Page 79 - 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. 79
he linguistic-discursive creation of the speaker’s ethos for the
sake of persuasion: a key aspect of rhetoric and argumentation 79
Discipline has to be accepted. When it is not accepted, it has to be imposed.
We reject the democratic dogma according to which one must eternally
proceed by means of sermonizing, preaching and lectures of the more or
less liberal kind.
The direct object of the corresponding active structure turns into
the subject of the passive construction after the passive transformation
whereas its subject turns into the agentive case which need not be speci-
fied syntactically any longer. By not having to explicitly state who would
have to accept discipline and by whom it would otherwise be imposed,
Mussolini appears much more harmless, responsible and maybe even pa-
ternal than if he said I will impose and enforce discipline and you’ d better
accept it. It is obviously only thanks to this morphosyntactic construc-
tion that the audience doesn’t feel intimidated and threatened by the
speaker. The speaker’s ethos thus remains free of authoritarian or totali-
tarian claim despite the fact that certain democratic principles are even
ridiculed.
In the excerpt number IV we see a passive construction with agent.
Yet, as we have just pointed out, in the passive construction the real-
ization of the agentive case is not required for the morphosyntactic
well-formedness. From the functional sentence perspective this means
that once it is realized, it has acquired special communicative weight,
though. The reason for that is the fact that anything that goes beyond
the realization of the minimal argumentative structure is syntactical-
ly superfluous but precisely because of that communicatively even more
important.
(IV) Le privazioni, le sofferenze, i sacrifizî che dalla quasi unanimità degli ital-
iani e delle italiane vengono affrontati con coraggio e con dignità che può dir-
si veramente esemplare, avranno il loro compenso [...]. (Mussolini, 1941: 58)
The deprivation, the sufferings, the sacrifices, which are faced by almost all
Italians with courage and dignity, which can be described as exemplary, will
have their compensation [...].
The Italians who suffer the deprivations of war with courage and
dignity are portrayed as heroes by Mussolini. This should prove his re-
spect for them as well as his ethical integrity but it should also put pres-
sure on the audience to follow him in his policy. Respect and moral in-
tegrity are the new facets of the speaker’s ethos.
In quotation number V it is a diathetical change from causative to
recessive or anti-causative that allows the speaker to appear less aggres-
sive and dangerous than he probably is:
sake of persuasion: a key aspect of rhetoric and argumentation 79
Discipline has to be accepted. When it is not accepted, it has to be imposed.
We reject the democratic dogma according to which one must eternally
proceed by means of sermonizing, preaching and lectures of the more or
less liberal kind.
The direct object of the corresponding active structure turns into
the subject of the passive construction after the passive transformation
whereas its subject turns into the agentive case which need not be speci-
fied syntactically any longer. By not having to explicitly state who would
have to accept discipline and by whom it would otherwise be imposed,
Mussolini appears much more harmless, responsible and maybe even pa-
ternal than if he said I will impose and enforce discipline and you’ d better
accept it. It is obviously only thanks to this morphosyntactic construc-
tion that the audience doesn’t feel intimidated and threatened by the
speaker. The speaker’s ethos thus remains free of authoritarian or totali-
tarian claim despite the fact that certain democratic principles are even
ridiculed.
In the excerpt number IV we see a passive construction with agent.
Yet, as we have just pointed out, in the passive construction the real-
ization of the agentive case is not required for the morphosyntactic
well-formedness. From the functional sentence perspective this means
that once it is realized, it has acquired special communicative weight,
though. The reason for that is the fact that anything that goes beyond
the realization of the minimal argumentative structure is syntactical-
ly superfluous but precisely because of that communicatively even more
important.
(IV) Le privazioni, le sofferenze, i sacrifizî che dalla quasi unanimità degli ital-
iani e delle italiane vengono affrontati con coraggio e con dignità che può dir-
si veramente esemplare, avranno il loro compenso [...]. (Mussolini, 1941: 58)
The deprivation, the sufferings, the sacrifices, which are faced by almost all
Italians with courage and dignity, which can be described as exemplary, will
have their compensation [...].
The Italians who suffer the deprivations of war with courage and
dignity are portrayed as heroes by Mussolini. This should prove his re-
spect for them as well as his ethical integrity but it should also put pres-
sure on the audience to follow him in his policy. Respect and moral in-
tegrity are the new facets of the speaker’s ethos.
In quotation number V it is a diathetical change from causative to
recessive or anti-causative that allows the speaker to appear less aggres-
sive and dangerous than he probably is:
