important factors in dynamics of
text :
1. sequence
2. segmentation
3. salience
6. THE PRINCIPLE OF END-FOCUS
The principle of end-focus is the principle that new information is reserved to
the end of the tone unit.
In tone unit, there is a general tendency for given information to precede
new information.
Part where new information is introduced is marked by nuclear stress.
7. THE PRINCIPLE OF END-FOCUS
(examples) :
[1a] she completely DENÌED it.
[1b]she denied it COMPLÈTELY.
[2a] He’s gradually IMPRÒVING.
[2b] He’s improving GRÀDUALLY.
[3a] Did Joan admit the offence? No,…
[3b] Did Joan deny the offence? Yes,…
[1a] is the appropriate answer for [3a], and [1b] for [3b]
8. THE PRINCIPLE OF END-FOCUS
Although end-focus belongs to phonology, it
clearly has important implications in syntax.
For example :
[4a] John wrote the whole BÒOK.
[4b] The whole book was written by JÒHN.
9. THE PRINCIPLE OF END-FOCUS
In Graphology the nucleus has no counterpart, because it is to claim that end-
focus has much to do written texts.
The reader naturally looks for new information at the end of the graphic unit,
and writing is less successful to the extend that it frustrates this expectation.
For example :
[5a] Instead of morphine, the patient was given opium.
[5b] Instead of morphine, opium was given to the patient.
10. SEGMENTATION
Segmentation is a principle that constitutes the tone unit of information in
speech with a single ‘chunk’ to a considerable extent.
The speaker is free to segment his/her utterance into such ‘chunks’ as he/she
likes.
For example :
[6a] Next WÉEK I’m starting a job in LÒNDON.
[6b] Next WÉEK I’m starting a JÒB in LÒNDON.
[6a] presents two pieces of information.
[6b] presents three pieces of information
11. The ‘rhythm of prose’
Written prose has an implicit, ‘unspoken’ intonation, of which punctuation
marks are written indicators.
When the length of graphic units follows a regular pattern, the text seems to
progress with a measured dynamic movement.
12. The ‘rhythm of prose’ (examples)
In the passage on the death of Paul Dombey quoted earlier (pp. 47-8)
[7] His fancy had a strange tendency to wander to the river,
which he knew was flowing through the great city;
and now he thought how black it was,
and how deep it would look,
reflecting the host of stars -
and more than all -how steadily
it rolled away to meet the sea.
Rhythm’ is more strictly applied, however, to the pattern formed by the sequence
of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Rhythm in this metrical sense contributes to the effect of the sentence: the
last two graphic units can be read as a rhyming couplet.
13. The ‘rhythm of prose’ (Examples)
Passage from D.H. Lawrence’s Studies in Classic American Literature :
[8] The renegade hates life itself. He wants the death of life. So these many
‘reformers’ and ‘idealist’ who glorify the savages in America. They are death
birds, life-haters. Renegades.
we can’t go back. And Melville couldn’t go back to the savages. He wanted
to. He tried to. And he couldn’t.
Because, in the first place, it make him sick.
[ New York edn, 1955, p. 149 ]
[9] He wanted to, he tried to, and he couldn’t – because in the first place, it
made him sick.
14. Segmentation and Syntax
Three main factors of textual organization (segmentation, sequence, and
salience) exist on the level of syntax, as well as on the levels of phonology
and graphology.
Segmentation on both the syntactic and graphological levels involves a major
unit which called as a sentence.
On syntactic level, a sentence maybe defined as an independent syntactic
unit, either simple or complex.
On example [8] in the last two lines it contained four graphological
sentences, but only one syntactic sentence.
15. Segmentation and Syntax
If a text is broken down into a series of minimal sentences, the result is that each
clause stands on its own feet, and is accorded equal importance with the others.
For example:
[10a] Jim threw the ball. The ball broke a window. The noise attracted the owner’s
attention. The owners scolded Jim.
[10b] Throwing the ball, Jim broke a window. The noise attracted the attention of the
owner, who scolded him.
[10c] When Jim threw the ball and broke the window, he was scolded by the owner,
whose attention had been attracted by the noise.
This paraphrases do not merely differ in terms of segmentation; they also differ in
the use of subordination, coordination, and in the ordering of clauses.
16. Segmentation and syntax
Style in fiction :
[10a]
[10b]
[10c]
[Oblique lines represent subordination, and horizontal linking line
coordination.]
1
11
11
11
22
hj
1
11
3 4
1
2 3
4
1
4
2 3
17. Simple and complex sentences
Complex sentences are to be preferred if the aim of the writer is to present
the reader with a complex structure of ideas, a complex reading experience.
The complex form gives and withholds information, subordinates some ideas
to others more importance, coordinates those of equal weight, and ties into a
neat package as many suggestions, modifiers, and asides as the mind can
attend to in one stretch.
A succession of simple sentences is leave only one of three variable to play
with: that of sequence.
18. Simple and complex sentences (examples)
There occasions where simple sentences are just what is needed :
[11] She saw there an object. That object was the gallows. She was afraid of
the gallows.
[Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent, Chapter 12]
Separate impressions : (perception of object, identification of object, fear
of object).
Contrast the very different effect of :
[12] The tireless resilient voice that had just lobbed this singular remark over
the Bella Vista bar window-sill into the square was, though its owner remained
unseen, unmistakable and achingly familiar as the spacious flower-boxed
balconied hotel itself, and as unreal, Yvonne thought.
[Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano, Chapter 2]
Sequence of impressions : (the immediate object of perception, attendant
circumstance of perception, impression the voice made)
19. Coordination and subordination
Coordination gives clauses equal syntactic status, whereas subordination
places one clause in a dependent status, as part of the main clause.
Subordination is syntactically, the opposite salience, since the effect of
making a clause subordinate is to background it: to demote the phenomenon
it describes into a ‘subservient circumstance’ which cannot be understood
except in terms of its part in the main clause.
Often subordinate clause is less salient in the sense of expressing information
which is at least partially known or presupposed in advance.
20. Coordination and subordination (Examples)
[13] Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it.
[ John Steinback, of mice and men, chapter 3 ]
[14] The system worked just fine for everybody, especially for Doc Daneeka, who
found himself with all the time he needed to watch old major – de Coverley
pitching horseshoes in his private horseshoe- pitching pit, still wearing the
transparent eye patch Doc Daneeka had fashioned for him from the strip a
celluloid stolen from major major’s orderly room window months before when
major – Coverley had returned from Rome with an injured cornea after renting
two apartments there for the officers and enlisted men to use on their rest
leaves.
[ Joseph Heller, Catch 22, chapter 4 ]
21. The principle of climax: ‘last is most
important’
In a sequence of interrelated tone units, the final position tense to be the
major focus of information.
The principle of climax can be seen as an extension of the end-focus
principle, for it says for a sequence of tone-units what the end-focus principle
says for individual tone-units, that ‘last is more important’.
Each tone unit, represents a unit of information; but such units are of varying
autonomy and usually it is the falling tone (`), with its implications of finality,
which carries the most weight of information.
22. The principle of climax: ‘last is most
important’
For example:
[15] After the gale died DÓWN we were picked up by a CÒASTER.
A rising tone (a fall-rise tone) at the end of the subordinate clause, and a falling
tone at the end of the main clause.
[16] The gale died DÓWN and we were picked up by a CÒASTER.
There is clearly a natural progression from the incomplete information point
signaled by the rise, to the complete information point signaled by the fall.
[17] The gale died DÓWN the daylight CÁME we were picked up by a CÒASTER.
The principle in [15] would apply the same principle as in [14]
[18] The gale died DÓWN and we were picked up by a CÒASTER.
The contrast between [14] and [16] shows the inconclusive effect of the rising
tone. The two clauses have equal informational weight.
23. The principle of climax: ‘last is most
important’
Given the correlation between falling tone and the full stop, the following is
likely reading for the passage:
[19] We CÀN’T go back And MÈLVILLE couldn’t much as he hated the civilized
humanity he KNÈW he CÒULDN’T go back to the savages
He WÀNTED to He TRÌED to And he CÒULDN’T.
There are violations of the end-focus principle which give the impression of a
spoken text rather than of a written one.
24. The principle of climax: ‘last is most
important’
[20] eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of RÓME, the
imperial CÌTY, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of
MANKÌND, was delivered to the licentious fury of tribes of Germany and SCÝTHIA.
[ Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 31]
The sentence is thus divided into four graphic units, leading up to the climatic
unit, or point of finality, at the end.
1. The first graphic unit, factual reference to the foundation of Rome, is
scarcely newsworthy in the context of the book.
2. The second unit a piece of elegant variation, adds no new piece of
information, but adds weight by invoking the later, more glorious rematch of
Rome as center of an empire.
3. The import of this honorific tittle ‘imperial city’ is developed more grandly in
the relative clause which constitutes the third unit.
4. the predicate of the main clause, is the true climax, not confirming the glory
of Rome, but rather, by a dramatic reversal or peripeteia, destroying it.
25. Periodic sentence structure
A periodic sentence in a strict sense is one which saves its main clause to the
end. But as it is an usual for sentences of any complexity to have this form in
English.
By anticipatory constituent means any subordinate or dependent constituent
which is non-final. Consider the following pairs:
[21] the truth is [ that they have suffered through negligence]
[22] [that they have suffered negligence] is the truth
[23] Sophia sailed into the room [ with her eyes ablaze ]
[24] [ with her eyes ablaze], Sophia sailed into the room.
Both [22] and [24] contain a major anticipatory constituent.
The corresponding dependent constituent in [21] and [23] are in the final
position in the clause, and may therefore be called TRAILING constituent.
26. Periodic sentence structure (example)
Parenthetical dependent constituents belong to the anticipatory category :
[25] Sophia, [ with her eyes ablaze ], sailed into the room.
This sentence, with parenthetical adverbial, is to be classed with [24] rather
than with [23] .
27. Periodic sentence structure
A dependent constituent is one which cannot stand on its own, and hence
cannot be interpreted in isolation
An anticipatory constituent must therefore be held in the memory until the
major constituent of which it is a part has been interpreted.
Trailing constituents do not involved such suspense.
Periodic structure has been an influential model in the history of prose
writing because periodic sentences has a dramatic quality: they combine the
principle of climax with the principle of subordination, and so progress from a
build-up of tension to a final climatic point of resolution.
28. Loose sentence structure
A loose structure is a structure in which trailing constituent re-domined over
anticipatory constituent.
Loose structure is ‘natural’ in that it makes things easy for the addresse, and
incidentally for the addresser, by reducing the amount of syntactic
information that has to be stored in decoding.
29. Loose sentence structure (example)
[26] He stood in the doorway ‘with the taste of alcohol on his tongue’ watching a
thin girl ‘in a red rubber cap’ giggle under the floodlighting’.
[ Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, Chapter 1 ]
All the major constituents in this sentence according between points marked
‘are trailing constituents. To the category of trailing constituent may be
added the none-initial constituent of a coordinate structure.
30. Loose sentence structure
It is possible to interpret one coordinated constituent without the next:
For example:
[27] he seized the doctor’s hand’ and shook it warmly.
Anticipatory and trailing constituents can be identified as follows:
A. Anticipatory B. Trailing
1. Initial dependent constituents 1. Final dependent constituent
2. Parenthetical constituent 2. Non-initial coordinate constituent
