RHETORIC

2) Changes in the connotation of pathos （情感含义的变化）

(1) Originally, the term “pathos” referred to the emotion in general which a speaker tried to

arouse in the audience. In modern rhetoric, it ranges from the study of the psychology of the audience or readers to the application of technology to convince them by emotional appeals(情感魅力).

The effects of emotional appeals include moral anger, ambition, excitement, fear, happiness, pity as well as various other feelings. By playing upon(利用) such feelings, the writer intends to change the beliefs and behavior of his or her readers. (2) Pathos in use today （当今所用的情感）

A) The use of emotional appeals is all around us. It is an essential element in advertising, public

relations, image-making(塑造形象), and education, especially in “affective education” (情感教育). In modern management, the practice of what is called “emotion investment” (感情投资) is also associated with pathos. For instance, the manager remembers to prepare a gift for each member of the staff on his or her birthday.

B) Effective appeals to the emotions depend upon the skilful----often witty handling of language,

frequently accompanied by “exposure” （揭露）and “eloquence”（口才）。.

1. “Exposure” evokes moral indignation --- sometimes humorously, sometimes angrily --- by condemning the unjust reality or revealing the difference between how things should be and how they are. The following is a letter that shows how an American mother resorts to(采用) this skill to move others to stand against the unjust war against Vietnam: (see the letter on p 23)

I am more than angry. I did not give birth to my one and only (=only) son to have him snatched away from me 18 years later(我不因18年后小孩从我身边抢走而生下唯一的男儿). My child has been loved and cared for and taught right from wrong (一直受到辨别是非的教育) and will not be fed into(=be involved into) any egomaniac?s war machine(不要卷入极端利己主义者的战争机器).

Our 18-to 25-year-olds(18-25岁的人) have not brought this world to its present sorry state(目前这种可怜的境地). Men over the age of 35(35岁以上的人), down through the centuries(几个世纪以来), have brought us here, and we women have been in silent accord (静静保持一致).

Well, this is one woman, one mother, who says No. I did not go through the magnificent agony of childbirth to have that glorious young life snuffed out(=killed被杀害)（我是由于不杀害光荣的年轻生命而经历了生小孩的巨大痛苦）.

Until the presidents, premiers, supreme rulers, politburos(政客) and congressmen of the world are ready to physically, as opposed to(与…对比) verbally, lead the world into combat, they can bloody well(sl.=very well) forget my child.

Unite, mothers! Don?t throw your sons and daughters away. Sometime, somewhere(某时某地), women must say No.

No. No. No. No. No. Never my child(不，不，不，不，不，决不抛弃自己的男孩和女孩！). (Louise M. Saylor, Washington Post, Jan. 28, 1980)

Mother?s love for children is profound, and universal. The writer of the letter is a mother herself, and therefore, her appeal (呼吁) has a special effect in arousing the sympathy of other mothers.

1. “Eloquence” refers to language used powerfully and fluently to appeal to people?s nobler emotions --- the sense of honor, love of one?s country and hometown, desire to reach toward virtue(达到效果). Eloquence is often used emotively, to express one?s emotions and evoke the sympathy of the audience on solemn occasions or issues of great significance. In this

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aspect, the speech made by Martin Luther King, JR.（马丁.路德.金）, on August 28,1963, at the March on Washington(在向华盛顿行进的路上), can be regarded as a fine sample of “the emotional crescendo (=climax高潮 ) of an emotional day” (A New English Course, Level 5, p.231)

C) Although a speech or a piece of writing may appeal mainly to

people?s emotion(主要是激发人们的感情), it should be based upon logos. Take the above mother?s letter for example. The logical reasoning that has made the mother?s emotional appeal so powerful can be seen in three aspects: (see p. 25)

First, her son has been loved and taught right from wrong (辨别是非) and it is unjust to send him to fight an aggressive war against another country.

Second, since those who should be responsible for “the present sorry state” are not ready to shoulder their responsibilities, it is unreasonable for them to turn other people?s children into “cannon fodder (炮灰)”.

Third, the mother is more than angry and her anger comes not only out of her love for her own son, but also out of her concern for the fate of all the 18-to 25-year-old young people. All the mothers should say No because there is absolutely no reason for them to have their children?s glorious young lives snuffed out (=killed扼杀).

As logic and emotion are so closely related in writing, skillful writers always use them successfully in order to make their words both convincing and moving. 3) Ethos in rhetoric (修辞学中的人格)

A. When you look up the word “ethos” in a dictionary like Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, you will find a whole range of multifaceted（多方面的） meanings. What follows here shows the three basic aspects:

1) It generally refers to character, sentiment, moral nature: the guiding beliefs, standards, or ideals that characterize or pervade（流行于） a group, a community, a people, or an ideology; or the spirit that motivates(激起) the ideas, customs, or practices of a people, an epoch, or a region.

2) It refers to the complex(复合体) of fundamental values that underlie(构成), permeate(充满), or actuate(开动) major patterns of thought or behavior in any particular culture, society, or institution. 3) In Aristotelian philosophy, it refers to the character or personality of a human being, especially with respect to a balance between the passions and caution, or the contrast between one?s thought and action.

B) In modern rhetoric, “ethos” demonstrates itself in three ways:

1) On serious occasions or disputes of principles, ethos takes as its basis a thoroughgoing study of various schools of philosophical views on different values, different ways of living and different world outlooks. Take “human rights” for example. As we admit the fact that human beings live in a society, everyone must enjoy human rights as well as fulfill(履行) their obligations, including observing disciplines, moral standards, social rules and regulations. Some people, however, only talk about human rights and even force their lopsided(单方面的) views upon others. This one-sided(片面的) approach to the understanding of “ethos” is definitely wrong and harmful.

2) In ordinary speaking or writing, ethos refers to the personal standing, academic authority, and moral qualities of the writer and speaker, used to guarantee or even raise the writer?s or speaker?s credibility(可信度) and acceptability(可接受性) in the eyes of the readers and audience. The following are a few cases indicating “ethos” in practice:

a. In anthologies (诗歌) or textbooks, there is usually a brief account of each text and its author, which tends to help readers to study it and to increase their interest in studying it. This, in fact, can be regarded as an application of “ethos”.

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b. A book usually has a preface and it is almost always written by an authoritative source. The purpose is inevitably to raise the social, literary or academic standard of the book, for there is always a positive introduction and favorable comment on the publication. In addition, the biding(装订) and layout(版面设计) of a book, a photo and an introduction about the author are all associated with ethos.

c. The titles, positions, address, fax (电传)and telephone numbers on one?s name card all have something to do with ethos, which not only help people communicate but they also provide credibility.

d. At a conference, the chairperson?s introduction of each speaker is also meant to raise the social, personal and academic status of the speaker, and if the speaker gives the audience a striking impression by his opening remarks, he will probably be successful in his speech. VIII. The Difference between Rhetoric and Rhetorical Operations （修辞学与修辞活动的区别）

According to The New Oxford Dictionary of English, rhetoric is the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

Rhetorical operations refer to a system of thought processes, including the choice of words and phrases, the seeking of sentence varieties and the organization of paragraphs and complete essays.（修辞活动是一个系统的思维过程，包括词语的选择，句子种类的选择，组段谋篇。） IX. The Three Levels of Rhetorical Operations （修辞活动的三个层次）

The three levels of rhetorical operations are: selecting words or phrases（选择词语）; selecting sentence varieties（选择句子类型）; writing a paragraph and arranging paragraphs into a complete text（组 段谋篇）. 1. Selecting words and phrases （选择词语）

1) The three basic levels of rhetoric （修辞学的三个层次）

Rhetoric involves choice of words, sentence patterns, figures of speech, organization of paragraphs and composition. This process can be broken down into three basic levels: Level One: words and phrases. Level Two: sentence variety.

Level Three: organizing paragraphs into a complete text. 2) Principles for selecting words and phrases:

Selecting words and phrases refers to the use of words (often called “diction”), which always involves choice based on the following five principles:

Principle One. Choose the word that will convey your meaning as exactly as possible. Pay much attention to the shades of meaning of synonyms, e.g. speak, say, tell, talk; anxious, nervous, fearful; refuse, decline; see, look, gawk(look foolishly呆呆地看), peer(look carefully/closely盯着看y), peep(look shyly/quickly偷看), stare(look with the eyes wide open睁大眼睛看), glimpse(give a quick look瞥见); smile, laugh, chuckle(抿嘴笑), grin(露齿而笑), snigger(窃笑), giggle(咯咯笑); seem, look, appear; etc. Principle Two. Try to use the smallest number of words necessary to say what you want to say. e.g. 1a Sorry, I?m not in a position to offer assistance to him. (wordy, verbose冗长) 1b Sorry, I am unable to help him.

1c Sorry I can?t help him. (economical, concise简练)

2a There has been persistent instability in numbers of staff.

2b The staff has continually varied in number. (economical简练) 工作人员的数目一直不能稳定。

3a There exists a considerable lack of the competition mechanism in the socialist marketing system. 3b We do not know much about the competition mechanism in the socialist marketing system.

(economical简练)

The second sentence in each group is shorter than the first one and

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the idea is more clearly expressed, which indicates that it is usually more economical and more effective to use a notional verb as the informational center. Principle Three Avoid clichés（老生常谈） and abstract expressions. Cliches has been used so long by so many people that they have lost freshness（新鲜）. For example, when people hear “How time flies!” or “Someone is as cunning as a fox”, they often feel bored. In cases when people need some definite information, you have to guard against abstract expressions, e.g. When you say “It?s extremely cold there at this season and you must take adequate measures to keep warm”, the listener still can?t tell how cold it is and what measures can be regarded as adequate; but you say “It?s usually 10 to 15 degrees below zero centigrade”? the listener will have a much better idea. That is what we may call relevant accuracy（相对准确）。.

Principle Four. In order to make your writing not only readable but also interesting and attractive, you should write in a vivid way. This is what we call vividness or gracefulness (得体). Compare the following two passages:

a. For several days snow fell heavily in the south of England. It lay many inches thick on the ground. The roofs of houses were white; walking through the streets was difficult; driving was dangerous. b. It is the coldest winter for 45 years. Heavy snow blankets（层层厚雪）swallowed everything on earth; Villages in the English countryside were cut off（被雪封） and the Thames froze over（冻结）. Cars crawled along（缓缓行驶） while pedestrians trudged through the deep snow.(在深雪中艰难行走). Horns hoarsened（汽车喇叭嘶哑）; road accidents shot up（迅速上升）. People told jokes about how it was more risky to drive by day than to go boating on the sea at night.

The two passages were written to describe the same snowy days, but the first is not so vivid as the second, which can be viewed in terms of the following three aspects: (see p. 43)

(1) Many general, vague words and phrases are used in passage (a )(see the underlined parts of the sentence), while in passage (b) more concrete expressions are used, e.g. “45 years”, “cars”, “pedestrians”, and “cut off”, “freeze over”, “crawl along”, ”trudge”, “horns”, which all go together to give the reader a vivid picture.

(2) Several figures are used in the second passage, e.g. blankets (hyperbole), swallow (metaphor), hoarsened (personification), shot up (hyperbole), cars (synecdoche: species for genus以种代类), …than to go boating on the sea at night (simile), which have intensified(增强) the vividness.

(3) Sentence patterns are varied in the second passage which consists of five different sentence structures, whereas in the first passage, the five sentences are all simple “subject + predicate” patterns. This difference demonstrates how true the saying is: Variety breeds vividness.”（多样产生生动）

Principle Five. Take into account the subject matter（要考虑题目问题）, the reader and the purpose of your writing, and see that your wording is in harmony with these factors. This is what we may call “appropriateness”（合适性） or “propriety”（合理性）. For instance, when you are writing to children, you will certainly use different wording from what you would use in writing to university students even if the subject is the same. And when you write a formal legal document, you will have to use those formal set phrases as “upon termination of the trust”（在终止信托财产时）, and it will be inappropriate for you change it into such informal expressions as “by the end of” or “when / once the trust is over”. Similarly, although the need of “ exactness”（确切性） and “accuracy”（准确性） has been stressed in general cases（在一般情况下）， you should also note that on certain occasions（在某些场合）， you have to use vague language so as to moderate your tone（缓和语气） or to be more tactful（策略）, or roundabout（间接性）.

2. Seeking sentence variety (选择句子类型)

1) Seeking sentence variety mainly deals with two aspects of sentence structures:

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