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Appropriating Rhetoric: A Beginner's Guide

Williams, Clare (2013) Appropriating Rhetoric: A Beginner's Guide. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 64 (3). pp. 383-395. ISSN 0029-3105. (doi:10.53386/nilq.v64i3.359) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:97412)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.53386/nilq.v64i3.359

Abstract

This paper examines the importance of the speaker – the agent – in the construction of dialogue. Within the rhetoric used by each agent are power constructs which display the speaker’s position in society (role). The rhetoric used by that agent in the process of fulfilling that social role is particular to that setting in spacetime. However, what happens when another agent in a different social position appropriates that rhetoric? The framing of the dialogue changes and the hidden power structures revealed and altered. To what extent does the new agent appropriate the first speaker’s normative authority? What impact does this have on the rhetoric itself? In this discussion I take a real-life example of the appropriation of rhetoric from the ongoing Eurozone downgrade debates. I use McCloskey’s theory of rhetoric, or ‘sweet talk’, to uncover the normative bias of the discourse, and set the dialogue within Giddens’ structuration framework to highlight the importance of language, locale and the agent. The analysis highlights power differentials that are indicative of conflicts of interest in the regulation of credit-rating agencies and the debate asks what this means for future action.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.53386/nilq.v64i3.359
Uncontrolled keywords: Rhetoric, Economic Sociology of Law, ESL, Structuration, Credit Rating Agencies, agent
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Funders: Economic and Social Research Council (https://ror.org/03n0ht308)
Depositing User: Clare Williams
Date Deposited: 13 Oct 2022 07:21 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 13:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/97412 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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