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Chapter 5. Persuasive discourse in Daniel Defoe’s political essays

Boosting and hedging
  • Rosa María López Campillo
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Discourse Studies in Public Communication
This chapter is in the book Discourse Studies in Public Communication

Abstract

The main concern of this paper is to gain an insight into two of the most common rhetorical strategies used by Daniel Defoe as a political journalist in the first decades of eighteenth-century Britain: boosting and hedging. I draw attention to these two different persuasive verbal devices employed by the writer in a sample of Defoe’s political essays published in 1709 excerpted from The Review (1704–1713), one of the leading journals during the reign of Anne Stuart, when political propaganda relied heavily on pamphlets and periodicals. The results obtained reveal that Defoe used language as a political weapon, resorting to boosting, on the one hand, to make his stance clear, add emphasis, confer certainty to his arguments, and convince the readership of the evidence of his statements; and to hedging, on the other, to soften potential conflicts produced by his assertions, connect with the readers, and attain persuasion.

Abstract

The main concern of this paper is to gain an insight into two of the most common rhetorical strategies used by Daniel Defoe as a political journalist in the first decades of eighteenth-century Britain: boosting and hedging. I draw attention to these two different persuasive verbal devices employed by the writer in a sample of Defoe’s political essays published in 1709 excerpted from The Review (1704–1713), one of the leading journals during the reign of Anne Stuart, when political propaganda relied heavily on pamphlets and periodicals. The results obtained reveal that Defoe used language as a political weapon, resorting to boosting, on the one hand, to make his stance clear, add emphasis, confer certainty to his arguments, and convince the readership of the evidence of his statements; and to hedging, on the other, to soften potential conflicts produced by his assertions, connect with the readers, and attain persuasion.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Political discourse studies
  6. Chapter 1. Imagining the nation in British politics 15
  7. Chapter 2. Political and journalistic discourse regarding the Catalan declaration of independence 39
  8. Chapter 3. National vs international cartoons depicting Catalonia’s independence process in the press 59
  9. Chapter 4. A corpus-assisted qualitative approach to political discourse in Spanish print and digital press 83
  10. Chapter 5. Persuasive discourse in Daniel Defoe’s political essays 103
  11. Chapter 6. Politics beyond death? 129
  12. Part II. Gender and sexuality discourse studies
  13. Chapter 7. It all comes down to sex 151
  14. Chapter 8. Cyberbullying and gender 177
  15. Chapter 9. A visual critical discourse analysis of women representation in Dolce & Gabbana advertising 199
  16. Chapter 10. Let’s talk about sex in high school 219
  17. Part III. Business and academic discourse studies
  18. Chapter 11. Paralinguistic resources in persuasive business communication in English and Spanish 245
  19. Chapter 12. Business discourse from a psycholinguistic approach 273
  20. Chapter 13. Compensatory discourse strategies in the bilingual university classroom 297
  21. Index 321
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.92.05lop

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Political discourse studies
  6. Chapter 1. Imagining the nation in British politics 15
  7. Chapter 2. Political and journalistic discourse regarding the Catalan declaration of independence 39
  8. Chapter 3. National vs international cartoons depicting Catalonia’s independence process in the press 59
  9. Chapter 4. A corpus-assisted qualitative approach to political discourse in Spanish print and digital press 83
  10. Chapter 5. Persuasive discourse in Daniel Defoe’s political essays 103
  11. Chapter 6. Politics beyond death? 129
  12. Part II. Gender and sexuality discourse studies
  13. Chapter 7. It all comes down to sex 151
  14. Chapter 8. Cyberbullying and gender 177
  15. Chapter 9. A visual critical discourse analysis of women representation in Dolce & Gabbana advertising 199
  16. Chapter 10. Let’s talk about sex in high school 219
  17. Part III. Business and academic discourse studies
  18. Chapter 11. Paralinguistic resources in persuasive business communication in English and Spanish 245
  19. Chapter 12. Business discourse from a psycholinguistic approach 273
  20. Chapter 13. Compensatory discourse strategies in the bilingual university classroom 297
  21. Index 321
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