Page 208 - 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. 208
What Do We Know about the World?
Stance and personality are realised by basic features of language that,
as Cockcroft and Cockcroft (2005: 38) suggest, “lay the foundations
of meaning and human contact”. The dialectic of persuasion is to be
grounded in three functions propounded by Halliday (1973), i.e. idea-
tional (ideas about the real world), interpersonal (social relationships),
and textual (realisation of language choices). All the functions enumer-
ated must be fulfilled so that the persuasive character of ethos is commu-
nicated. The first one – ideational, say, can be realised by making use of
the language depicting the persuadees’s experience; the second one – in-
terpersonal – by the use of modal verbs (expressing possibility, uncer-
tainty, criticism, expectation, etc.), and personal pronouns (showing dis-
tance); the textual function – by virtue of textual cohesion and coher-
ence: verb tense, syntax, word order and variation of sentence type.
To illustrate the above points and to see how politicians realise
ethos, two extracts from the presidential debate held on 27th June 2010
are presented. In the first extract Jarosław Kaczyński (a leader of Prawo
i Sprawiedliwość) responds to the question on the equality of opportuni-
ties between regions in Poland:
(1) We have two conceptions in Poland. One, in short, is called the con-
ception of motor force and it is the conception of concentrating resourc-
es in those regions of the country in which we can already encounter
a substantial level of prosperity, in addition, it has been estimated that the
above-mentioned level of prosperity will later spread over other regions
of our homeland. And there is the conception of the balanced develop-
ment, of which I am a loyal supporter and which I developed when I was
the Prime Minister. It is the conception of a special support for those re-
gions of Poland, which suffer – through no fault of theirs in general, most
often through no fault of theirs – a certain backwardness. It was articulated
by an algorithm of the implementation of the European funds, very bene-
ficial for the least favoured voivodeships [a voivodeship – a Polish admin-
istrative district equivalent to a province–ftn. JSW], in particular those in
the east, as well as special programmes, which we managed to win for those
voivodeships in Brussels. In short, we are of the opinion that a “good” de-
velopment of Poland is equivalent to a balanced development, and it is es-
sentially in the interest of all of us. For the reason that nowhere in the world
the development via those so-called motor forces – it has its scholarly name
I will not allude to – brought desirable effects, islands of prosperity and the
ocean of stagnation were established, or such spheres where the reverse
process took place, where they were getting poorer. In short, it would be
better if we do not try to implement that conception, I refer to it because
Stance and personality are realised by basic features of language that,
as Cockcroft and Cockcroft (2005: 38) suggest, “lay the foundations
of meaning and human contact”. The dialectic of persuasion is to be
grounded in three functions propounded by Halliday (1973), i.e. idea-
tional (ideas about the real world), interpersonal (social relationships),
and textual (realisation of language choices). All the functions enumer-
ated must be fulfilled so that the persuasive character of ethos is commu-
nicated. The first one – ideational, say, can be realised by making use of
the language depicting the persuadees’s experience; the second one – in-
terpersonal – by the use of modal verbs (expressing possibility, uncer-
tainty, criticism, expectation, etc.), and personal pronouns (showing dis-
tance); the textual function – by virtue of textual cohesion and coher-
ence: verb tense, syntax, word order and variation of sentence type.
To illustrate the above points and to see how politicians realise
ethos, two extracts from the presidential debate held on 27th June 2010
are presented. In the first extract Jarosław Kaczyński (a leader of Prawo
i Sprawiedliwość) responds to the question on the equality of opportuni-
ties between regions in Poland:
(1) We have two conceptions in Poland. One, in short, is called the con-
ception of motor force and it is the conception of concentrating resourc-
es in those regions of the country in which we can already encounter
a substantial level of prosperity, in addition, it has been estimated that the
above-mentioned level of prosperity will later spread over other regions
of our homeland. And there is the conception of the balanced develop-
ment, of which I am a loyal supporter and which I developed when I was
the Prime Minister. It is the conception of a special support for those re-
gions of Poland, which suffer – through no fault of theirs in general, most
often through no fault of theirs – a certain backwardness. It was articulated
by an algorithm of the implementation of the European funds, very bene-
ficial for the least favoured voivodeships [a voivodeship – a Polish admin-
istrative district equivalent to a province–ftn. JSW], in particular those in
the east, as well as special programmes, which we managed to win for those
voivodeships in Brussels. In short, we are of the opinion that a “good” de-
velopment of Poland is equivalent to a balanced development, and it is es-
sentially in the interest of all of us. For the reason that nowhere in the world
the development via those so-called motor forces – it has its scholarly name
I will not allude to – brought desirable effects, islands of prosperity and the
ocean of stagnation were established, or such spheres where the reverse
process took place, where they were getting poorer. In short, it would be
better if we do not try to implement that conception, I refer to it because
