Rhetorical invention in<i>Wen Xin Diao Long</i>

Zhao, Heping

doi:10.1080/02773949409391014

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Because of its profundity, the studies in English are still meager. Zhao (1994) initiates an inventional approach to the Carving of Dragons via two parts: content-oriented inventional acts and form-oriented inventional acts, which complement each other and are bound to circumstantial considerations. This research can be seen as resuming the investigation of form invention in The Literary Mind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Logical Function of Rhetorical Questions: An Enthymematic Analysis of RQs in The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons

Na¹,

Yuan²

2019

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Rhetorical questions are often interpreted from the semantic, pragmatic, and syntactical perspectives; but their logical function is rarely investigated. This paper, based on the proper interpretation of Aristotle's "enthymeme" or "rhetorical syllogism", attempts to explore the mechanism of RQs' argumentative function, by examining the RQ-rich masterpiece, Liu Xie's The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (《文心雕龙》). The sample analyses reveal that RQs achieve a strong logical function via both suggesting and implying the propositions (often major premise and conclusion), as well as providing the solid argument (as minor premise). Also, our enthymematic analyses prove that the RQs' logical function is meanwhile accompanied by salience of the suggested conclusion or major premise, the assertion or assumption transformed from the question itself. This inquiry highlights the argumentative function of rhetorical figures and enriches Western rhetoric notions in Chinese classics interpretation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%