rhetoric (n.)

In classical approaches to LANGUAGE, the study of effective or persuasive speaking and writing, especially as practised in public oratory. Several hundred rhetorical figures were recognized by classical rhetoricians, classifying the way words could be arranged in order to achieve special stylistic effects. Some of these notions have continued in modern STYLISTIC analysis, such as METAPHOR, simile, personification and paradox. On the whole, however, the complex terminology of the ancients has been considered too cumbersome for continued use, and its Latin/Greek provenance of limited applicability to modern languages. But the study of rhetoric has been given a new lease of life in modern courses on communication, where the aim is to understand the processes underlying successful argument and persuasion. Special applications have emerged: for example, contrastive rhetoric is a hypothesis that the organization of written text (chiefly, formal expository prose) is significantly different between languages. It works within a weak version of the SAPIR–WHORF HYPOTHESIS, and involves an application of DISCOURSE ANALYSIS. A chief objective is educational: to help foreign-language learners handle the discourse structures of advanced texts.