The Value of Topoi

Zompetti, Joseph P.

doi:10.1007/s10503-005-1458-y

Cited by 20 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…As various scholars have claimed, Aristotle’s topoi are argument systems (Kienpointner, 1997, 2001; Rubinelli, 2009; Walton, 1996; Zompetti, 2006). From my perspective, topoi have an encoding/decoding function that can help researchers to recognise arguments and study them critically.…”

Section: Theoretical and Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting for democracy: Political crisis and the discursive (re)invention of the ‘national enemy’ in times of ‘Grecovery’

Boukala

2014

Discourse & Society

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This article seeks to identify the polarising rhetoric adopted by Greek mainstream political parties during the era of ‘Grecovery’. The article focuses on the war of words between New Democracy, the leading party of the coalition government, and Syriza, the main opposition party on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the murder of a 15-year-old schoolboy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer and the subsequent riots of December 2008 and the authorities’ closure of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT). It draws on the political statements of two political parties – New Democracy and Syriza – and emphasises direct reference to the Greek civil war (1946–1949) and parallelisms of the current political climate with the colonels’ dictatorship (1967–1974). In focusing on those obscure pages of Greek modern history, this article analyses the discursive construction of collective memories of two different political poles and examines how the Greek left and right wings legitimise and redefine their political identities through the prism of their divided past. Using the discursive strategies of the discourse historical approach (DHA), the article illustrates how the DHA can reveal silencing strategies that lead to the discursive construction of the distinction between ‘Us’ – ‘democratic patriots’ and ‘Them’ – ‘enemies of the Greek nation’. Finally, recontextualisation in political rhetoric is highlighted as one of the ways of (re)constructing the tension and dichotomy between leftists and rightists. A systematic and explicit discourse analytic methodology of political rhetoric, that is based on history and (re)shapes collective memories, leads to an interdisciplinary approach that brings together and connects political rhetoric, argumentation and critical discourse analysis.

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Section: Theoretical and Methodological Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Waiting for democracy: Political crisis and the discursive (re)invention of the ‘national enemy’ in times of ‘Grecovery’

Boukala

2014

Discourse & Society

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“…These commonplaces may assist different stakeholders in understanding, constructing, evaluating, and interpreting informational documents for cancer genetic testing. In advocating their use, Zompetti (2006) maintained that "Topoi as forms of argument both serve to help us locate issues for argument as well as prepare us to engage in types of arguments…" (p. 20). As a genre, the gateway documents produced special topoi, or those "derived from the propositions relative to a particular species or class of things" (Aristotle, I.2.1358a).…”

Section: Topoi For Cancer Genetic Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifts and Transpositions: An Analysis of Gateway Documents for Cancer Genetic Testing

Kirkscey

2019

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This study describes and analyzes a sample of non-commercial webpages that address cancer genetic testing. These "gateway documents," which were returned in an initial Internet search for information, may serve as the only texts that people read when deciding whether to pursue genetic testing. Deliberative rhetorical theory elaborated into dimensions of embodied knowledge and scientific knowledge was mapped onto problematic integration theory to create a framework for investigating the documents. Analysis reveals the contingent nature of evaluating probability in genetic testing and the intrinsic need to examine the rhetorical construction of gateway documents as multi-dimensional communication events in which disadvantages and benefits shift-and sometimes transpose-according to the embodied knowledge of each person.Benefits and disadvantages of genetic testing become topoi that health care providers should consider carefully to improve the decision-making information offered to people who are searching for online resources.

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“…Myers (2005) similarly emphasises the role of commonplaces as being ‘at the heart of legitimate public opinion’ and their role in invoking ‘shared experiences and points of view’ which would involve a sense of shared experience with a sense of perspective (2005: 536–537). Analysis of topoi has also been endorsed as a tool to enable people to question issues that normally seem obvious (Zompetti, 2006) – in line with CDA and its aspiration to raise critical awareness in the way language is used. Topoi can be viewed as highly conventionalised argumentation places, in which warrants – assumptions that link the evidence to the conclusions – are neither (usually) explained nor challenged.…”

Section: Macro Legitimation Via Topoimentioning

confidence: 99%

Macro and micro legitimation in discourse on Iran’s nuclear programme: The case of Iranian national newspaper Kayhan

KhosraviNik

2014

Discourse & Society

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The present article attempts to throw light on the nature and quality of discursive strategies used in Iranian discourse on the nuclear programme as represented in an influential Iranian daily, Kayhan (کیهان). Working within the general guidelines of critical discourse analysis, the general orientation of the article is towards explicating how the newspaper texts may come to be perceived within an Iranian socio-political context. The article is part of a larger research project which has looked at the discourses of Iran’s nuclear programme as represented in different British and Iranian newspapers, and the ways they may devise micro-linguistic and macro-argumentative strategies to construct and de/legitimise the positions of Self and Other. The focus of this article is on findings on the broad argumentative aspects of one of the influential Iranian dailies which functions as a flagship of what can arguably be called the overarching conservative rhetoric of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Broad discursive approaches of the newspaper are distinguished in terms of a global, overarching, political macro-legitimatory approach versus a local, restricted micro-legitimatory approach towards identities of Self and Other and the nature of the political conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme.

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The Value of Topoi

Cited by 20 publications

References 21 publications

Waiting for democracy: Political crisis and the discursive (re)invention of the ‘national enemy’ in times of ‘Grecovery’

Waiting for democracy: Political crisis and the discursive (re)invention of the ‘national enemy’ in times of ‘Grecovery’

Shifts and Transpositions: An Analysis of Gateway Documents for Cancer Genetic Testing

Macro and micro legitimation in discourse on Iran’s nuclear programme: The case of Iranian national newspaper Kayhan

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