COMM exam #2

What are the five clauses of Burke’s definition?

1. Man is the symbol-using animal

2. Man is the inventor of the negative (what is with or not) (no negative in nature)

3. Man is separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making

4. Goaded by a spirit of hierarchy

5. Man is rotten with perfection

3 embodiments of Rhetorical Agency

1. All audiences are not created equal (no agency or unknown rhetorical agency)

2. Sometimes intended audiences do not immediately possess agency

3. Rhetor may have to rhetorically construct audience to give them agency.

What do those clauses mean?

What is the difference between action and motion?

action is the result of human activity while motion is natural and grounded in the physical realm. (Humans are action and animals are motion)

What does entelechial mean?

following things to their logical conclusion.

What is an audience? (def.)

Any person who hears, reads, or sees a symbolic action; the group targeted by a message, even if it is not present; or the group capable of acting in response to the message.

What is a rhetorical audience?

the audience that “consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change.”

What are values, beliefs and attitudes?

1. values are morals instilled from a young age.

2. _

3. attitudes are actions you take based off of your beliefs.

What is identification?

a communicative process through which people are unified into a whole on the basis of common interests or characteristics.

What is consubstantiality?

2 distinct things become a part of a whole momentarily. (heart of persuasion and rhetoric)

what is rhetorical agency?

The capacity to act, to have the competence to speak or write (or engage in any form of symbolic action) in a way that will be recognized or heeded by others in one’s community.

What is the first persona?

the author implied by the discourse (person speaking)

What is the second persona?

The implied audience for whom a rhetor constructs symbolic actions. (the ‘you’ to whom a rhetor speaks)

What is the third persona?

audiences not present, audiences rejected or negated through the speech and or the speaking situation. (excluded & dehumanized audience e.g “it”)

What is the fourth persona?

An audience who recognizes that the rhetor’s first persona may not reveal all that is relevant about the speaker’s identity, but maintains silence to enable the rhetor to perform that persona. (e.g passing)

Passing

Performing a privileged identity to mask non-privileged identities. (a fraught way to perform persona)

eavesdropping audience

An audience whom the rhetor desires to hear the message despite explicitly targeting the message at a different audience.

What is Perelman’s view on truth?

There is truth but no absolute truth. Diagrees with idea of absolute truth because it devalues argument and freedom to argue.

What is the universal audience?

all reasonable and competent people

what is the particular audience?

a specific group whether or not they are reasonable or competent (influence group)

what is the difference between demonstration and argumentation?

demonstration is impersonal while argumentation is personal

what is the difference between persuading and convincing?

persuading is validity for a particular audience while argumentation (convincing) tries to gain the adherence of all rational beings.

what is communion?

Argument starts with agreement

what is presence?

to make smth. standout in mind and audience (style, arrangement and delivery)

Who are Lloyd Bitzer and Richard Vatz?

Vatz and Bitzer are famous philosophers of rhetoric who believe in opposing viewpoints. (situations are rhetorical; situation controls rhetorical response vs. rhetoric is situational; situation controls rhetorical response.

What is the rhetorical situation?

a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.

what are the three constituents of any rhetorical situation?

exigence, audiences, and constraints

what is a fitting response?

a response that meets the expectations of the rhetorical situation.

What is Vatz’s position on the rhetorical situation?

Vatz believes that Bitzer is wrong; meaning is not in events; situations are systematically constructed, and created by rhetors. (situations are rhetorical.) Utterance strongly invites exigence and rhetoric controls the situational response.

What is Bitzer’s position on the rhetorical situation?

Rhetoric is situational, existing calls fitting response, history is “natural”, exigence invites utterance, and situation controls rhetoric response.

How does PIFM respond to the debate between Bitzer and Vatz?

PIFM says situations are defined by people (exigence and audience are perceived by rhetor and the problem is defined by the person speaking)

What are the four ways to respond to a rhetorical situation according to PIFM?

1. Conformity

2. Contextual reconstruction

3. Desecration

4. Non-participation

What is conformity?

a conventional response to a situation (good for situation)

What is Nonparticipation?

a response that denies the legitimacy of the rhetorical situation

What is desecration?

A response that violates what would be considered an appropriate response; it participates but in a way that overtly challenges expectations. (violates norms and conventions in order to question the legitimacy of the situation)

What is contextual reconstruction?

A response where the rhetor attempts to redefine the situation. (appears to conform but instead challenges the expectations of what is meant to achieve)

what is exigence?

problems

What is audience?

who the problem is for

what are constraints?

limits to what you’re able to do.