Page 205 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 205
rhetoric – martial art or the art of winning
the soul by discourse? 205
text and the audience. Not only the persuader but also the persuadee
needs to be involved, for the dialogic interaction entails reciprocal par-
ticipation and involvement. In the material examined we will concen-
trate on the pragmatic and linguistic techniques the persuader uses so as
to influence the audience. The material comprises two presidential de-
bates held on 27th and 30th June 2010, between two candidates: Jarosław
Kaczyński, representing Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice), and
Bronisław Komorowski, the candidate of Platforma Obywatelska (Civ-
ic Platform). The data for the analysis come from the website of Gazeta
Wyborcza: http://wyborcza.pl/. All the extracts have been translated by
the author of the article.
3. Stages of Shaping the Composition
Cicero (1948: I. 142, quoted in Dixon, 1971: 24) presents a process
of rhetorical composition, in which the orator “must first hit upon what
to say; then manage and marshal his discoveries, not merely in orderly
fashion, but with a discriminating eye for the exact weight of each ar-
gument; next go on to array them in the adornments of style; after that
keep them guarded in his memory; and in the end deliver them with
effect and charm”. The above-mentioned explication can be transferred
into skills which consist of “five phases/stages” (Lichański, 2007: 87;
Wilczek, 2009: 9–10): invention (inventio), arrangement or disposition
(dispositio), style (elocutio), memory (memoria) and delivery (actio). Our
attention, though, will be attached only to the first stage of the classical
composition, namely inventio.
3.1. Inventio
Invention, being the skill of finding and collecting material, in-
cludes: proof, topics, and commonplaces (Dixon, 1971: 24; Lichański,
2007: 96). Proof, according to Aristotle (1959: 15), can be inartificial or
artificial, the latter denotes the invention of the speaker, the former the
evidence of the law court (Dixon, 1971: 24). In turn, the artificial proof
is subdivided into ethos, pathos and logos.
These three kinds of proofs, means of persuasion or structural prin-
ciples by virtue of which the goal is attained denote: ethos “the moral
character of the speaker” (persuasion through personality and stance),
pathos “putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind” (persuasion
through the arousal of emotion), and logos “the speech itself, in so far
as it proves or seems to prove” (persuasion through reasoning) (Aristot-
le, 1959: 17).
the soul by discourse? 205
text and the audience. Not only the persuader but also the persuadee
needs to be involved, for the dialogic interaction entails reciprocal par-
ticipation and involvement. In the material examined we will concen-
trate on the pragmatic and linguistic techniques the persuader uses so as
to influence the audience. The material comprises two presidential de-
bates held on 27th and 30th June 2010, between two candidates: Jarosław
Kaczyński, representing Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice), and
Bronisław Komorowski, the candidate of Platforma Obywatelska (Civ-
ic Platform). The data for the analysis come from the website of Gazeta
Wyborcza: http://wyborcza.pl/. All the extracts have been translated by
the author of the article.
3. Stages of Shaping the Composition
Cicero (1948: I. 142, quoted in Dixon, 1971: 24) presents a process
of rhetorical composition, in which the orator “must first hit upon what
to say; then manage and marshal his discoveries, not merely in orderly
fashion, but with a discriminating eye for the exact weight of each ar-
gument; next go on to array them in the adornments of style; after that
keep them guarded in his memory; and in the end deliver them with
effect and charm”. The above-mentioned explication can be transferred
into skills which consist of “five phases/stages” (Lichański, 2007: 87;
Wilczek, 2009: 9–10): invention (inventio), arrangement or disposition
(dispositio), style (elocutio), memory (memoria) and delivery (actio). Our
attention, though, will be attached only to the first stage of the classical
composition, namely inventio.
3.1. Inventio
Invention, being the skill of finding and collecting material, in-
cludes: proof, topics, and commonplaces (Dixon, 1971: 24; Lichański,
2007: 96). Proof, according to Aristotle (1959: 15), can be inartificial or
artificial, the latter denotes the invention of the speaker, the former the
evidence of the law court (Dixon, 1971: 24). In turn, the artificial proof
is subdivided into ethos, pathos and logos.
These three kinds of proofs, means of persuasion or structural prin-
ciples by virtue of which the goal is attained denote: ethos “the moral
character of the speaker” (persuasion through personality and stance),
pathos “putting the hearer into a certain frame of mind” (persuasion
through the arousal of emotion), and logos “the speech itself, in so far
as it proves or seems to prove” (persuasion through reasoning) (Aristot-
le, 1959: 17).
