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In:Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
Edited by Assimakis Tseronis and Charles Forceville
[Argumentation in Context 14] 2017
► pp. 25–50

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Chapter 1
Rhetoric, argumentation, and persuasion in a multimodal perspective

Published online: 20 December 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/aic.14.02roq
Abstract
The study of multimodal argumentation and rhetoric raises difficult issues due to the hegemony of the verbal in argumentation and rhetoric. From this point of view, it is not sufficient to say that such study implies the analysis of the “interactions” between verbal and iconic elements, since their contribution to multimodality is hardly balanced. This chapter addresses two issues: First, the relationship between rhetoric and argumentation. Based upon a discussion of authors who have tried to fill the gap between rhetoric and argumentation, it would seem that rhetoric could be useful for argumentation thanks to the persuasiveness that it provides. However, if images are persuasive, can they also be argumentative? Second, the relationship between verbal and visual rhetoric will be discussed from the debate in French-speaking countries between “transpositionists” and “antitranspositionists.” This issue can be resolved if we consider that rhetoric is not intrinsically linguistic, but that it consists rather of cognitive operations that can be realised both verbally and visually.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Figures of rhetoric and arguments
    • 2.1Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca
      • 2.1.1Figures of presence
      • 2.1.2Phryne, a paradigmatic case of persuasive presence
    • 2.2Reboul and Bonhomme
      • 2.2.1Metonymy
  • 3.Visual and verbal figures
    • 3.1The pioneers of visual rhetoric
    • 3.2Transpositionists and antitranspositionists
      • 3.2.1Visual rhetoric beyond figures
      • 3.2.2Multimodal rhetoric
  • 4.Perspectives for multimodal studies
    • 4.1Visual argumentation and visual rhetoric
    • 4.2Multimodal interactions
    • 4.3Persuasion and argumentation
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
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