Persuasion and poetics rhetoric

1. Major: English Language and Literature
Applied Linguistics
Session 10 “Persuasion and poetics, rhetoric and resistance”
Dr. Badriya Al Mamari
Academic year 2021/2022

2. • To be a lie or not to be a lie. That is the question.
• Consider the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.
• Do you think that the tales of little people, giants, the horses that surpass
the human race are true? If not, is it a lie?
Is Literature a lie?.

3. • We recognize that novels are fiction.
• We enjoy it, lose ourselves in it, and indirectly learn from it some truths
about the real world in which we do live - the one which is not created
as Gulliver’s islands are, entirely by words.

4. Language in Literature
• Language, in literature, is used to create alternatives to the real world. In
doing so, the precise choice and ordering of words is very important to
create the effect intended on readers.

5. Literature and Language
• While translating these literary works, the translator is faced with the
choice of translating the words exactly or to convey the meaning. Either
way, the literary work would lose some of its effects and sole after being
translated.
Example:
Translate the following:
“To be or not to be. That is the question”.
When you translate it , you change the resonance and rhythm of the
original and also differ in meaning.

6. What does literature have to do with applied
linguistics?
• Although, Literature doesn’t have the same kind of direct social and economic
consequence as other fields like language education, or the spread of English as
Lingua Franca, however, it would be wrong to underestimate the impact and
the importance of literature because :
• 1.it reflects and constructs our individual and social identities.
• 2.it embodies or criticizes the values of the society from which it comes;
• 3.it has an essential role to play in education.
• 4.because it constituted entirely of language, then analysis of that language
must be relevant to our understanding of how it achieves such power.
Such understanding like applied linguistics demands mediation between livid
experience and academic knowledge .

7. Literary Stylistics
• Linguistic analysis can describe and analyze the language of a literary text
but is not of itself an applied linguistics activity.
• When linguistic choices are linked to their effect upon the reader and
some attempts are made at an explanation this is called literary stylistics.
• It can be an important resource for the analysis of powerful and
persuasive uses of language in general.

8. Stylistic Analysis
• Stylistic analysis tend to highlight three related aspects of literary
language:
1.The frequent deviation from the norms of more everyday language use 2.
2.The pattering of linguistic units to create rhythms, rhymes, and parallel
constructions
3.The way in which the form of the words chosen seems to augment or
intensify the meaning

9. Example: From melancholy opening stanza of William Black’s poem
“London”
I wander through each charter’d street
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe

10. Why is it important to study these literary
works?
• It is noted that some language devices are not only used in literature. It
can occur in persuasive and emotive uses in society at large (i. e.
commercials, political, religious discourse).
• As with literature, stylistic analysis can investigate the link between these
language uses and their social and psychological power. If such analysis is
used to address and uncover manipulation, and to empower those who
are manipulated, then it does indeed become part of an applied linguistic
process.

11. Language and Persuasion
• Language can be used to tell the truth literally or figuratively (i. e. poetry,
prayer).
• Language can have a persuasive power. It can be perceived as inspiring
and uplifting. Other uses of language are benign, seeking to control and
influence our ideas in the service of some vested political or commercial
interest.
• Understanding linguistic techniques of persuasion can enhance our ability
to make their rational informed judgment on which decision-making
depends.
• It is here that applied linguistics has a particular contribution to make and
here that some of the skills developed in literary stylistics can be extended
to very powerful effect .

12. Critical discourse analysis (CDA)
• In any communication, there is an invitable selection and omission of
information.
• Newspaper editors must choose which events to cover, how much space
to devote to each and which facts to emphasize or omit .
• one can not report any event or situation truthfully without selecting
some facts in preference to the others. But the selection equally invitably
reflects the values of the writer and the view of the world which he or
she wishes to encourage in the reader.

13. • Of more interest to applied linguistics and of more danger for being less
transparent is the presentation of the same facts in ways which, while not
altering the truth of what is said, nevertheless influence, and are perhaps
calculated to influence the reader's attitude.
• The real contribution can be made to people's capacity to read and listen
critically and to resist being manipulated by what is said. The analysis of
such language and its effects is known as critical linguistics, or one placed
in a larger social context and seen as part of a process of social change as
critical discourse analysis (CDA).

14. What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
• It is the study of the relationship between linguistic choices and effects in
persuasive uses of language, of how these indoctrinate or manipulate (i.
e. in marketing and politics), and the counteracting of this through
analysis.

15. © M. Grazia Busà 2013

16. Passivation Vs Nominalization
• The use of passivation, which is the favoring of the use of the passive
structure more than the active one.
EX. 150 passengers were killed in a plane crash in Nairobi.
• The use of nominalization, which is when actions and processes are
referred to as nouns rather than people.
• Ex. Educational scientific research is a powerful technique.

17. • Examples:
1.Which of these would a milk company use in its ads for its milk:
“10% fat / 90% fat free ?”
2.”Five children were killed in air attack ? / The pilot killed five children”
3.”Genetic modification is a powerful technique / Rresearchers who modify
genes have a great deal of power.”
4.”Redundancies will be announced / The owners will be firing people”.

18. • More serious examples:
• In media, the use of the terms like “terrorist”, “murder”, “regime”
incorporate judgment. The problem here is that there is no separation
between facts and opinion.

19. Problems with Critical Discourse Analysis
• 1.Obfuscation is the obscuring of the intended meaning of
communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually
with confusing and ambiguous language.
• Examples:
• When a politician purposely gives vague answers to a question so no one
knows his real position.
• When the murderer set a fire to obfuscate any evidence of his or her
identity before leaving the scene,

20. Problems with Critical Discourse Analysis
• 2.Conversationalization and the creation of synthetic personality:
Conversationalization is viewed as part of more general changes in social
relations and cultural values that have been defined in terms of
individualism, a shift away from tradition and toward informalization and
the adoption of an informal, chatty tone, so as to appear to create an
interpersonal relationship with listeners or readers.
These changes have been affecting relations of authority, relations between
public and private domains of social life, and the construction of self-
identity.

21. • In a competitive and dangerous world, being able to understand and
assess the information we receive and the motives and interests of those
who are giving it to us is of essential importance. Dealing with and
understanding the persuasive and manipulative use of the language is a
major need in the contemporary world.
• The study of language use in literature can be an indication of the use of
language in persuasive settings. It is the applied linguist job to study these
instances and decide how to raise awareness if there is an intention of
manipulating people to achieve political or commercial goals.

22. References:
• Cook, G. (2003). Applied linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
R. B. Kaplan (Ed.) (2002), The oxford handbook of applied linguistics
New York: Oxford University Press.