The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism
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François Cooren
Abstract
I propose to open up the dialogic scene by showing that a dialogue is never just about discourse and language. It is also about facts, principles, passions, values, ideologies, collectives, worldviews, etc. that can (or cannot) make a difference, i.e., do something, in a given interaction. According to this approach, dialogue is one of the most important phonation devices through which a plethora of ‘things’ – which I call actants – can come to act from a distance. Showing that these actants can be rhetorically mobilized in a given interaction allows me to account for phenomena of ‘ventriloquism,’ that is, the various ways by which human interactants make certain entities (collectives, procedures, policies, ideologies, etc.) speak in their name and vice versa. We will see that this way of dislocating the dialogic scene allows us to address thoroughly the question of power and authority, a question that tends to be relatively downplayed by dialogue analysts.
Abstract
I propose to open up the dialogic scene by showing that a dialogue is never just about discourse and language. It is also about facts, principles, passions, values, ideologies, collectives, worldviews, etc. that can (or cannot) make a difference, i.e., do something, in a given interaction. According to this approach, dialogue is one of the most important phonation devices through which a plethora of ‘things’ – which I call actants – can come to act from a distance. Showing that these actants can be rhetorically mobilized in a given interaction allows me to account for phenomena of ‘ventriloquism,’ that is, the various ways by which human interactants make certain entities (collectives, procedures, policies, ideologies, etc.) speak in their name and vice versa. We will see that this way of dislocating the dialogic scene allows us to address thoroughly the question of power and authority, a question that tends to be relatively downplayed by dialogue analysts.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction: Rhetoric or how to integrate the different voices ix
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Part I. Rhetorical Paradigms
- Rhetoric in the Mixed Game 3
- The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism 23
- Dialogic rhetoric, coauthorship, and moments of meeting 39
- The rhetoric of 'dialogue' in metadiscourse: Possibility/impossibility arguments and critical events 55
- Rhetoric and ethic of dialog: Can conditions of performance serve as excluding criteria? 69
- Common ground and (re)defanging the antagonistic: A paradigm for argumentation as shared inquiry and responsibility 83
- What is the role of arguments? Fundamental human rights in the age of spin 95
- Logical and rhetorical rules of debate 119
- Rhetoric in a dialectical framework: Fallacies as derailments of strategic manoeuvring 133
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Part II. Rhetoric in the Mixed Game: Communicative means, cultural values, and institutional games
- Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim' 155
- Irony as a rhetorical device in dialogic interaction 171
- Political rhetoric in visual images 185
- Sociological concepts and their impact on rhetoric: Japanese language concepts 195
- The rhetorical component of dialogic communication in Banks' annual reports 209
- Attention-influencing as a rhetorical strategy in German and Turkish Parliamentary debates 221
- Diatexts of media dilemmas: The rhetorical construction of euthanasia 235
- Recontextualization of concepts in European legal discourse 251
- A court judgment as dialogue 267
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Part III. Round table discussion: Concepts of rhetoric, dialogue and argumentation
- Round table discussion 285
- General Index 309
- List of Contributors 315
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction: Rhetoric or how to integrate the different voices ix
-
Part I. Rhetorical Paradigms
- Rhetoric in the Mixed Game 3
- The selection of agency as a rhetorical device: Opening up the scene of dialogue through ventriloquism 23
- Dialogic rhetoric, coauthorship, and moments of meeting 39
- The rhetoric of 'dialogue' in metadiscourse: Possibility/impossibility arguments and critical events 55
- Rhetoric and ethic of dialog: Can conditions of performance serve as excluding criteria? 69
- Common ground and (re)defanging the antagonistic: A paradigm for argumentation as shared inquiry and responsibility 83
- What is the role of arguments? Fundamental human rights in the age of spin 95
- Logical and rhetorical rules of debate 119
- Rhetoric in a dialectical framework: Fallacies as derailments of strategic manoeuvring 133
-
Part II. Rhetoric in the Mixed Game: Communicative means, cultural values, and institutional games
- Strategic use of Korean honorifics: Functions of 'partner-deference sangdae-nopim' 155
- Irony as a rhetorical device in dialogic interaction 171
- Political rhetoric in visual images 185
- Sociological concepts and their impact on rhetoric: Japanese language concepts 195
- The rhetorical component of dialogic communication in Banks' annual reports 209
- Attention-influencing as a rhetorical strategy in German and Turkish Parliamentary debates 221
- Diatexts of media dilemmas: The rhetorical construction of euthanasia 235
- Recontextualization of concepts in European legal discourse 251
- A court judgment as dialogue 267
-
Part III. Round table discussion: Concepts of rhetoric, dialogue and argumentation
- Round table discussion 285
- General Index 309
- List of Contributors 315
