Emotive Language in Argumentation

This book analyzes the uses and implicit dimensions of emotive language from a pragmatic, dialectical, epistemic and rhetorical perspective.

Fabrizio Macagno (Author), Douglas Walton (Author)

9781107676657, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 February 2014

301 pages, 25 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

'This book's title understates its significance. The authors make a compelling case that all language in public argument is emotive language. Richard Weaver's metaphor that language is sermonic is surpassed with a detailed and systematic explanation of how the language of public argument is saturated with values and ideological preferences. Moreover, the authors demonstrate how the tools of logic can be used to understand and evaluate such emotive language. This book is a great leap forward for scholars of logic and argumentation.' Edward Schiappa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This book analyzes the uses of emotive language and redefinitions from pragmatic, dialectical, epistemic and rhetorical perspectives, investigating the relationship between emotions, persuasion and meaning, and focusing on the implicit dimension of the use of a word and its dialectical effects. It offers a method for evaluating the persuasive and manipulative uses of emotive language in ordinary and political discourse. Through the analysis of political speeches (including President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize address) and legal arguments, the book offers a systematic study of emotive language in argumentation, rhetoric, communication, political science and public speaking.

1. When words are emotive
2. The emotions in our words
3. When words are reasoning
4. The acts of defining
5. What our words hide: presupposition and dark-side commitments
6. Dialogues and commitments
7. Metadialogues and redefinitions.

Subject Areas: Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Philosophy: logic [HPL], Philosophy of language [CFA]