4 Persuasion analysis Flashcards
3 levels of analysis
1) Contextual perspective
2) Textual perspective
3) Cognitive perspective
Preliminary analysis
Here you investigate the genre, the context and the general characteristics of the text. Some definitions you need: Genre Register Context
UK political system
The United Kingdom is a CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY in which the monarch only plays a ceremonial role. Instead, the UK works on the basis of PARLIAMENTARY SUPREMACY, a system in which parliament is allowed to change any law and its legislation cannot be challenged in the UK courts. This results in parliament having a great deal of power much of which rests in the House of Commons, the UK’s elected primary chamber.
US political system
The United States is a FEDERAL REPUBLIC with a PRESIDENTIAL SYSTEM: a republican system of government where the HEAD OF GOVERNMENT IS ALSO HEAD OF STATE and leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch.
Discourse vs. discorso
«discourse» in English is not a synonym of the Italian “discorso”, it refers to the macro-category of discourse as social action and not to the specific genre, which in English corresponds to “ speech” (the English word for discorso).
II- Textual perspective
1- WORD ORDER: variation of clauses for pragmatic purposes and word-order in text (interrelation amongst clauses and sentences, coherence, cohesion)
2- EVALUATION
3- IDEOLOGY
4- RHETORICAL-ARGUMENTATIONAL ANALYSIS: rhetorical structures, figures, arguments/argumentative lines
5- FRAMES: structures related to the conceptualization of situation types and their expression in language, the concept of reality that’s implied and transmitted with discourse
6- DISCOURSE WORLDS: the mental space entertained by the speaker as real and negotiated through speaker and hearer interaction
7- STRATEGIC NARRATIVES
Ideology vs. knowledge
Ideologies are belief systems that are only shared by specific groups of people, they are typically not shared and taken for granted by the whole community. When ideological beliefs are accepted and taken for granted by all members of a community they are no longer ideologies but will count as knowledge in that community.
The limbo space
This doesn’t consist of a specific step of the analysis, but it allows us to link the textual dimension to the cognitive dimension: from “in the text” to “beyond the text”.
Social cognition
Mental representations shared by the members of social groups. They monitor discourse and other forms of interactions. Social cognitions mediate between micro- and macro-levels of society, between discourse and action, between the individual and the group.
Control of knowledge
Control of knowledge shapes our interpretation of the world, as well as our discourse and other actions. Hence the relevance of a critical analysis of those forms of text and talk, like the media and education, that aim to construct such knowledge.
Models
Models
Concrete text production and interpretation are based on so-called models, that is, mental representations of experiences, events or situations, as well as opinions we have about them.
