Insinuated vs. asserted ad hominem: an experimental approach to their rhetorical effectiveness
BLE-BLL
- De Oliveira Fernandes, Daniel ORCID Université de Fribourg
- Oswald, Steve ORCID Université de Fribourg
- Gygax, Pascal ORCID Université de Fribourg
- 2024
Published in:
- F. Paglieri, A. Ansani, & M. Marini (Eds.), The Cognitive Dimension of Social Argumentation. Proceedings of the 4th European Conference on Argumentation. - College Publications. - 2024, vol. 2, p. 93-103
English
At the crossroads between the fields of pragmatics – the study of meaning in context – and argumentation, the literature often argues that pragmatic variations can affect the rhetorical effectiveness of argumentative structures. However, experimental investigations that address this relation are still scarce, and little empirical evidence is available. This paper develops an experimental inquiry into the effect of implicit meaning, specifically of insinuation, on ad hominem argumentative constructions in which an opponent voices disagreement with the proponent's standpoint by launching a personal attack in the refutation. We hypothesised that insinuation can be beneficial when used as a personal attack supporting a refutation, that it is a persuasive move and that it may impact how much people agree with either the author of the ad hominem or its target. Our results indicate that an insinuated personal attack does not appear to be more supportive of disagreement than when the attack is asserted. However, an ad hominem argument with an insinuated attack is perceived as more persuasive and leads to more agreement with the opponent. Finally, the implicitness of the attack does not affect the agreement given to the proponent. Not all hypotheses were verified. We thus surmise that the rhetorical effectiveness of insinuations might play out on other rhetorical levels (e.g., preserving the image speakers want to project, disrupting conversational dynamics or staining the opponent’s reputation).
- Faculty
- Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
- Department
- Département d'anglais
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Language, linguistics
- License
- License undefined
- Open access status
- green
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/331508
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