Rhetorical Form,
Lies & Euphemisms, and
Myths & Metaphors
Chapters 5 -7 Hahn
Form Components
 How the elements are combined, put together, the
pattern, the style of presentation, delivery
 Speech auditors don’t listen for form; they listen for
content (i.e., do they agree with the speaker?)
 As students of political language, we must attempt
to understand how discourses work, how rhetors
attempt to persuade us.
A sure “index” to a person’s political position could be
found in the speaker’s “characteristic way of thinking,
inevitably expressed in the type of argument”
presented. –Richard Weaver
Perspective and Form
 President Ronald Reagan’s “characteristic way of
thinking” was in SYNECDOCHES.
 Synecdoche is the most common form of METONYMY.
 Metonymy involves RELATIONSHIPS between what is said
and what is meant. The synecdoche form of metonymy
invokes a part-to-whole (or whole-to-part) relationship.
 The function of Reagan’s anecdotes—the narratives
about particular instances, people, etc.—was to “stand
for” whole classes of people in similar circumstances.
 Problems with this? Does a single example prove anything?
 See George W. Bush example on page 76.
Perspective and Form, continued
 Presidential discourse is often designed more to
REFLECT citizen attitudes than to CHANGE them.
 Deliberative, Epideictic, Forensic Speech FORMS
 “Even when a president does seem to be talking about
policy-making, presenting information for the
consideration of the citizenry—for example, in a crisis—
the form of the address need not be perceived as an
example of deliberative oratory in the Aristotelian
sense, i.e., of a rhetor laying out the arguments of a
position in an attempt to win the audience’s agreement.
It may be that the president just needed a pretext to
appear “presidential.”
 “Crisis is sometimes most profitably studied as an act of
presidential labeling.”
Identification
 Kenneth Burke and “consubstantiation”
 Identification concerns “one’s ways of sharing
vicariously in the role of leader or
spokesman…allegiance and change of
allegiance…one’s way of seeing one’s reflection in the
social mirror…positive and negative responses to
authority” (77).
 While the most obvious way for politicians to identify
with voters is through agreeing with them at the
content level, identification cal also be accomplished
through form. [Wordles and “WE”]
Independence Day
Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the
world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.
Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.
We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.
We will be united in our common interests.
Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our
freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.
We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.
And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American
holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:
"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechindependenceday.html
Wordles
Form and Persuasion
 Identification (77)
 Action (79)
 Emotional Involvement (80)
 Logic/Rationality (82)
 Strength (83)
 Honesty (84)
 Grandeur (85)
 Ideological Correctness (88)
Euphemisms to Lies
 Euphemisms & Disphemisms
 Lies and “not lies at all”
 Simplifications
 Generalizations
 The Art of Saying Nothing (memorable phrases,
earnestness, grand vision, jargon, nice words, etc.)
 The Language Mechanisms in Combination
Myths and Metaphors
Kenneth Burke:
 Water Metaphors
 Terministic Compulsion
If you know the metaphors with which people describe a
problem, you may be able to predict the nature of their
solution even before they figure it out. (121).
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-republicans-hateobamacare-2013-10
EXAMPLE:
Obamacare will destroy the country.
Obamacare will destroy the economy.
Obamacare violates the Constitution.
Edelman & American Mythology
 All problems are caused by outgroups.
 Our leaders are benevolent heroes who will lead us
out of danger.
 The function of the citizen is to work hard to do the
bidding of the leader.
Parentian Approach
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
You can’t fight city hall
Our leaders know best
You cannot legislate morality
The more things change, the more they remain the
same.
It doesn’t make any difference who we elect; they’re all
the same.
•
The five myths all encourage passivity and conformity in the
electorate (129).
Common Political Metaphors
(129)
Myths & American Ideology
1. Messianic Myth
2. The myth of Individualism & Hard Work
3. The myth of youth.
4. The myth of love and openness.
But, “citizen passivity is dangerous” (132).