Page 69 - 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
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Linguistic-Discursive Creation 69
of the Speaker’s Ethos for the Sake
of Persuasion: A Key Aspect
of Rhetoric and Argumentation
Paul Danler, University of Innsbruck
Summary
The central topic of this brief study is the linguistic-discursive creation of ethos in rhe-
torical and argumentative texts. In order to understand why ethos plays a fundamen-
tal role in those text types it seems necessary to first discuss the very notions of rhet-
oric and argumentation. The main goal of rhetorical and/or argumentative texts is
persuasion. For this reason it also has to be clarified how persuasion works in those
text types. After that we will look at the topic of ethos from various points of view:
ethos beside pathos and logos as one of the key elements of rhetoric; Aristotle’s classifi-
cation of the constituents of ethos into phronesis, eunoia, and arétè; ethos seen almost as a
mask in the Jungian sense; the distinction between ethos as a discursive phenomenon
and ethos as a prediscursive phenomenon; the role of topoi and doxa in the construc-
tion of ethos and finally the differentiation between rhetorical argumentation and lin-
guistic argumentation, the latter of which being of particular interest for our applied
analysis. In that final part we will eventually analyze a few exemplary morphosyntac-
tic structures which in a way create the speaker’s ethical portrait or, to put it different-
ly, which discursively construct the speaker’s ethos. The speeches we will draw upon
were delivered by Mussolini between 1921 and 1941.
Key words: discursive strategy, persuasion, argumentation, rhetoric, ethos
P1. Introduction
ersuasion1 is the objective both of rhetoric and argumentation.
The overall goal of persuasion is to make the listener or interlocu-
tor change or give up his or her attitude in favour of the one repre-
1 In this study we treat persuasion as a synonym of conviction without discussing any possible semantic
differences between the two concepts.
of the Speaker’s Ethos for the Sake
of Persuasion: A Key Aspect
of Rhetoric and Argumentation
Paul Danler, University of Innsbruck
Summary
The central topic of this brief study is the linguistic-discursive creation of ethos in rhe-
torical and argumentative texts. In order to understand why ethos plays a fundamen-
tal role in those text types it seems necessary to first discuss the very notions of rhet-
oric and argumentation. The main goal of rhetorical and/or argumentative texts is
persuasion. For this reason it also has to be clarified how persuasion works in those
text types. After that we will look at the topic of ethos from various points of view:
ethos beside pathos and logos as one of the key elements of rhetoric; Aristotle’s classifi-
cation of the constituents of ethos into phronesis, eunoia, and arétè; ethos seen almost as a
mask in the Jungian sense; the distinction between ethos as a discursive phenomenon
and ethos as a prediscursive phenomenon; the role of topoi and doxa in the construc-
tion of ethos and finally the differentiation between rhetorical argumentation and lin-
guistic argumentation, the latter of which being of particular interest for our applied
analysis. In that final part we will eventually analyze a few exemplary morphosyntac-
tic structures which in a way create the speaker’s ethical portrait or, to put it different-
ly, which discursively construct the speaker’s ethos. The speeches we will draw upon
were delivered by Mussolini between 1921 and 1941.
Key words: discursive strategy, persuasion, argumentation, rhetoric, ethos
P1. Introduction
ersuasion1 is the objective both of rhetoric and argumentation.
The overall goal of persuasion is to make the listener or interlocu-
tor change or give up his or her attitude in favour of the one repre-
1 In this study we treat persuasion as a synonym of conviction without discussing any possible semantic
differences between the two concepts.
