T(r)opical patterns in advertising

This research aims at unraveling relationships between rhetorical devices from elocutio and argumentative topoi from inventio in advertising. Studies on this topic have attempted to demonstrate not only that rhetorical devices condense argumentation schemes, but also that they have a strong argumentative force. I will try to achieve my goal by applying the Argumentum Model of Topics (a tool allowing to unveil inferential patterns behind arguments) to a corpus of award-winning advertisements

Adding a temporal dimension to the analysis of argumentative discourse: justified reframing as a means of turning a single-issue discussion into a complex argumentative discussion

This paper seeks to extend existing models of argumentation by considering an important dimension of real-life argumentative discourse: how complex argumentative discussions evolve over time. We define a complex argumentative discussion as a multi-issue discussion, in which the different issues are interrelated in the form of a hierarchy. We claim that justified reframing might be used to transform a single-issue argumentative discussion into a complex argumentative discussion. To illustrate this, we examine the Facebook discourse of the Rhodes Must Fall movement in South Africa. We analyse how reframing is justified by means of arguments, allowing the protagonists to claim as legitimate their reframing of a single issue into a complex argumentative discussion. Our findings complement existing sociological research on social movements by highlighting how their goals are achieved by means of argumentative discourse

Response to my commentator

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Multimodal arguments in the mainstream press: Illustrating portrayals of migration

This paper sketches a methodological integration of tools from multimodal discourse analysis and argumentation in order to unveil opaque argumentative inferences emerging in multimodal configurations (i.e., headlines and press photos) of seemingly non-argumentative genres such as news articles. We offer illustrative examples from the Italian mainstream press in the context of the so-called European ‘refugee crisis.’ Overall, our methodologically oriented proposal aims to deepen the debate in the area of multimodal argumentation. To that end, we sketch a dialogue with other perspectives that specifically study argumentative inference in multimodal configurations. We contend that this approach enables a better examination of the argumentative potential that is implicitly sustained in multimodal configurations of news articles

La costruzione delle preferenze dei consumatori/ pazienti: il concetto di ‘alimentazione sana’ nei messaggi pubblicitari di prodotti alimentari

In this article we discuss how commercials about food contribute to the construc-tion of the concepts of ‘healthy, natural and genuine food’. We analyze a corpus of interviews by identifying all the passages in which consumers speak about products providing reasons for considering them ‘natural’ or ‘healthy’. By analyzing the ar-gumentation schemes and by relating them to the multimodality in the commer-cials, we describe the reasoning underlying consumers’ motivations

The Rhetorical and Argumentative Relevance of "Extreme Consequence" in Advertising

The “extreme consequence” is a very common pattern in advertising messages that presents an odd, even negative, situation resulting from the use of the advertised product as a good reason to buy it. By analyzing selected advertisements employing this pattern using the conceptual integration theory and the Argumentum Model of Topics, we aim to understand how “extreme consequence” works at the rhetorical and argumentative levels. The analyses allow us to detect the typical, generic, cognitive, and argumentative structure underlying the pattern and to identify the rhetorical and argumentative role played by its main components, namely exaggeration and cause-effect relation.La «conséquence extrême» est un schéma très courant dans les annonces, par lequel une situation étrange, voire négative, résultant de l’utilisation du produit annoncé, est présentée comme une bonne raison pour acheter le produit lui-même. Nous employons la Théorie de l’intégration conceptuelle et le <<Argumentum Model of Topics>> pour analyser des announces publicitaires sélectionnés afin de comprendre comment la «conséquence extrême» fonctionne aux niveaux rhétorique et argumentatif. Ces analyses nous permettent de détecter la structure cognitive et argumentative typique et générique qui sous-tend le schéma et d'identifier le rôle rhétorique et argumentatif joué par ses principales composantes, à savoir l'exagération et la relation de cause à effet. &nbsp

Towards an integrated argumentative approach to multimodal critical discourse analysis: Evidence from the portrayal of refugees and immigrants in Greek newspapers

This paper proposes a methodological synthesis in order to study multimodal media discourse and argumentation in the context of the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in Greece. It follows the framework of Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, integrating this with argumentation studies, with a particular emphasis on the analysis of inference. Our data come from the Greek newspapers Kathimerini and Ta Nea. We contend that the proposed methodological synergy enables scrutiny of (a) racist conceptualizations cultivated by the representation of migrants and refugees in headlines and photographs in newspaper articles along with (b) the argumentative potential that is implicitly sustained in these multimodal representations