Persuasion in Specialised Discourses [1st ed.] 9783030581626, 9783030581633

Table of contents :
Front Matter ....Pages i-xv
Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts (Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova)....Pages 1-38
Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses (Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova, Martin Adam, Renata Povolná, Radek Vogel)....Pages 39-119
Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means of Persuasion in Anglophone and Czech Linguistics and Economics Research Articles (Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova)....Pages 121-158
Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative Lexical Means in Corporate Annual Reports (Radek Vogel)....Pages 159-195
Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour to Enhance Persuasive Effect in Sermons (Martin Adam)....Pages 197-227
Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals (Renata Povolná)....Pages 229-262
Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised Discourses (Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova, Martin Adam, Renata Povolná, Radek Vogel)....Pages 263-338
Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World (Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova)....Pages 339-350
Back Matter ....Pages 351-354

Citation preview

POSTDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN DISCOURSE SERIES EDITOR: JOHANNES ANGERMULLER

Persuasion in Specialised Discourses Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova Martin Adam Renata Povolná Radek Vogel

Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse

Series Editor Johannes Angermuller Centre for Applied Linguistics University of Warwick Coventry, UK

Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse engages in the exchange between discourse theory and analysis while putting emphasis on the intellectual challenges in discourse research. Moving beyond disciplinary divisions in today’s social sciences, the contributions deal with critical issues at the intersections between language and society. Edited by Johannes Angermuller together with members of DiscourseNet, the series welcomes high-quality manuscripts in discourse research from all disciplinary and geographical backgrounds. DiscourseNet is an international and interdisciplinary network of researchers which is open to discourse analysts and theorists from all backgrounds. Editorial board Cristina Arancibia Aurora Fragonara Péter Furkó Jens Maesse Eduardo Chávez Herrera Benno Herzog Michael Kranert Jan Krasni Yannik Porsché Luciana Radut-Gaghi Jan Zienkowski More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14534

Olga Dontcheva-­Navratilova Martin Adam • Renata Povolná Radek Vogel

Persuasion in Specialised Discourses

Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova Department of English Language and Literature Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

Martin Adam Department of English Language and Literature Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

Renata Povolná Department of English Language and Literature Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

Radek Vogel Department of English Language and Literature Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic

The work on this book was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant 1716195S Persuasion Across Czech and English Specialised Discourses. Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse ISBN 978-3-030-58162-6    ISBN 978-3-030-58163-3 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and ­transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo / Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

Persuasion is an important aspect of the social dynamics of human interaction, the study of which is indispensable for deepening our understanding of how effective communication can be achieved in different cultural and professional settings. Although persuasion is essentially multimodal and can be fostered by different non-linguistic means, it is primarily expressed by language behaviour which varies according to the intended audience and the situational and socio-cultural context. The study of rhetorical strategies and language resources employed to make persuasive attempts can be dated back to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece, yet investigation into modern sites of persuasion within and across specialised discourses has only recently been addressed from a comparative perspective, and the issue of intercultural variation in the conveyance of persuasion is still to be explored. This book presents the results of research undertaken within the Czech Science Foundation grant project 17-16195S Persuasion across English and Czech specialised discourses. The research was conducted at the Department of English Language and Literature of Masaryk University’s Faculty of Education in the years 2017–2019. Within this research, persuasion is conceptualised as an inherently context-dependent and audience-­ oriented phenomenon which may be enhanced by various strategies and realised by a plethora of language means which vary and change across discourses, cultures and time. The aim of this project was v

vi Preface

to provide a contrastive analysis of persuasion understood as the strategic use of language for the expression of persuasive intent which aims at changing or strengthening the beliefs of others or affecting their behaviour in contemporary Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses. The study of rhetorical strategies and linguistic means used to realise persuasive attempts was approached through the lenses of the three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos and pathos—in an attempt to explore the relationship between rhetorical function and language form and their dependence on contextual factors. The focus on English-medium specialised discourses is motivated by the dominant role of English in international communication. As a result of globalisation in today’s world, English-medium specialised discourses address a multicultural global audience; it is therefore relevant to explore whether this has affected the choice of rhetorical strategies and related language means used to convey persuasion. At the same time, English as an international language is no longer ‘owned’ by native speakers only; it has been appropriated as a medium for intercultural communication by speakers of various languages, who must accommodate themselves at least partially to the dominant Anglophone conventions. It is thus essential to investigate whether this accommodation to Anglophone norms has affected the conventions of non-Anglophonespecialised discourses. The analysis of Czech specialised discourses focuses on how they are influenced by dynamic social and political developments in Czech society over the last three decades, paying particular attention to changes they have undergone under pressure from English adopted as a lingua franca in most professional discourses. Since there is little research contrasting persuasion in English specialised discourses with Czech counterparts, this book aims to identify common features of persuasive language in these discourses, explain how contextual and genre-specific constraints affect variation and analyse social and linguistic reasons for cross-cultural and cross-linguistic variation in the realisation of persuasion. The main research questions addressed in this study are as follows:

 Preface 

vii

1. What are the common denominators of persuasion across specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds? 2. What rhetorical strategies and linguistic means for conveying persuasion are specific to each of the selected genres of specialised discourses under scrutiny? 3. In what ways does the conveyance of persuasion differ in English and Czech specialised discourses? For the purposes of this study combining corpus-based quantitative analyses and contextualised qualitative analyses, the Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD), representing the target specialised discourses, each represented by one prototypical genre, was compiled. The choice of discourses under scrutiny—academic, business, technical and religious—was motivated by their prominent persuasive character and differing communicative contexts, providing sufficient grounds for study of both similarities and differences in the strategies and linguistic means used to convey persuasive purposes across specialised discourses and linguacultural contexts. This book is arranged as follows: the first, introductory chapter discusses various definitions and approaches to the study of persuasion, reviews relevant previous research and outlines the analytical framework used in this study. The second chapter presents the specialised discourses under investigation and provides a contrastive analysis of persuasion strategies pertaining to ethical, logical and pathetic appeals across the target specialised discourses. Each of the subsequent four chapters explores discourse-specific strategies and means for conveying persuasion from an intercultural perspective, contrasting Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses. Chapter 3 uses a metadiscourse framework to study how interactional metadiscourse markers may enhance ethical, logical and pathetic appeals in linguistics and economics research articles. Chapter 4 explores the role of positively and negatively connotated lexis in relation to overt and covert expression of persuasion in corporate reports. Since religious discourse differs from the other three discourses analysed in this study by the prominence it gives to pathetic appeal, Chap. 5 is devoted to the persuasive force of humour in sermons. Aligning with the metadiscourse framework, Chap. 6 considers the role of

viii Preface

interactional and interactive markers in enhancing persuasion in technical manuals. Chapter 7 discusses intercultural differences in the use of persuasive language across the four specialised discourses and the two linguacultural backgrounds and endeavours to give reasons for existing divergences. The final chapter discusses the contribution of the intercultural approach to the study of persuasion and outlines directions for future research. Finally, this book hopes to contribute to the extension of our knowledge of the correlation between rhetorical function and language form within the persuasive process in specialised discourses, as well as to indicate reasons for variation in the ways persuasive attempts are made across the Czech and Anglophone linguacultural backgrounds and academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses. Brno, Czech Republic

Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova

Contents

1 Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts  1 2 Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses 39 3 Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means of Persuasion in Anglophone and Czech Linguistics and Economics Research Articles121 4 Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative Lexical Means in Corporate Annual Reports159 5 Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour to Enhance Persuasive Effect in Sermons197 6 Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals229

ix

x Contents

7 Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised Discourses263 8 Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World339 Index351

List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 Proportional weights of metadiscourse categories across the ACAD sub-corpora Fig. 4.1 Frequency of positive and negative lexical items in the subcorpora BUS-­ENG-­REV and BUS-ENG-LET—comparison Fig. 8.1 Persuasive appeals across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses

129 178 342

xi

List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 3.5 Table 3.6 Table 3.7 Table 3.8

The composition of the CECSD corpus Rhetorical strategies in association with persuasive appeals Situational characteristics of the four specialised discourses Composition of the Academic sub-corpus Composition of the Business sub-corpus Persuasive strategies across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses Stance and engagement categories across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Self-mention markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Top ten most frequent attitude markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) Top ten most frequent hedges across the ACAD subcorpora (per 100,000 words) Top ten most frequent boosters across the ACAD subcorpora (per 100,000 words) Reader-reference markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Top ten appeals to shared knowledge across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) Directives across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words)

13 20 51 59 60 103 129 131 136 139 141 143 146 149 xiii

xiv 

Table 4.1

List of Tables

Wordlists with some of the first 50 items in BUS-ENG and its sub-­corpora BUS-ENG-LET and BUS-ENG-REV 166 Table 4.2 Words with positive connotations and potential persuasive use in the BUS-ENG-LET sub-corpus compared with the complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ 170 Table 4.3 Words with negative connotations in the BUS-ENG-LET sub-corpus in comparison with the complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ 176 Table 4.4 Attitude markers: comparison of equivalents in BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ and their sub-corpora 183 Table 4.5 Hedges and boosters in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparison185 Table 4.6 First- and second-person pronouns with their verbal collocates conveying modality 186 Table 5.1 Humour items classification 220 Table 6.1 Metadiscourse markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 234 Table 6.2 Frame markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)236 Table 6.3 Transitions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 238 Table 6.4 Endophoric markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 240 Table 6.5 Evidentials in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 242 Table 6.6 Code glosses in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 244 Table 6.7 Attitude markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)246 Table 6.8 Hedges in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 248 Table 6.9 Boosters in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 250 Table 6.10 Self-mentions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)251 Table 6.11 Engagement markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 252 Table 6.12 Proportions of all directives in the TECH sub-corpus 253 Table 7.1 Variation in self-mention and reader reference across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 282 Table 7.2 Variation in non-assertion speech acts across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 285 Table 7.3 Variation in epistemic markers across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 288

  List of Tables 

Table 7.4 Table 7.5 Table 7.6 Table 7.7 Table 7.8 Table 7.9 Table 7.10 Table 7.11 Table 7.12 Table 7.13 Table 7.14 Table 7.15 Table 7.16 Table 7.17 Table 7.18 Table 7.19 Table 7.20 Table 7.21

xv

Variation in value markers across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 291 Variation in self-mention and reader reference across BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 294 Personality in BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ—variation by temporal reference (verb be)296 Comparison of the use of non-assertion speech acts between BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 297 Variation in epistemic markers across BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 299 Constructions it + be + predicative adjective expressing modality (per 100,000 words) 300 Epistemic adverbs in the sub-corpora of annual reports (per 100,000 words) 301 Markers of value: comparison of BNC and the BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 302 Variation in self-mention and reader reference across REL-ENG and REL-CZ (per 100,000 words) 305 Variation in non-assertion speech acts across REL-ENG and REL-CZ 308 Evaluative adjectives in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)311 Attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge in the REL sub-­corpus (per 100,000 words) 312 Epistemic markers in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)314 Variation in self-mention and reader reference across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 315 Variation in the use of non-assertion speech acts across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 318 Variation in epistemic markers across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 322 Variation in value markers across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 325 Variation in persuasive language across the ACAD, BUS, REL and TECH sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 327

1 Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts

1.1 Introduction Human communication is essentially goal-oriented. When interacting with others, we consciously or subconsciously try to make them talk to us, take part in what we do, share our opinion or preferences, believe what we say or support our projects and actions. This implies that all communication can be regarded as inevitably persuasive (Duffy & Thorson, 2016; Miller, 2013). Recognising the persuasive intent of a speaker or writer, however, may not always be easy, as persuasion may be conveyed explicitly or implicitly via an array of strategies and audio-visual and language means which vary across different situational and cultural contexts. This book explores the rhetorical strategies and linguistic means used to convey persuasion across specialised discourses pertaining to different spheres of social interaction. In this it draws on previous work (e.g. Dillard & Pfau, 2002; Dillard & Shen, 2013; Halmari & Virtanen, 2005; Lunsford, Wilson, & Eberly, 2009; Orts Llopis, Breeze, & Gotti, 2017; Pelclová & Lu, 2018), endeavouring to map the common denominators of persuasion across genres and discourses as well as the context-­ specific manifestations of persuasion in various professional and public © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_1

1

2 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

settings. Moreover, this study addresses the issue of variation in persuasive strategies and persuasive language across different linguacultural backgrounds, a dimension which has not yet received systematic treatment in persuasion research. The purpose of this book is to fill this gap by adopting a doubly contrastive perspective to the study of persuasion as it analyses rhetorical strategies and linguistic means instrumental in the build-up of persuasive discourse in four specialised discourses (academic, business, religious and technical) and two languages (English and Czech). Anchored in the functional approach to language and adopting an intercultural rhetoric perspective (Connor, 2004, 2008), this volume conceptualises persuasion as an essentially context-sensitive phenomenon emerging in the process of complex social interaction and reflecting meaning negotiations “within and between cultures” (McIntosh, Connor, & Gokpinar-Shelton, 2017, p.  13). The analytical methods applied in this book comprise qualitative analyses of rhetorical strategies essential to the study of persuasion complemented by corpus-based quantitative analyses of specific linguistic realisations of persuasion; this multifaceted approach combining bottom-up and the top-down perspectives provides a solid basis for exploring how two languages and cultures articulate persuasion across different contexts and genres.

1.2 Persuasion: Definitions and Approaches Persuasion has attracted the attention of scholars exploring human interaction from antiquity to the present day. Undertaken from various perspectives, such as rhetoric, communication studies, psychology, sociology, political science and linguistics, research into persuasion has striven to identify the constitutive features of persuasive communication and to understand how persuasive strategies and persuasive language are used to shape human interaction. The following brief review of approaches to persuasion aims to highlight the features of persuasion central for this research. The study of persuasive rhetoric is essentially anchored in the Classical Rhetoric model proposed by Aristotle in the fourth century BC (Perloff, 2010, p. 27). The Aristotelian model comprises three persuasive appeals,

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

3

which Kinneavy (1971) associates with the key components of the act of communication—the speaker, the message and the audience (cf. Killingsworth, 2005, p. 26). Within this model, the persuasive intention is seen as conveyed by a combination of three closely interwoven rhetorical appeals—(i) ethos, the ethical appeal related to credibility and attractiveness of the speaker’s character mediated by the voice of the persuader, (ii) pathos, the emotional appeal to the feelings, attitudes and values of the audience and (iii) logos, the logical appeal to the rationality of the audience based on evidence and reference to the real world. Although Aristotle implicitly assumed that persuasion may stem from the audience (Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 7), Modern Rhetoric has questioned the analytical potential of the Aristotelian triad, claiming that it overestimates the importance of logical proofs and views the speaker-audience relationship as unidirectional and manipulative (Ede & Lunsford, 1984; Hogan, 2013; Mulholland, 1994). Revising the classical model, the Modern Rhetoric approach conceives persuasion as a dialogic, dynamic and interpretative process in which the audience plays a decisive role and acknowledges that when engaging in persuasive communication, the speaker may assume various roles to address multiple audiences (cf. Bell’s, 1997, audience design framework). Persuasion is thus regarded as part of the more general notion of argumentation (e.g. Hogan, 2013; van Emeren, 1986), which, according to Perelman (1982), “covers the whole range of discourse that aims at persuasion and conviction, whatever the audience addressed and whatever the subject-matter” (p. 5). In this book, the anticipated audience reaction to different types of persuasive appeal is analysed within Sperber et al.’s (2010) epistemic trust and vigilance framework, which accounts for the way in which information is processed in human communication. This approach is based on the assumption that when communicating, the participants are striving to achieve two goals: to be understood and to make their audience think or act according to what is to be understood, although the audience may comprehend the message without believing it. The assessment of the trustworthiness of what is communicated is assumed to be carried out on the basis of two types of epistemic vigilance processes: (a) assessment of the reliability of the speaker (cf. ethos) and (b) assessment of the reliability of the content conveyed (cf. logos). Thus the speaker is expected to

4 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

represent him/herself as a reliable source of information by constructing an existentially coherent image of him/herself (Duranti, 2006) and by establishing his/her relationship with the audience and his/her ideological position in discourse as continuous. Appealing to the emotions of the audience (cf. pathos) is seen here as a reinforcement device instrumental in enhancing both the speaker’s credibility and the reliability of the message. The dialogic character of persuasion is also scrutinised by communication scholars (e.g. Perloff, 2010; Simons & Jones, 2011), who have defined persuasion as “a symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviours regarding an issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free choice” (Perloff, 2010, p. 12). While focusing on the culture-dependent and interactive character of the process, this strand in persuasion research brings to the fore the cognitive (cf. Pelclová & Lu, 2018) and psychological (O’Keefe, 2002) dimensions of the phenomenon and draws on several theoretical frameworks for its analysis, such as Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action (1984), which is centred on communicative rationality and speaker credibility, the Reasoned Action Theory (Yzer, 2013), which regards persuasion as a belief-based behaviour change, and Appraisal Theories (Dillard & Seo, 2013), which establish a link between a specific type of cognition and emotive response. Of major importance for this study is the delimitation of persuasion from various forms of covert influencing, namely coercion, propaganda and manipulation, also scrutinised within the Critical Discourse Analysis framework (e.g. van Dijk, 2006; Wodak & Krzyzanowski, 2008), mainly in the context of political and medial discourse. The key difference resides in the power balance between the participants and the choice of whether to resist or succumb to persuasion; as an active participant in the persuasive process the audience “are free to believe or act as they please” (van Dijk, 2006, p. 361), depending on whether or not they accept the arguments of the persuader (Mulholland, 1994; O’Keefe, 2002), while in the case of manipulation and propaganda the speaker is in control of the message and the recipients are typically assigned the passive role of victims whose only option is to believe or act as they are told (Dillard & Pfau, 2002; van Dijk, 2006). Despite this, however, Perloff (2010) claims that all kinds of

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

5

persuasive communication are “better viewed as lying along a continuum of social influence” (p. 19). Language is the key symbolic means for the conveyance of persuasion. In social interaction language has the power not only to establish personal relationships and create mental representations of the reality reflecting a participant’s beliefs, values, purposes and intentions, it is also a powerful tool for constructing ‘discourse worlds’ (cf. Chilton, 2004) in which individuals and groups are assigned identities and roles, and values associated with actions and events are redefined from the points of view of different discourse participants (cf. Fairclough, 1989; van Dijk, 2008). The legitimisation of the persuader’s ideological position and the attempt to alter the audience’s attitude and behaviour are rarely performed explicitly, which is why from a linguistics perspective, persuasion tends to be seen as a type of indirect speech act (Jucker, 1997) which varies along the overtness-covertness continuum, thus continually involving the audience in decoding implied meanings (cf. Östman, 2005; Pelclová & Lu, 2018, p.  3). Pragmatically oriented linguistic investigations have commonly associated persuasion with politeness strategies and face work (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Goffman, 1967; Leech, 1983; Watts, 2003), emphasising their crucial role in the management of the relations of power and solidarity between participants in the interaction. Persuasive language has been the focus of numerous studies endeavouring to identify the linguistic manifestations of persuasive discourse in different genres and contexts (e.g. Biber & Zhang, 2018; Cheung, 2008; Crawford Camiciottoli, 2018; Goering, Connor, Nagelhout, & Steinberg, 2008; Halmari & Virtanen, 2005; Hyland, 2008; Pelclová & Lu, 2018; Wodak & Krzyzanowski, 2008). These studies have typically adopted a discourse analytical approach to the investigation of the interactive and dialogic nature of persuasion and the social and situational dependency of the choice of language means for the conveyance of the intended message. In the last two decades, the essentially qualitative discourse analytical approach has been complemented by corpus-based methods providing evidence of various forms of lexico-grammatical patterning conveying persuasive intentions across different contexts. A key aspect of the study of persuasion is the analysis of linguistic indicators of evaluation (Hunston & Thompson, 1999), also termed appraisal

6 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

(Martin & White, 2005), stance (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Hyland, 1998), modality (Palmer, 1986) and voice (Hyland & Sancho Guinda, 2012). Hunston and Thompson (1999, p. 6) consider three main functions of evaluation, which correlate with the ideational, interactional and textual meanings within the Hallidayan (1994) functional approach to language, that is (a) expressing the speaker’s/writer’s opinion and reflecting the value system of that person and their community, (b) constructing and maintaining relations between the writer and reader and (c) organising discourse. The persuasive force of evaluation stems from its potential to convey power and ideology and classify social actors (cf. van Leeuwen, 1996), which may be enhanced by the persuasive effect of metaphorical language. Recent research (Biber, Egbert, & Zhang, 2018; Biber & Zhang, 2018) has indicated that specific types of registers or genres may be characterised by their preference for grammatical stance, that is overt indication of evaluation, or lexical evaluation, that is less explicit conveyance of evaluation, thus classifying persuasive discourse as relying on either ‘Opinion Persuasion’ or ‘Informational Persuasion’. This book will partake in exploring “the possibility that stance and evaluation represent two complementary linguistic strategies for expressing speaker/writer attitudes, value judgements and epistemic assessments” (Biber & Zhang, 2018, p. 119). The array of concepts that have emerged in persuasion research and the various definitions of this complex phenomenon suggest that persuasion is best explored from a multidisciplinary perspective. This is the approach adopted in this book, which sets out to analyse context-dependent and audience-oriented rhetorical strategies and linguistic indicators of persuasion across specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds from the viewpoints of contrastive rhetoric, discourse analysis, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and stylistics. Since the combination of rhetorical appeals and the choice of linguistic realisations of persuasion tend to vary across different contexts, a discussion of the concept ‘specialised discourse’ is now in order.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

7

1.3 Specialised Discourse Specialised discourse, a concept introduced by Prague Linguistic School research on functional styles in the first part of the twentieth century, is currently defined as the specialist use of language in contexts typical of a specialised discourse community “stretching across the academic, the professional, the technical and the occupational areas of knowledge and practice” (Gotti, 2008, p. 24; cf. Candlin & Gotti, 2007; Gil-Salom & Soler-Monreal, 2014). Alternative terms that cover much the same ground are ‘specialised languages’ (Bhatia, Sanchez Hernandez, & Peréz-­ Peredes, 2011) and ‘language for professional communication’ (Bhatia & Bremner, 2017). Specialised discourse communities are seen here as a type of ‘small culture’ (cf. Atkinson, 2004; Holliday, 1999), a concept akin to ‘disciplinary culture’ (Mauranen, 1993), referring to a social grouping whose cohesive behaviour is defined by unique norms and practices, such as particular interaction patterns and socialisation rituals. Small cultures are not confined to a national environment only; they can cut across national cultures (i.e. ‘big cultures’) and extend their boundaries to encompass international communities, or in the case of English-­ medium discourse, even global specialised discourse communities. A specialised discourse community shares a semiotic potential (Hasan, 1989, p. 99) comprising not only background knowledge, communicative intentions and goals, but also a set of genres and rhetorical conventions. This semiotic potential functions as a ‘filter mechanism’ (Fetzer, 2004, p. 10) allowing members of the discourse community to identify meanings, communicative acts, rhetorical strategies and language choices as fitting or diverging from the established norms and conventions. As a result, persuasion in specialised discourses is related to the use of rhetorical strategies and language means established in the practice of the professional discourse community (Swales, 1990), or, as Hyland (2008) puts it, “texts are persuasive only when they employ rhetorical conventions that colleagues find convincing” (p. 1). Research into specialised discourse and professional communication has been carried out in three main areas of study: (i) Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which are rooted

8 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

in language pedagogy, (ii) register analysis, genre analysis and (critical) discourse analysis, which are associated with social constructivism and (iii) Professional Communication, which draws on communication theories (cf. Bhatia & Bremner, 2017, p. xviii). This book draws primarily on the first two strands, as it focuses on particular linguistics features, rhetorical conventions and discourse practices used by target specialised discourse communities. The concepts of ‘register’ and ‘genre’ are central to the study of specialised discourse (cf. Connor & Upton, 2004; Orts Llopis et  al., 2017; Swales, 1990, 2004; Trosborg, 1997, 2000), as they refer to situationally defined varieties of language use associated with a particular communicative purpose. However, these concepts differ in that registers are identified on the basis of pervasive linguistic features serving a specific function in a context of use, while genres are defined as recurrent social practices realised by texts typically displaying a particular rhetorical structure and distinctive linguistic features associated with specific rhetorical moves (cf. Biber & Conrad, 2009; Swales, 1990). Thus a specialised discourse community uses a particular register and a set of genres to achieve group-­ specific communicative purposes. Holding that genres are linked to a distinctive way of ‘packaging information’ in conformity with norms, values, ideology and rhetorical conventions established within a specialised discourse community (cf. Trosborg, 2000), this study adopts a genre perspective to the study of specialised discourse. It conceives genres as “dynamic rhetorical forms that are developed from actors’ responses to recurrent situations” which “change over time in response to their user’s sociocognitive needs” (Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1994, p.  4) and vary across disciplines and linguacultural contexts. This variation may lead to genre hybridity (Bhatia, 2002) reflecting mixed communicative purposes or interplay between culture-specific epistemological and rhetorical conventions. By analysing four specialised discourses (academic, business, religious and technical), each represented by one genre (research articles, corporate reports, sermons and user manuals), across two linguacultural contexts (Anglophone and Czech), this study endeavours to contribute to the research into variation in rhetorical strategies and lexico-grammatical

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

9

features instrumental to the construal of persuasion in the target specialised discourses.

1.4 Intercultural Variation Variation across disciplinary and professional settings in specialised discourse interacts with variation across linguacultural contexts, associated with national, ‘big’ or ‘received’ cultures (cf. Atkinson, 2004). The cultural identity pertaining to a national specialised discourse community is construed via an interplay of several factors comprising the language, common values, social and cultural background and the epistemological and literacy tradition in which discourse community members have been socialised. However, with the increasing globalisation of specialised discourses the boundaries between national discourse communities are becoming fluid and individuals may assume more complex cultural identities. The view that rhetorical patterns are culture- and language-specific can be traced back to Kaplan (1966), who investigated the written discourse of students of English as a Second Language (ESL), focusing on cultural and linguistic differences. Since then, contrastive rhetoric (cf. Connor, 1996) has produced numerous studies into divergences in rhetorical patterns used by native and non-native speakers of English, especially in the domain of academia, which constitute a valuable contribution to the teaching of academic writing. These studies have categorised writing cultures as ‘linear’ versus ‘digressive’ (Kaplan, 1966), ‘reader-responsible’ versus ‘writer-responsible’ (Hinds, 1987) and ‘form-oriented’ versus ‘content-­oriented’ (Clyne, 1987) and have indicated the existence of culture-­specific tendencies concerning various aspects of academic writing, such as the construal of authorial presence (e.g. Fløttum, Dahl, & Kinn, 2006; Lorés-Sanz, 2011; Mur-Dueñas, 2007; Sheldon, 2009; Vassileva, 1998; Yakhontova, 2006), citation practices (e.g. Bloch & Chi, 1995; Mur-Dueñas, 2009; Shaw, 2003; Šinkūnienė, 2017) and the expression of epistemic modality (e.g. Vold, 2006; Warchał, 2015). However, in the last two decades contrastive rhetoric has been criticised for overestimating cultural differences and implying a cultural dichotomy

10 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

between the East and the West (Connor, 2008; cf. Atkinson, 2004; Li, 2008). As a result the ‘static’ model of cross-cultural research has been gradually transformed into a more dynamic model showing awareness of the social construction of meaning in the process of interaction and the need to include variables related to small cultures and multiple cultures in the study of specialised discourse. This new model, which introduces ethnographic approaches to complement discourse, genre and corpus analysis as research methods, has been termed ‘intercultural rhetoric’ to highlight a change in perspective to the study of written interaction between people with different cultural backgrounds at a time when writers and audiences are characterised by increasing linguistic and cultural diversity (Connor, 2008). This book adopts the intercultural rhetoric approach to the analysis of Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses, assuming that neither the value systems in different linguistically and culturally defined communities nor the functional needs in different fields and their corresponding genres are fully identical. Combined with the differing structural properties of English and Czech, this yields a wide variety of analogies and contrasts. It should be mentioned, however, that with intense globalisation, especially in the academic, business and technical domains, Czech writers who are striving to publish in English for an international audience have to make strategic choices in order to resolve the tension between the Czech and the Anglophone discourse conventions. The resulting changes in their English-medium discourse may gradually affect their Czech-medium writing, giving rise to hybridising forms and perhaps eventually resulting in a shift in the conventions of Czech specialised discourses (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2014). Previous research contrasting target Anglophone and Czech  specialised discourses seems to be confined to investigations into academic discourse. Several studies (e.g. Chamonikolasová, 2005; Čmejrková, 1996; Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013, 2018) have evidenced divergences between the Anglophone and Czech discourse conventions concerning primarily ways in which they approach discourse organisation and writer-­ reader interaction. For instance, Čmejrková and Daneš (1997) describe the composition and arrangement of Czech academic texts as difficult to survey due to a frequent lack of clear topic formulation, rare occurrence

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

11

of subheadings and sparse use of metadiscourse. Persuasiveness seems to be associated with conceptual and terminological clarity rather than with interactive negotiation of meaning with the reader. The tendency to background authorial presence concurs with the use of impersonal structures and, in the case of personal structures, exclusive first-person plural forms. This writer-oriented, implicit and less structured narrative style of writing may reflect the high value attributed to scholarly knowledge and the small size of the Czech academic discourse community, where all members typically know each other and relations are based on solidarity and avoidance of tension (Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997). This stands in striking contrast with the highly competitive interaction of the potentially global English-speaking academic discourse community, whose members strive to find a gap in a research territory densely packed with occupied ‘niches’ (Duszak, 1997). When addressing their culturally heterogeneous depersonalised readership, Anglophone researchers tend to abide by established disciplinary and genre conventions by opting for ‘explicit’ indication of discourse structure and presentation of ideas, clear statement of research topic, purposes and aims and extensive use of metadiscourse facilitating the reader’s path through the text (e.g. Hyland, 2002a, 2005; Thompson, 2001). While in the past the so-called scientific paradigm favoured a “rational argument supported by evidence, caution and restraint” (Bennett, 2009, p. 52) and the avoidance of explicit reference to human agency (Hyland, 2001), recent research has evidenced an increase in the use of self-promotional pronouns (Harwood, 2005) for “maintaining the writer-reader relationship and allowing the writer an authorial voice” (Flowerdew, 2012, p.  4). Thus persuasion in Anglophone academic discourse is typically enhanced by a reader-friendly attitude and a higher level of dialogicity conveyed by attitudinal markers (e.g. hedges, boosters, personal intrusions) modelling the level of commitment to claims and appealing to the reader in seeking agreement with the viewpoint advanced by the author. It is, of course, not safe to claim that the divergences between the Anglophone academic discourse and its Czech counterpart may be regarded as representative of all specialised discourses under investigation. Nevertheless, when we take into consideration the

12 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

context-­dependent constraints and the specific communicative purposes that pertain to each specialised discourse, they indicate some tendencies that are worth exploring further.

1.5 The Present Study This study explores variation in persuasive strategies and linguistic means used for their realisation across four specialised discourses (academic, business, religious and technical) and two languages (English and Czech). This doubly contrastive perspective is intended to reveal the impact of different sets of contextual parameters on ways in which persuasive intentions are conveyed so as to affect the intended audience.

1.5.1 The CECSD Corpus The research reported in this book was carried out on The Corpus of English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD), a specialised corpus representing the target specialised discourses. The use of specialised corpora is considered appropriate for contrastive studies of specialised discourses as they “allow for more top-down, qualitative, contextually-informed analyses than those carried out using general corpora” (Flowerdew, 2004, p. 18). The corpus is designed in agreement with the methodological framework proposed by Connor and Moreno (2005) and Moreno and Suárez (2008) for identifying recurrent differences in the use of rhetorical resources in academic texts across languages and cultures based on the concept of tertium comparationis. Thus the CECSD is compiled so as to assure the maximum possible equivalence between the English-medium and Czech-medium parts of the corpus in terms of selected textual data (fields, topics, genres represented, number of texts and wordcount). Equivalence at all these levels is a precondition for drawing reliable and valid conclusions about similarities and differences in rhetorical strategies and linguistic means conveying persuasion across specialised discourses and linguacultural contexts.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

13

The corpus was built and compiled using the software SketchEngine (Kilgarriff, Rychly, Smrz, & Tugwell, 2004). It was automatically tagged and lemmatised by the SketchEngine corpus tool, which was also used for searching the corpus and for making concordances and wordlists. The texts in the corpora were also processed manually for fine-grained contextualised analysis. The CECSD corpus comprises four sub-corpora, each representing one of the target-specialised discourses, which are further subdivided into two sub-corpora—one comprising Anglophone texts and the other Czech texts. Each of the four specialised discourses is represented by one prototypical genre: academic discourse by research articles, business discourse by corporate reports, religious discourse by sermons and technical discourse by user manuals. The precise composition of the corpus in terms of number of texts and wordcount in each sub-corpus is summarised in Table 1.1. The file headers quoted in the examples throughout this book indicate linearly the specialised discourse type (ACAD for academic, BUS for business, REL for religious and TECH for technical discourse), the language of the document (ENG for English or CZ for Czech), additional discourse-specific criteria (e.g. LING for linguistics and ECON for economics within the academic sub-corpus) and the document number within the sub-corpus. Thus ACAD-ENG-ECON-01 indicates the first research article within the set of economics research articles by Anglophone scholars included in the academic sub-corpus of the CECSD corpus. Further details about the sub-corpora will be provided in Chap. 2. Table 1.1  The composition of the CECSD corpus Specialised discourse Academic Business Religious Technical Total

Genres Research articles Corporate reports Sermons User manuals

English sub-corpus

Czech sub-corpus

Texts

Texts

Words

Words

Wordcount

30

214,000

30

110,000

324,000

60

115,000

60

100,000

215,000

50 20 160

115,000 50 205,000 20 649,000 160

75,000 190,000 100,000 305,000 385,000 1,034,000

14 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

As to text selection, in all the sub-corpora each text is authored by a different individual or organisation, thus assuring a relatively solid representativeness of the sample for the purposes of rhetorical analysis. Considering the intercultural dimension of the analysis, it is important to note that all authors are considered to be native speakers of the language in which the text is written. In the case of sermons and research articles, this assumption is informed by their name and affiliation; in the case of corporate reports and user manuals, it is informed by the nationality of the owner and the country in which the company publishing the corporate report or the producer of the technical device is based. Obviously, since these are published texts, their language may have been subjected to editing and censorship by journal referees, corporate management, religious authorities or a team of technical writers, so they may bear features which were not originally intended by the author. The sermons and the research articles are single-authored, while the user manuals and corporate reports have institutional authorship, which necessarily implies different constraints on authorial positioning in these sets of texts. The number of texts in the sub-corpora representing the four specialised discourses differs, which reflects the specificity of the selected genres and an effort to guarantee a relatively balanced representativeness of all four specialised discourses. The wordcount of the English-medium and the Czech-medium components within the academic, business, religious and technical sub-corpora also differs, due to the fact that Anglophone texts are typically longer in all specialised discourses analysed in this book. In agreement with the common procedure in contrastive corpus-based research, the difference in wordcount between the sub-corpora was neutralised by normalisation to occurrences per 100,000 words. Despite these differences, we believe that the corpus provides a well-balanced sample of texts representing the four genres that can serve as a basis for analysis of persuasion in the academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

15

1.5.2 Defining Persuasion Taking into consideration the cognitive and psychological dimension of the audience-oriented persuasive process, persuasion is defined here as a communicative act which takes place between a persuader (i.e. a person or organisation performing the act of persuasion aimed at a particular person or group of people) and a persuadee (i.e. a person or larger audience who is explicitly or implicitly targeted by the persuaders and their persuasive acts) within which the persuaders make a persuasive effort in order to change, affect or strengthen the beliefs and/or behaviour of the persuadees, including those who already agree with the persuaders (cf. Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 5). According to Miller (1980), the persuasive effect can take the form of shaping, reinforcing and changing responses, thus reflecting a cline from a more subtle to a stronger impact on the audience. However, investigations into the effect of persuasive discourse should be based on rigorous quantifiable scrutiny of audience reactions (Jucker, 1997). This is why the focus here is on the intended speaker meaning and persuasive attempts, while the study of the ‘perlocutionary effect’ of persuasive acts, that is whether the persuasive effort is successful or not, is outside the scope of this investigation and is not regarded as a defining factor for assigning persuasiveness to a text. There is no strong consensus among scholars on what the best criteria for assigning persuasiveness to a text are (Jaklová, 2002, p. 169). In agreement with Virtanen and Halmari (2005), in this book a text will be identified as persuasive if its “persuasive intention can be taken for granted” (Jucker, 1997, p.  123), that is if the communicative intention of the speaker or writer is to influence and evaluate social actors, actions and events and to change or affect the beliefs and actions of the listeners or readers (cf. Jakobson’s (1960) conative function of language). The identification of persuasiveness in discourse is thus related to genre-specific communicative intentions and the persuader’s institutional and professional identity (Ivanič, 1998; van de Mieroop, 2007), as social norms, roles and conventions not only restrain people’s behaviour, but also set expectations towards what is perceived as persuasive.

16 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

1.5.3 C  ontextual Factors Shaping Persuasive Interaction in the Four Specialised Discourses Persuasion is an inherently context-dependent process. Consequently, an exploration of discourse-specific persuasion inevitably begins with an analysis of the situational and linguacultural context of the specialised discourses under investigation. This study applies an adapted version of Biber and Conrad’s (2009) framework for the description of contextual factors affecting interaction in specialised discourses and draws on Bell’s (1997) participants framework for the analysis of speaker and audience roles. This framework comprises the following variables, including closed-­ set and open-set parameters:

Situational Parameters 1. Spatial setting—public/private, local/global interaction, (not) shared deictic centre 2. Temporal setting—simultaneous or split time of encoding and decoding the message 3. Domain—area of knowledge addressed by the specialised discourse

Discourse Participants 1 . Addresser—roles that the persuader enacts 2. Addressee 3. Audience 4. Social roles of the participants (including status and power) 5. Extent of shared professional and cultural knowledge ­ (high/ medium/low)

Communicative Purposes 1. General purpose 2. Specific purpose

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

17

3. Attitude of the participants towards the discourse and the message (purported to be based on fact, speculative, imaginative, symbolic, mixed)

Communicative Conventions 1. Genre 2. Medium (written/spoken), channel and type of transmission 3. Level of interactiveness (high/medium/low) 4. Norms and conventions related to discourse production and interpretation The situational parameters identify the domain of knowledge to which the specialised discourse pertains and specify the relationship between the participants in the communication with regard to the spatial and temporal setting of the communicative event. Variation along the spatial and temporal setting occurs according to whether the participants share the deictic centre, or the deictic centre is ‘split’, that is the time and place of text production and text interpretation differ (Fowler, 1986, p. 87). The roles of the discourse participants—the writer and the readers— are of crucial importance for understanding the persuasive process. When approached from the perspective of Bell’s (1997) participant framework, the standings of the participants may be defined according to their professional expertise, institutional role, affiliation to a specific specialised discourse community, status of addressed or ratified participants in the interaction and the intentional pragmatic choices of the interlocutors. According to Goffman (1981) and Bell (1997), depending on what he/ she seeks to achieve, a writer may fulfil more than one role within his/her own person by taking up different footings in relation to his/her own remarks so as to show greater or lesser involvement with what he/she says. The roles available to a writer are those of animator, that is the person who actually utters the words, author, that is the person who has created the text and selected the point of view and the style, and principal, that is the party to whose position, stand and beliefs the words attest. The audience roles are also multiple, comprising the specific reader whom the

18 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

writer addresses, the more general audience acknowledged as recipient of the text, and, finally, potential non-ratified and unintended receivers (cf. Bell, 1997). Within the genre analysis framework, the ‘communicative purpose’ is regarded as the key criterion for assigning genre membership (cf. Askehave & Swales, 2001; Bhatia, 1993, 2002; Martin, 1985; Swales, 1990, 2004). Genre-specific communicative purposes are inherently related to the spectrum of speech acts intended to establish, maintain or change institutional, professional and social relations (Trosborg, 1997), which may comprise assertive and non-assertion speech acts (cf. Kissine, 2016). While adopting Searle’s (1975) taxonomy of speech acts, this study focuses on non-conventional speech acts which aim at changing the addressee’s cognitive state, rather than on institutional speech acts, which depend on normative conditions (Strawson, 1964). Since non-assertion speech acts imply a direct interpersonal appeal to the audience, they are considered instrumental in the construal of persuasive attempts. The communicative intentions of the persuader can also be approached from the perspective of the Gricean (1975) Cooperative Principle, which considers presumptions that speakers exploit and listeners construe about utterances (Bach, 2005). The degree to which persuaders adhere to, violate or flout the maxims of quantity (compliance with the required level of informativeness), quality (adherence to facts and information supported by evidence), relevance (focus on the topic) and manner (clear discourse organisation) affects the perception of trustworthiness and credibility that the audience derives from the discourse. The specific way of expression of communicative purposes is also affected by formality and politeness considerations (Brown & Levinson, 1987), as positive and negative politeness strategies have the potential to bind the persuader and the persuadee as in-group members while preserving appropriate distance between them and granting a freedom of choice. Genres also display communicative conventions, comprising the institutional, professional, social and cultural norms of interaction and interpretation, which predetermine the persuasive strategies that participants find convincing when interpreting the discourse (Duranti, 1985, p. 221) by drawing on mental models available in the knowledge shared by members of the discourse community. Thus persuasion in academic, business,

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

19

religious and technical discourses may be seen as associated with a set of culturally and professionally recognisable constructs elaborated by recurrent repetition of social and institutional actions associated with a specific genre. A comparative analysis of the impact of situational factors on the communicative process in academic, business, religious and technical discourses will be presented in Chap. 2 as a starting point for identification of persuasive intentions in the texts representing the four specialised discourses and analysis of the rhetorical strategies persuaders employ in their persuasive attempts.

1.5.4 P  ersuasive Strategies and Persuasive Language: Ethos, Pathos and Logos Persuasive intention may be conveyed by various rhetorical strategies and their linguistic manifestations, whose persuasive potential and force vary along several dimensions. The area of knowledge or practice (i.e. the particular specialised discourse) and the specific topic at hand are key factors influencing the selection of persuasive strategies and language means. As mentioned above, the options persuaders have at their disposal are constrained by genre (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990), understood here as a dynamic concept relating discourse to particular types of social occasion affecting discourse production and interpretation on the basis of intertextuality and interdiscursivity (Bhatia et  al., 2011; Fairclough, 1995; Kristeva, 1969). Further factors influencing the persuader’s choices are the footing of the speaker (Goffman, 1981) and the audience or multiple audiences (Bell, 1997) at which the persuasive effort is directed. Finally, persuasive discourse is shaped by the linguacultural background of the persuader and the audience. The analysis of persuasive strategies in this book is approached from the perspective of the three rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, the prominence of which vary across specialised discourses. Thus, for instance, the emotional appeal is not foregrounded in most specialised discourses; if present, it tends to be covert, while the construal of the identity and voice of the persuader and the appeal to rational

20 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

argumentation tend to be made overtly. However, in religious discourse (one of the four specialised discourses in this book), the emotional appeal is an important aspect of the construal of persuasiveness. In addition, some rhetorical strategies and language means may partake in the enhancement of two persuasive appeals simultaneously, as, for example, when reference to objective credibility boosters (e.g. qualifications and achievements of persuaders) contribute equally to logos (facts, logical argument) and ethos (credibility, trustworthiness), or when sharing a personal experience or a narrative of belonging enhances both the ethical (credibility, benevolence to share) and emotional appeals (expressive evaluation, positive communion) (cf. Scotto di Carlo, 2015). Such associations between persuasive appeals are here termed ethos-logos and ethos-pathos interface respectively. Considering the differing communicative contexts of the four discourses analysed in this book and drawing on previous studies based on rhetorical analysis of specialised discourse (e.g. Higgins & Walker, 2012; Huber & Pable, 2019; Savolainen, 2014; Walton, 1997, 2008), Table 1.2 presents only the main persuasive strategies investigated in this study, listed under the primary appeal they are employed to express.

Table 1.2  Rhetorical strategies in association with persuasive appeals Ethos

Logos

Pathos

Reference to authority Reference to expert opinion Reference to expertise Sharing personal experience Showing involvement Providing credentials Claiming common ground Narrative of belonging Narrative of achievements Direct appeal to the audience Legitimisation of values/ beliefs Sense of community Trustworthy personal values

Reference to statistics/ facts Experimental proof Proof by exemplification/ testing Providing evidence Proof by quantity Problem solving Cause-effect justification Logical reasoning Claiming time/place relevance

Humour, irony, satire Anecdotes Expressive evaluation Expressing praise Expressing gratitude Expressing (dis) agreement Appeal to fear Appeal to force Appeal to empathy/pity Appeal to hope Evoking positive/ negative emotions

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

21

The strategies associated with ethos aim at enhancing the credibility and trustworthiness of the persuader; these are related to his/her competence, that is the possession of reliable information, community membership, that is the assumption of values shared with and beliefs similar to those of the persuadees, and benevolence, that is the intent to impart this information to the audience. The build-up of the ethical appeal is illustrated in Example 1, where the writer builds commonality with the audience by using the inclusive pronoun we to refer to the writer of the research article and readers positioned as interested colleagues partaking in similar research and sharing similar beliefs and experiences. In addition, the tentative expression of opinions and claims hedged by modals, a comparative structure and lexical choice (e.g. rather than … entirely different, we could envisage, we may hypothesise, are likely to be) modulates the level of reliability of the information conveyed and seem to allow the reader a choice between being convinced by the writer’s argument or consideration of alternative interpretations. 1. Rather than conceiving these two examples as entirely different types of mismatch, we may consider them as representing opposing points on a continuum of mock politeness, from a contextual external mismatch to a co-textual internal mismatch. Towards the centre of such a continuum, we could envisage the communication of mismatch through meta-­ communicative cues, as reported for both mock impoliteness (e.g. Haugh, 2010:2108) and irony (e.g. Attardo, 2000b). Indeed, Culpeper (2011) further specifies two categories of internal mismatch: multimodal mismatches in which verbal oral and visual elements may convey conflicting messages and verbal formula mismatches and we may hypothesise that the multimodal mismatches are likely to be positioned in a more central position on the continuum. (ACAD-ENG-LING-12) Logos is empowered by the presentation of a rational, relevant and valid argument supported by reliable evidence or proof and by the coherence, clarity and integrity of the discourse. The persuasive force of factual evidence based on quantitative data related to a specific temporal frame is illustrated in Example 2, which is taken from the business sub-corpus. By referring to the correlation between inflation and domestic prices the

22 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

persuader tries to convince shareholders that under the current monetary policy conditions are favourable for the company’s activities (stable, accommodative, supportive). Persuasiveness is further enhanced by explicit logical connectors (however, despite) to assist readers in decoding the steps of the reasoning chain, so leading them to the intended discourse interpretation. 2. Inflation was lower at 2.6% in 4Q 2015 (3Q 2015: 3.3%) due to the lower domestic fuel prices. However, this was partly offset by the higher inflation for food and cigarettes. Despite the continuous volatility in international financial markets, interest rates in the domestic money market have remained stable with the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) continued to be maintained at 3.25% since its last revision on 10 July 2014. The current stance of monetary policy remains accommodative and is supportive of current economic activity. (BUS-ENG-04) Pathos-related strategies appeal to the emotions of persuadees; they often rely on evaluative statements, personal involvement, humour and vivid imagery to stir positive and negative emotions in order to secure the sympathy of the audience for the cause at hand. Thus the use of questions to address persuadees directly and stress the high points of the message, complemented by the frequent occurrence of evaluative lexis (e.g. peace, sin, untold miracles, sadly), appeals to the emotions of the audience and invites them to share the ideological perspective promoted by the persuader, which in the case of sermons is the Christian doctrine (Example 3). 3. How did people receive Him? He came preaching peace and repentance from sin. He performed untold miracles of healing the blind, the lame, and every disease. But how did they respond? The Bible gives us the answer. Sadly, nothing has changed….man is still responding as they did at His birth. (REL-ENG-07) Persuasive attempts related to ethos, logos and pathos are realised by a variety of language means. The set of linguistic features central to this research includes:

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

23

• personal structures: exclusive personal pronouns and other self-­ mention devices (I, my, me, we, our, us, one, the writer/author) • reader-reference resources (we, us, our, you, the reader) • non-assertion speech acts: directives, questions and exclamations indicating direct appeal to the audience (e.g. Position the TV up to 15 cm away from the wall; How does this trend relate to civil violence?; Those who reject the Savior condemn themselves!) • evaluative lexis (e.g. sustainable growth, good quality, novel, valuable, profit, risk, sin, evil, destruction, danger) • stance and linking adverbials (e.g. surprisingly, sadly, obviously, however, consequently, moreover) • citations and less explicit types of intertextual reference • figurative language (e.g. metaphor, hyperbole, pun) Since the contexts of the different specialised discourses and genres favour a specific set of rhetorical strategies and linguistic features, it is likely that the conveyance of persuasive intents across the four specialised discourses will vary to some extent. The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay between the context of the genre and specialised discourse on the one hand the linguacultural background of the persuaders and the persuadees on the other, and its impact on the choice of rhetorical strategies and linguistic means instrumental to the build-up of persuasive discourse.

1.5.5 Research Purposes and Analytical Approach As stated above, the main aims of this study are (1) to identify common denominators of persuasion across specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds; (2) to describe rhetorical strategies and linguistic means for conveying persuasion specific to the academic, business, religious and technical discourses, and to explain how linguacultural and genre-specific constraints affect variation in persuasion across specialised discourses; and (3) to explore and explain divergences in how persuasion is realised in the four English- and Czech-specialised discourses. These research purposes motivated the choice of analytical framework, which is

24 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

rooted in the functional approach to language and applies insights from sociolinguistics, intercultural rhetoric and genre analysis. The analysis uses qualitative and quantitative methods, as these are considered complementary to an adequate analysis of language data (Hunston, 2007). The primacy of qualitative analysis reflects the context-­ dependent interactive nature of persuasion, which cannot be accounted for on the basis of quantification. The texts were processed manually for the investigation of ethos-, logos- and pathos-related rhetorical strategies, while a qualitative study of the functions of linguistic realisations of persuasion was complemented by quantitative analysis for identification of the prominence of relevant linguistic means in the different sub-corpora and performance of a comparative analysis aimed at identifying variation in persuasive language across specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds. The majority of the persuasive language resources indicated above as central to this investigation (self-mentions, reader reference, non-­ assertion speech acts, stance and linking adverbials and citations) function as metadiscourse markers (Hyland, 2005), that is linguistic resources for intersubjective positioning, signalling how the writer projects him/ herself into the text to evaluate and show involvement with the propositional content and the intended audience. It is therefore natural that this study adopts Hyland’s interpersonal model of metadiscourse as an analytical tool for analysis of the linguistic manifestations of persuasion. It is important to stress that the interpersonal model posits that “all metadiscourse is interpersonal in that it takes account of the reader’s knowledge, textual experiences and processing needs and that it provides writers with an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (Hyland, 2005, p. 41). Metadiscourse resources have been usefully grouped into two broad categories—interactional and interactive (Hyland & Tse, 2004; Thompson, 2001)—according to the functions they fulfil. Interactional metadiscourse markers involve the reader in the argument and express the writer’s evaluation and commitment to the information conveyed; they may be seen as pertaining to Halliday’s (1994) interpersonal metafunction. Interactional metadiscourse markers have been further subdivided into those expressing stance, defined as an attitudinal dimension referring to the ways writers represent themselves and express their

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

25

judgements, opinions and commitments, and those expressing engagement, defined as an alignment dimension allowing writers to acknowledge the presence of their readers, pull them along with their argument, focus their attention and guide them to intended interpretations (Hyland, 2005, p. 176). Stance, casting the author’s voice into the text, may be expressed by the following categories of markers: • self-mentions, usually realised by exclusive personal pronouns (I/we) and possessives (my/our) • attitude markers (valuable, significant, important) • hedges (generally, perhaps, might) • boosters (the fact that, surely, indeed), which together with hedges model the level of commitment to statements and claims Engagement markers, indicating direct appeal to the audience, comprise: • reader reference, commonly realised by first-person inclusive pronouns and possessives (we/us/our) and second-person pronouns and possessives (you/your) • appeals to shared knowledge (of course, obviously, familiar) • directives (assume, select, see) • questions (why is this important?) • asides, which usually take the form of typically parenthetical remarks (although I consider these less significant) It should be noted that Czech is a synthetic language and as such differs from English, which is essentially analytical. A feature reflecting the specificity of the Czech language is the non-realisation of the pronominal subject in non-emphatic utterances; as a result self-mentions and reader reference are typically realised by verb forms with endings marked for singular or plural first- or second-person reference. Another difference between the two languages lies in the realisation of directive speech acts; while in English one of the structures expressing directives is the predicative adjective (Hyland, 2002b), in Czech the same function may be

26 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

performed by modal adjectives and adverbs, which are termed ‘modal predicatives’, for example, je nutné [it is necessary], je možno [it is possible]. The difference between the analytical character of English and the synthetic character of Czech also accounts to a certain extent for the difference in wordcount between the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora of CECSD, as English naturally includes a higher number of grammatical words. Interactive metadiscourse markers help the writer to develop the argument and guide the reader through the text; we may associate them with the Hallidayan textual metafunction. They are instrumental in enhancing content reliability, as they facilitate the perception of coherence in discourse by indicating the consistency of new information with background knowledge and pointing to steps in the development of the argumentation chain. Interactive metadiscourse markers include: • transitions, expressing semantic relations between main clauses and sentences (but, however, therefore) • frame markers, indicating discourse organisation and the progress of the argument (finally, to repeat, here my aim is) • endophoric markers—referring to information provided elsewhere in the text (see Table 2, as noted in section 2) • evidentials—referring to sources of information outside the text (X points out, according to Z) • code glosses—providing reformulations and examples to assist the reader in comprehending the text (i.e., e.g., namely) Although Hyland’s model of metadiscourse (designed originally for analysis of academic discourse) is broad and the categories it comprises are clearly fuzzy, as acknowledged by Hyland himself (Hyland, 2005) and evidenced by others (e.g. McGrath & Kuteeva, 2012), it remains a powerful and useful tool for analysis of writer-reader interaction in written texts, as it has the potential to reveal how language is used for persuasive purposes.The approach to analysis of evaluative lexis combines insights from Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory and Hunston’s (1999) approach to evaluation focusing on status and value in persuasive texts, which provides a framework for an account of how the persuader

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

27

positions him/herself with regard to the audience and the context in which the interaction takes place. Within Hunston’s (1999) framework, evaluation is expressed simultaneously on the autonomous plane, which reflects the writer’s attitude and assessment of the reality (whether it is seen as fact or averral, i.e. “the verbal assertion that something is the case”) (Hunston, 1999, p. 184), and the interactive plane, concerning the ongoing interaction between the writer and the reader. Thus the interactive plane evaluates assigned status and value. Status is associated with the evaluative parameter of certainty (i.e. whether the utterance is regarded as based on fact, reported statement or belief ), while value ascribes qualities related to the good-bad axis. Status is usually indicated by epistemic modality markers, such as modal verbs (may, might, would), modal adverbs (perhaps, likely, certainly), adjectives (probable, certain), nouns (hypothesis, belief, fact) and epistemic lexical verbs (think, suggest, know). Lexical means conveying explicit evaluation related to value are primarily adjectives (e.g. correct, important, useful), adverbs (adequately, surprisingly, sadly), nouns (problem, confusion) and verbs (misunderstands, ignores) (cf. Shaw, 2003, 2009). As Thompson and Hunston (1999, p. 24) point out, the categories of status and value are experientially oriented in Hallidayan terms, as they express the speaker’s/writer’s attitude towards propositions and entities. To these, Thompson and Hunston add two more textually oriented categories of evaluation: expectedness, which indicates the extent to which a proposition fits in with the speaker’s/writer’s views and the assumptions made about the addressee’s view, and importance or significance of the information and its relevance to the coherence of the text. These four parameters of evaluation are approached as four facets of the same phenomenon. It is important to stress that the good-bad dimension is regarded as the basic one to which the other three are related, as certainty, relevance and importance are considered as good text qualities. As with the metadiscourse approach, this approach to evaluative lexis has the analytical potential to reveal how attitudes expressed are dialogically directed towards construing a relationship between the persuader and the audience, so aligning them into “a community of shared value and belief ” (Martin & White, 2005, p. 95). The analysis of rhetorical strategies and linguistic realisations of persuasion in this study combines top-down and bottom-up approaches to

28 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

the processing of data in social sciences (Wodak & Krzyzanowski, 2008). The spectrum of discourse strategies conveying persuasion and the related linguistic means are identified and categorised for each genre of the four specialised discourses in the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora, thus establishing genre-specific repertoires. The intercultural comparison across the four specialised discourses endeavours to outline some genre-­ based and linguacultural tendencies specific to Anglophone and Czech persuasive discourse, while at the same time attempting to indicate universal culturally and linguistically non-specific aspects of persuasion reflected in analogous persuasive strategies across the genre sets in both language-specific sub-corpora.

References Askehave, I., & Swales, J. (2001). Genre identification and communicative purpose: A problem and a possible solution. Applied Linguistics, 2(22), 195–212. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/22.2.195 Atkinson, D. (2004). Contrasting rhetorics/contrasting cultures: Why contrastive rhetoric needs a better conceptualization of culture. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3(4), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2004. 07.002 Bach, K. (2005). The top 10 misconceptions about implicature. In B. J. Birner & G. Ward (Eds.), Drawing the boundaries of meaning: Neo-Gricean studies in pragmatics and semantics in honor of Laurence R. Horn (pp. 21–30). https:// doi.org/10.1075/slcs.80.03bac Bell, A. (1997). Language style as audience design. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook (pp. 240–250). New York: St Martin’s. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5 Bennett, K. (2009). English academic style manuals: A survey. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8, 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2008.12.003 Berkenkotter, C., & Huckin, T. (1994). Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/ 9781315538747 Bhatia, V. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. London: Longman. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100013668 Bhatia, V. (2002). Applied genre analysis: A multi-perspective model. Iberica, 4, 3–19.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

29

Bhatia, V., & Bremner, S. (2017). The Routledge handbook of language and professional communication. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315851686 Bhatia, V., Sanchez Hernandez, P., & Peréz-Peredes, P. (2011). Researching specialized languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/scl.47 Biber, D., & Conrad, S. (2009). Register, genre, and style. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814358 Biber, D., Egbert, J., & Zhang, M. (2018). Lexis and grammar as complementary discourse systems for expressing stance and evaluation. In M. de los Ángeles Gómez González & J. Lachan Machenzie (Eds.), The construction of discourse as verbal interaction (pp. 201–226). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.296 Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson. Biber, D., & Zhang, M. (2018). Expressing evaluation without grammatical stance: Informational persuasion on the web. Corpora, 13(1), 97–123. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2018.0137 Bloch, J., & Chi, L. (1995). A comparison of the use of citations in Chinese and English academic discourse. In D. D. Belcher & G. Braine (Eds.), Academic writing in a second language: Essays on research and pedagogy (pp. 231–274). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (Eds.). (2007). Intercultural aspects of specialized communication. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Chamonikolasová, J. (2005). Comparing the structures of academic texts written in English and Czech. In M. Huttová (Ed.), Slovak studies in English 1 (pp. 77–84). Bratislava, Slovakia: Univerzita Komenského. Cheung, M. (2008). ‘Click here’: The impact of new media on the encoding of persuasive messages in direct marketing. Discourse Studies, 10(2), 161–189. https://doi.org/10.1177//1461445607087007 Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203561218 Clyne, M. (1987). Cultural difference in the organisation of academic discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 211–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/ 0378-2166(87)90196-2

30 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Čmejrková, S. (1996). Academic writing in Czech and in English. In E. Ventola & A.  Mauranen (Eds.), Academic writing (pp.  137–152). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.41.11cme Čmejrková, S., & Daneš, F. (1997). Academic writing and cultural identity: The case of Czech academic writing. In A. Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp. 40–62). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https:// doi.org/10.1515/9783110821048.41 Connor, U. (1996). Contrastive rhetoric: Cross-cultural aspects of second language writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi. org/10.1017/CBO9781139524599 Connor, U. (2004). Intercultural rhetoric research: Beyond texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3, 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeap.2004.07.003 Connor, U. (2008). Mapping multidimensional aspects of research: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric. In U.  Connor, E.  Nagelhout, & W.  Rozycki (Eds.), Contrastive rhetoric: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric (pp.  299–316). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.169 Connor, U., & Moreno, A. (2005). Tertium comparationis: A vital component in contrastive rhetoric research. In P. Bruthiaux, D. Atkinson, W. Eggington, W. Grabe, & V. Ramanathan (Eds.), Directions in applied linguistics: Essays in honor of Robert B.  Kaplan. Multilingual matters (pp.  153–164). England, UK: Clevedon. Connor, U., & Upton, T. (Eds.). (2004). Discourse in the professions. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.16 Crawford Camiciottoli, B. (2018). Persuasion in earnings calls: A diachronic pragmalinguistic analysis. International Journal of Business Communication, 55(3), 275–292. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488417735644 Dillard, J. P., & Pfau, M. (Eds.). (2002). The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781412976046 Dillard, J. P., & Seo, K. (2013). Affect and persuasion. In The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp.  150–166). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410.n10 Dillard, J. P., & Shen, L. (2013). The Sage handbook of persuasion. London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2013). Authorial presence in academic discourse: Functions of author-reference pronouns. Linguistica Pragensia, 23(1), 9–30.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

31

Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2014). The changing face of Czech academic discourse. In K.  Bennett (Ed.), The semiperiphery of academic writing ­ (pp. 39–61). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/ 9781137351197 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). A contrastive (English, Czech English, Czech) study of rhetorical functions of citations in linguistics research articles. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18 Duffy, M., & Thorson, E. (2016). Persuasion ethics today. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315651309 Duranti, A. (1985). Sociocultural Dimensions of Discourse. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Handbook of Discourse Analysis, Vol. 1. (pp.  193–230). London: Academic Press. Duranti, A. (2006). Narrating the political self in a campaign for U.S. congress. Language in Society, 35, 467–497. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740 4506060222 Duszak, A. (1997). Cross-cultural academic communication: A discourse community view. In A.  Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp.  11–39). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110821048.11 Ede, L., & Lunsford, A. (1984). On distinctions between classical and modern rhetoric. In R. J. Connors, L. S. Ede, & A. A. Lunsford (Eds.), Essays on classical rhetoric and modern discourse (pp. 37–49). Carbondale/Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis. London: Longman. Fetzer, A. (2004). Recontextualizing context: Grammaticality meets appropriateness. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ pbns.121 Fløttum, K., Dahl, T., & Kinn, T. (2006). Academic voices: Across languages and disciplines. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/ 10.1075/pbns.148 Flowerdew, L. (2004). The argument for using English specialized corpora to understand academic and professional language. In U. Connor & T. Upton (Eds.), Discourse in the professions: Perspectives from corpus linguistics (pp. 11–33). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.16

32 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Flowerdew, L. (2012). Grammar and the research article. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0473 Fowler, R. (1986). Linguistic criticism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Gil-Salom, L., & Soler-Monreal, C. (Eds.). (2014). Dialogicity in written specialised genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.23 Goering, E., Connor, U., Nagelhout, E., & Steinberg, R. (2008). Persuasion in fundraising letters: An interdisciplinary study. Non-profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(2), 228–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764009339216 Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books. Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. https://doi.org/1 0.1177/0261927X8400300204 Gotti, M. (2008). Investigating specialized discourse (2nd ed.). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0214-7 Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P.  Cole & J.  L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, volume 3: Speech acts (pp.  41–58). New  York: Academic Press. Habermas, J. (1984). Theory of communicative action. Vol. II.  Reason and the rationalization of society. Boston: Beacon Press. Halliday, M.  A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold. Halmari, H., & Virtanen, T. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion across genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Harwood, N. (2005). ‘We do not seem to have a theory … the theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 26, 343–375. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/ami012 Hasan, R. (1989). The texture of a text. In M. A. K. Halliday & R. Hasan (Eds.), Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective (2nd ed., pp. 70–96). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Higgins, C., & Walker, R. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports. Accounting Forum, 36, 194–208. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003 Hinds, J. (1987). Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology. In U. Connor & R. B. Kaplan (Eds.), Writing across languages: Analyses of L2 text (pp. 141–152). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

33

Hogan, J. M. (2013). Persuasion in the rhetorical tradition. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The Sage book of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 2–19). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410.n1 Holliday, A. (1999). Small cultures. Applied Linguistics, 20(2), 237–264. https:// doi.org/10.1093/applin/20.2.237 Huber, A., & Pable, J. (2019). Aristotelian appeals and the role of candidate-­ generated videos in talent assessment. International Journal of Arts and Design Education, 38(1), 90–109. https://doi.org/10.1111/jade.12176 Hunston, S. (1999). Evaluation and the planes of discourse: Status and value in persuasive texts. In S. Hunston & G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in text: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse (pp. 176–207). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hunston, S. (2007). Using corpus to investigate stance quantitatively and qualitatively. In R.  Englebretson (Ed.), Stancetaking in discourse (pp.  27–48). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.164 Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. (Eds.). (1999). Evaluation in text: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (1998). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(98)00009-5 Hyland, K. (2001). Humble servants of the discipline? Self-mention in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 18, 207–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0889-4906(00)00012-0 Hyland, K. (2002a). Authority and invisibility: Authorial identity in academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 1091–1112. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(02)00035-8 Hyland, K. (2002b). Directives: Arguments and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K. (2008). Persuasion, interaction and the construction of knowledge: Representing self and others in research writing. IJES, 8(2), 1–23. https:// doi.org/10.6018/ijes.8.2.49151 Hyland, K., & Guinda, C. S. (2012). Stance and voice in written academic genres. Basingstoke, UK/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi. org/10.1057/9781137030825

34 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Ivanič, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/swll.5 Jaklová, A. (2002). Persvaze a její prostředky v současných žurnalistických textech. [Persuasion and means for expressing it in contemporary journalistic texts]. Naše řeč, 85(4), 169–176. Jakobson, R. (1990[1960]). On language. London, UK/Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Jucker, A. (1997). Persuasion by inference: Analysis of a party political broadcast. Political Linguistics, Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 11, 121–137. https:// doi.org/10.1075/bjl.11.07juc Kaplan, R.  B. (1966). Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education. Language Learning, 16(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14671770.1966.tb00804.x Kilgarriff, A., Rychly, P., Smrz, P., & Tugwell, D. (2004). The sketch engine. In G. Williams & S. Vessier (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th EURALEX international congress (pp. 105–116). Lorient: Université de Bretagne-Sud. Killingsworth, J. (2005). Appeals in modern rhetoric: An ordinary language approach. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Kinneavy, J. L. (1971). A theory of discourse: The aims of discourse. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice. Kissine, M. (2016). Non-assertion speech acts. In S. Goldberg & E. Borg (Eds.), Oxford handbook of philosophy online. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935314.013.5 Kristeva, J. (1969). Sémiotique. Recherches pour une sémanalyse. Paris: Seuil. Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London/New York: Longman. Li, X. (2008). From contrastive rhetoric to intercultural rhetoric: A search for collective identity. In W.  V. Rozycki, E.  Nagelhout, & U.  Connor (Eds.), Contrastive rhetoric: Reaching to intercultural rhetoric (pp. 13–41). Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.169 Lorés-Sanz, R. (2011). The construction of the author’s voice in academic writing: The interplay of cultural and disciplinary factors. Text and Talk, 31, 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2011.008 Lunsford, A., Wilson, K. H., & Eberly, R. A. (Eds.). (2009). The Sage handbook of rhetorical studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/ 9781412982795

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

35

Martin, J.  R. (1985). Process and text: Two aspects of human semiosis. In J.  Benson & W.  Graves (Eds.), Systemic perspectives on discourse (Vol. 1, pp. 248–274). Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511910 Mauranen, A. (1993). Contrastive ESP rhetoric: Metatext in Finnish-English economics texts. English for Specific Purposes, 12, 3–22. https://doi. org/10.1016/0889-4906(93)90024-I McGrath, L., & Kuteeva, M. (2012). Stance and engagement in pure mathematics research articles: Linking discourse features to disciplinary practices. English for Specific Purposes, 31(3), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. esp.2011.11.002 McIntosh, K., Connor, U., & Gokpinar-Shelton, E. (2017). What intercultural rhetoric can bring to EAP/ESP writing studies in an English as a lingua franca world. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 29, 12–20. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jeap.2017.09.001 Miller, G.  R. (Ed.). (1980). Persuasion: New directions in theory and research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Miller, G. R. (2013). On being persuaded: Some basic distinctions. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp.  70–82). London: Sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781412976046.n1 Moreno, A., & Suárez, L. (2008). A study of critical attitude across English and Spanish academic book reviews. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8(1), 15–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2008.02.009 Mulholland, J. (1994). A handbook of persuasive tactics: A practical language guide. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/ 9780203420768 Mur-Dueñas, P. (2007). I/we focus on…: A cross-cultural analysis of self-­ mentions in business management research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2007.05.002 Mur-Dueñas, P. (2009). Citation in business management research articles: A contrastive (English-Spanish) corpus-based analysis. In E. Suomela-Salmi & F. Dervin (Eds.), Cross-cultural linguistic and cross-cultural perspectives on academic discourse (pp. 49–60). Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins. https:// doi.org/10.1075/pbns.193 O’Keefe, D. (2002). Persuasion: Theory and research. Thousand Oaks, CA/ London/Delhi, India: Sage.

36 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Orts Llopis, M.  A., Breeze, R., & Gotti, M. (2017). Power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres: Providing keys to the rhetoric of professional communities. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11481 Östman, J.-O. (2005). Persuasion as implicit anchoring: The case of collocations. In H. Halmari & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across genres: A linguistic approach (pp.  183–212). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Palmer, F. (1986). Mood and modality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Pelclová, J., & Lu, W.-L. (Eds.). (2018). Persuasion in public discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79 Perelman, C. (1982). The realm of rhetoric. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. Perloff, R. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion. Communication and attitudes in the 21st century (4th ed.). New  York/London: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315657714 Savolainen, R. (2014). The use of rhetorical strategies in Q & A discussions. Journal of Documentation, 70(1), 93–118. https://doi.org/10.1108/ JD-11-2012-0152 Scotto di Carlo, G. (2015). Ethos in TED talks: The role of credibility in popularized texts. Linguistics and Literature, 81(91), 81–91. Searle, J. (1975). A taxonomy of illocutionary acts. In K.  Gunderson (Ed.), Language, mind and knowledge (pp. 344–369). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Shaw, P. (2003). Evaluation and promotion across languages. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1475-1585(03)00050-X Shaw, P. (2009). The lexis and grammar of explicit evaluation in academic book reviews, 1913 and 1993. In K. Hyland & G. Diani (Eds.), Academic evaluation: Review genres in university settings (pp.  217–235). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230244290_13 Sheldon, E. (2009). From one I to another: Discursive construction of self-­ representation in English and Castilian Spanish research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 28(4), 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2009.05.001 Simons, H., & Jones, J. (2011). Persuasion in society. London/New York: Routledge. Šinkūnienė, J. (2017). Citations in research writing. The interplay of discipline, culture and expertise. In T.  Egan & H.  Dirdal (Eds.), Cross-linguistic

1  Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 

37

c­orrespondences: From lexis to genre (pp.  253–270). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.191 Sperber, D., Clément, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., et al. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind & Language, 25, 359–393. https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01394.x Strawson, P. F. (1964). Intention and convention in speech acts. Philosophical Review, 73, 439–460. https://doi.org/10.2307/2183301 Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0272263100011773 Swales, J. (2004). Research genres. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524827 Thompson, G. (2001). Interaction in academic writing: Learning to argue with the reader. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/22.1.58 Trosborg, A. (1997). Rhetorical strategies in legal language: Discourse analysis of statutes and contracts. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag. Trosborg, A. (Ed.). (2000). Analysing professional genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.74 van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society, 17(3), 359–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506060250 van Dijk, T.  A. (2008). Discourse and power. Basingstoke, UK/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. van Emeren, H. (Ed.). (1986). Argumentation: Perspectives and approaches. Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C.-R. Caldas-­ Coulthard & M.  Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp.  32–70). London: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.1075/z.184.55lee van De Mieroop, D. (2007). The complementarity of two identities and two approaches: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of institutional and professional identity. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 1120–1142. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.01.009 Vassileva, I. (1998). Who am I/who are we in academic writing? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 163–192. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1998.tb00128.x Virtanen, T., & Halmari, H. (2005). Persuasion across genres: Emerging perspectives. In H.  Halmari & T.  Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across Genres

38 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

(pp.  3–24). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.130.03vir Vold, E. (2006). Epistemic modality markers in research articles: A cross-­ linguistic and crossdisciplinary study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 61–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2006.00106.x Walton, D. (1997). Appeal to expert opinion. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press. Walton, D. (2008). Informal logic: A pragmatic approach (2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9780511808630 Warchał, K. (2015). Certainty and doubt in academic discourse: Epistemic modality markers. Katowice, Poland: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Watts, R. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511615184 Wodak, R., & Krzyzanowski, M. (Eds.). (2008). Qualitative discourse analysis in the social sciences. Basingstoke, UK/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Yakhontova, T. (2006). Cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: The issue of influencing factors. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5, 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2006.03.002 Yzer, M. (2013). Reasoned action theory: Persuasion as belief-based behaviour change. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The Sage handbook of persuasion (pp. 120–136). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410.n8

2 Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses

2.1 Introduction Persuasion in specialised discourse is constrained by the occupational area of knowledge, the unique norms and practices of a specialised discourse community sharing context-dependent rhetorical conventions and a specialist use of language (Candlin & Gotti, 2007; Gil-Salom & Soler-­ Monreal, 2014). This chapter opens with a description of the characteristic features of the academic, business, religious and technical discourses and their representative genres—the research article, the corporate annual report, the sermon and the user manual. This serves as a basis for a comparison of the situational characteristics of the four specialised discourses intended to highlight existing similarities and differences between them and to lay the ground for understanding the reasons for variation in the persuasive strategies they favour. Then we provide details on the composition, size and principles of selection of the individual Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora of the CECSD corpus. The main focus of this chapter is an analysis of the rhetorical strategies typical of the academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses from the perspective of the three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_2

39

40 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

and pathos. The purpose of this qualitative analysis is to describe and compare the persuasive strategies and language resources used for their realisation which the members of the four specialised discourse communities tend to employ and find convincing when making their persuasive attempts. Since the growing dominance of English in specialised discourses in the modern globalised world has to a large extent established Anglophone conventions as the norm in international communication, in this chapter we explore the English-medium sub-corpora of the CECSD to identify discourse-specific persuasive strategies. A cross-­ cultural quantitative and qualitative analysis aiming at comparing persuasion in Anglophone- and Czech-specialised discourses is carried out in the subsequent chapters of this book.

2.2 T  he Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses Numerous studies attempt to outline general features of specialised discourse; they are usually undertaken from a register perspective and take into consideration pragmatic criteria (cf. Gotti, 2008). While the defining features of specialised discourses seem to be economy, precision and appropriateness, their relative weight varies according to the communicative context and the specific area of knowledge and practice associated with a particular specialised discourse. This section focuses on specific features of academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses.

2.2.1 Academic Discourse Academic discourse is the specialised discourse used in academic settings for the representation of ways of thinking and constructing knowledge via rhetorical and language devices. Academic discourse mediates academic interaction, the purpose of which is not only the “steady extension of the scope and precision of scientific knowledge” (Kuhn, 1962, p. 52) but also the construction of social roles and relationships between

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

41

individuals and groups sharing similar or different academic allegiances (Hyland, 2011b). Since the aim of scholars taking part in academic communication is to convince their peers of the validity of their views and claims, it is obvious that academic discourse is essentially persuasive. Convincing ideas, however, are not enough to secure reader agreement; thus academic persuasion also involves interpersonal negotiations via which authors endeavour to construct a coherent and credible representation of themselves and their research, to position readers as sympathetic colleagues, and to anticipate criticism and alternative interpretations (cf. Hyland, 2008; Livnat, 2012). Given the importance of writing to knowledge building and exchange of information in academic culture, most studies on academic discourse have concentrated on academic writing from the perspectives of rhetoric and composition analysis, genre analysis and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). These studies have generally described academic writing as characterised by the use of discipline-specific terminology and a condensed nominal style of writing, defined by a reliance on nouns and noun phrase structures, comprising nouns and adjectives as pre-modifiers and post-modifying relative and participle clauses (cf. Banks, 2008; Biber & Gray, 2010; Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Gray, 2015; Halliday, 2004). In the second half of the twentieth century the assumption prevailing in the Anglophone academic community was that academic research was purely empirical and objective, and therefore, it was best reported through a written discourse characterised by “clarity, economy, rational argument supported by evidence, caution and restraint” (Bennett, 2009, p. 52) which assumed that human agency was not part of the process (Hyland, 2001a). However, it is now generally acknowledged that academic writing is a “persuasive endeavour” in which the writer’s ability to step into the text and develop an appropriate relationship with readers is of paramount importance for the acceptance of the writer’s claims and findings by the disciplinary community (cf. Hyland, 2001a). Academic discourse is far from homogeneous—it varies across disciplines, cultural backgrounds, epistemological traditions and genres used to convey scientific knowledge. Each of these dimensions of variation is associated with specific norms and conventions which are instrumental

42 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

in shaping the repertoire of rhetorical strategies and language resources writers have at their disposal to encode intended meanings; they also inform the expectation of readers towards the discourse and help them identify the writer’s aims and ideas. It follows that successful academic persuasion presupposes the use of rhetorical and language choices which are established in the discursive practice of a specific academic community and which this community finds convincing (Hyland, 2008).

2.2.1.1  The Genre of the Research Article The research article is the most prominent and frequently researched genre of academic discourse. It is a form of written communication which mediates interaction between expert members of the academic community with the purpose of reporting current research and making novelty claims, which may be accepted and ratified as valid knowledge by the scientific community or rejected as unreliable. Research articles are the outcome of the research of single authors or teams reporting the findings of collective work. They are typically published in scientific journals, which may vary in their readership scope and academic reputation. The prominent position of research articles among academic genres is partly due to the fact that they are the main means of communicating new scientific research, and partly due to the impact of the quantity and quality of a scholar’s publication record as his/her academic career progresses (Flowerdew, 2013). Despite sharing the same broad communicative purpose, research articles differ according to their orientation, that is theoretical, empirical or evaluative, as well as the research paradigm applied, for example quantitative versus qualitative research (Gray, 2015). This study focuses on empirical research articles typically displaying the Introduction-Method-­ Results-Discussion rhetorical sections defined by Swales (1990, 2004). The rhetorical conventions associated with the genre of empirical research articles generally reflect the communicative purposes of the research article as a whole, as well as those of the individual sections and moves (parts of the rhetorical organisation of the text serving a particular rhetorical purpose) comprised in them. Thus the purpose of the Introduction

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

43

section is to establish the research territory, identify a niche for the new research reported and occupy that niche by outlining the specific aims of the study. The Methods section describes the data collection and the research design. The Results section, often merged with the Discussion, presents the results, evaluates them in relation to previous research and discusses their contribution to disciplinary knowledge. Similarly to academic discourse as a whole, genre conventions vary across disciplines and linguacultural backgrounds. The focus of this study is on the more interpretative humanities and social sciences as represented by linguistics and economics research articles. Thus apart from exploring how persuasive attempts are generally made in academic discourse, this investigation undertakes to explore linguacultural and disciplinary variation in the genre of the research article.

2.2.2 Business Discourse Business communication involves communication between business entities and between businesses and their clients and customers. It is based on promoting the entity, its activities and outcomes, and on engaging the readers for its benefit. Companies function in a competitive environment, where it is necessary to fight for a position in the market and secure the trust of customers, partners and other entities. The need to build the image of a reliable and competent organisation is the major underlying factor for persuasion in business. Business language was already considered as a specific functional style by the Prague School (Mautner & Rainer, 2017, p. 7). It is formal, but not completely impersonal, it uses specialised terminology with a high level of nominalisation and condensation, but it strives to be understood even by non-specialists. A characteristic feature is conventionality, as business communication clings to standard formats, procedures, scripts and formulations. Business discourse is a semi-private or fully public discourse (e.g. the annual report). It encompasses a variety of genres with various levels of interpersonality. Promotional genres have “invaded the territorial integrity” or colonised most professional genres, which has led to extensive genre-mixing (Bhatia, 2005, pp. 219–220).

44 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Business discourse in the modern globalised world is relatively unified, as multinational corporations, typically using English as a lingua franca, tend to export their management practices and presentation styles to each country they have operations in. Even national companies often publish their documents in English in addition to the language of their own country, to allow international access to information about them.

2.2.2.1  Annual Reports as a Genre A document typically produced by businesses is the corporate annual report, which in this volume will represent the business discourse. Bhatia (2004, pp. 59–62) groups annual and corporate reports with a number of interactive and promotional business genres in the genre colony of promotional genres. The annual report is usually considered as a colony text (Hoey, 2001) because it consists of structurally, functionally and linguistically different sections. Garzone (2004, p. 314) sees the annual report as a type of text consisting of different subtypes aimed at different addressees and performing different functions individually and as a whole. Each component text in this genre focuses on persuasion with a different intensity and employs a different repertoire of means, but the texts clearly function as a synergic whole. A corporate or institutional annual report is a publicly available summary of an organisation’s activities in the previous (financial) year, with a compact and stable script and usually a representative format. Traditionally published in printed form, annual reports have recently been increasingly available online. Over the past few decades, annual reports, particularly those published by large and successful organisations, have tended to get longer and more complex. There is a further correlation between the size and prestige of the company or institution and the attractiveness of presentation and level of professionalism in the editing of its reports. Target readers of annual reports are stakeholders of the organisation. For corporate annual reports, this notably includes investors (i.e. current and potential shareholders), business partners, tax authorities, clients and customers and their own managers and employees. According to Garzone

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

45

(2004), reports are “the key communication instruments between a firm’s management and its shareholders” (p. 314). Corporate annual reports are usually not authored by one person, although some of their sub-genres are signed by a particular executive. Thomas (1997) says that annual reports are typically drafted successively by the president or chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO) and chief legal officer, and the final text is then revised and signed by the president/CEO again. She describes the final document as one that “embodies the ʻcorporate-speakʼ representative of the top management of the company” (p.  48). Winsor (1993, as quoted in Thomas, 1997) claims that although letters to stockholders are presented as the ‘voice’ of the company, their official authors consider them “as representing them personally” (p. 48). Annual reports consist of standardised texts, of which the following are obligatory: CEOʼs letter or statement (also letter to shareholders, chairman’s statement), directors’ report on operations, management discussion and analysis, financial statements and notes on the statements (Needles, Powers, Mills, & Anderson, 1999), and independent auditor’s statement. Except for tabular sections in financial statements, all parts of reports are textual. The sub-corpus BUS-ENG was compiled from the following sections of annual reports: chairperson’s/CEO’s statement, letter to shareholders, plus optional parts such as market overview, operating and financial review, mission statement and corporate governance and responsibility. Letters to shareholders address their readers directly, contain features increasing credibility, such as explicit authorship, personal appeal and opinions of authors, and highlight facts and evidence. They are regarded as “the mostly read and circulated part” of the annual report (Garzone, 2004, p. 314). Letters or CEO’s statements have often been studied by linguists. Hyland (1998c), for instance, focused on their rhetorical structures, while Garzone (2004) highlighted authorʼs self-reference and engagement of readers, and Thomas (1997) noted how choices of thematic structures and verbs depend on the type of message and use of contextual features. McLaren-Hankin (2019) observes how reader reference and projection of self and customers into various process types and

46 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

roles help to rebuild trust. Schnitzer (2017) looks into the relation between function, structure and style in annual reports. Reviews in the Strategic Report rely heavily on the logical appeal: they refer to facts, provide evidence and prove claims by quoting events, cases and figures and illustrating them with visuals. They use logical reasoning to interpret, explain and predict. Ethical appeal is also involved in expression of attitude, modulation of persuadersʼ commitment to their claims and evaluative lexis. Besides factuality (reference to events, figures, tables, graphs, examples), ethos is achieved by emphasising executivesʼ expertise, staff experience and the corporationʼs competence, resilience, strength and innovativeness.

2.2.3 Religious Discourse Owing to its social, historical and linguacultural connotations, religious discourse is perceived as displaying a whole gamut of qualities that make it truly extraordinary (Downes, 2018; Perloff, 2010, pp. 92–93). Besides, it constitutes a pluridisciplinary aggregate of diverse genres, registers and text types (cf. Adam, 2017; Crystal, 2018; Perloff, 2010, pp. 161–162), ranging from gospels and historical narratives to prayers and doxologies. Protestant sermons, that is the genre under scrutiny in the present research, co-constitute the secondary religious discourse, which is represented by texts that comment on, disseminate or interpret the primary religious texts (the Bible in particular), such as biblical commentaries or hermeneutic treatises (Adam, 2017; Overstreet, 2014). Religious texts in the widest sense of the word are intrinsically related to the ultimate objective of religious communication: to create, mediate and legitimise ideology in order to persuade the reader of the veracity of the religious doctrine (Cotterell & Turner, 1989, pp. 26–33; van Dijk, 1998, p.  317). In this respect analogous to politics, religious ideology aspires to affect society, define standards of people’s behaviour and set values; one of the effective vehicles of conveying ideology in religious discourse is persuasion (the focus of the present volume). In line with this claim is van Dijk’s (1998) argument concerning the irreplaceable role of discourse in the process of dissemination of ideologies, explained as

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

47

follows: “[D]iscourse has a special function in the expression, implementation and especially the reproduction of ideologies, since it is only through language use, discourse or communication […] that they can be explicitly formulated” (pp. 316–317). It follows that religious language reflects the persuasive nature of the discourse of religion; as we would expect, apart from indicative vocabulary and poetic imagery, religious discourse manifests a relatively high degree of dialogicity, narrative nature, use of figurative language (e.g. metaphors, parables, similes, allegory), ubiquitous appeal to the audience, exigency of the message and circumstantial links to rhetorical conventions (Adam, 2017; Downes, 2018; Unger, 2018). The set of particular features will clearly depend on the particular genre within the religious discourse (Crystal, 2018).

2.2.3.1  The Sermon as a Genre According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, a sermon is defined as “a discourse upon a text of scripture; what is preached”. Practically speaking, a sermon is a religious speech delivered typically in a church building, usually from a pulpit or an ambo, but also in a more private environment such as a Bible study group and the like (Adam, 2017; Fee & Stuart, 2003, pp.  13–25; Garlock, 2002, p.  39; Robinson, 2014, pp. 71ff). The present research deals with the scripted version of Protestant sermons that originally were either meant to be read out loud at church or were first delivered from the pulpit and then written down for filing or publication purposes. The communicative intention of sermons resides, above all, in sharing the church doctrine, its explication and application. Technically, sermons embody authentic, live and, to a large extent, dialogic communication with a shared deictic centre. From the sociolinguistic point of view, Ghadessy (1988) maintains that any text is “part of the enacted discourse of a socially defined group, a culture or speech community” (p. 65); in the case of religious discourse, such a community is evidently determined by the church authority on the one hand and the congregation on the other. The audience is by nature heterogeneous since it comprises believers and regular as well as occasional visitors. The inner community dynamics is interactive and

48 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

involves asymmetrical relations of power deriving from the hierarchical relation between the preacher’s authority and the audience’s relative submission (Bell, 1997; van Leeuwen, 1996). The existence of an audience goes by definition hand in hand with the possibility of persuasion (Cotterell & Turner, 1989, pp. 27–28; Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 7).

2.2.4 Technical Discourse Technical discourse, also labelled English for Science, Technical English, English for Technology or English for Science and Technology (cf. Trimble, 1985), can be viewed as part of English for Specific Purposes. Owing to the international character of most producers of technical devices and the unquestionable role of English as a lingua franca in the globalised world, the majority of technical communication is necessarily carried out in English. It comprises all kinds of means, both linguistic and visual, of disseminating knowledge and latest technological developments to expert and lay audiences all over the world. Technical communication can be described in agreement with Dobrin, Keller, and Weisser  (2014) as “communication about complex, highly detailed problems, issues, or subjects in the professional world, which helps audiences visualize and understand information so that they can make informed and ethical decisions or take appropriate and safe actions” (p. 4). Many people communicate some form of technical information daily without even realising they are doing so. In agreement with Grice’s Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975), it can be stated that it is above all in technical discourse that all four conversational maxims are necessarily followed. Technical writers are expected (1) to provide an appropriate amount of content information, (2) to present truthful information based on facts and evidence, (3) to communicate the information clearly and coherently and (4) to give only relevant information in order to achieve maximum effectiveness and persuasiveness of technical texts. Grices’s maxims are “the basic ingredients of technical and professional communication” (Dobrin et al., 2014, p. 5), since economy, precision, clearness and appropriateness are the defining characteristics of all technical communication.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

49

Technical discourse can be aptly defined using Trimble’s definition (Trimble, 1985), according to which it is “that type of discourse that has as its purpose the transmission of information (fact or hypothesis) from writers to readers; therefore it uses only a limited number of rhetorical functions. It does not, for example, make use of such rhetorical functions as editorializing, non-logical argumentation, poetic images, or those functions that create emotions such as laughter, sadness, etc.” (p. 129). Technical discourse clearly does not represent expressive communication; it should rather be viewed as strategic communication.

2.2.4.1  The User Manual as a Genre Technical discourse is represented within the CECSD corpus by the genre of user manuals, since “approximately 70% of global technical communication is technical instructions, encompassing such things as instructions for end-users (manuals), instructions for service professionals (service manuals), instructions for installation and construction, and instructions embedded in products, including user-interface” (Sharpe, 2014, p. 1). Nevertheless, this field remains relatively under-researched. While there are many types of technical manuals, this study explores the so-called user manuals, also labelled user guides, since this type is most frequently used by a large number of people and also the results drawn from the analysis of manuals for end-users are considered most important for general application. The factual technical information provided in user manuals must be easily accessible for a specific audience, that is users of particular technical devices. Consequently, writers aim at clear organisation of information into a series of clearly defined steps and avoidance of ambiguity of expression, since the primary goal is the transmission of technical information as accurately as possible. In compiling this information, they have to bear in mind the expected level of technical proficiency and understanding of the targeted audiences in order to create a persuasive and useful set of instructions and give appropriate guidance to people using particular technical devices.

50 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

The communicative purposes of user manuals comprise above all persuasion (Rus, 2014), which means the intention to persuade readers of the importance and usefulness of the guidelines provided, and instruction, which entails transmission of factual technical information with the aim of enriching the audience’s knowledge with regard to some specific technical aspects associated with the operation of particular technical devices. The choice of rhetorical strategies is governed by the relationships between on the one hand addressors, who, thanks to their expertise and thus reliability, credibility and competence to provide instructions, are viewed as having a relatively higher social status, and on the other potential readers who, owing to the fact that they lack certain technical information they need, are viewed as having a relatively lower social status and a submissive role, since they have to follow the instructions provided. The interpretation of technical texts, including user manuals, is influenced by different degrees of background knowledge readers have from previous experience of similar texts (cf. “technical experience” in Mohammed & Swales, 1984, p. 216) and by the amount of factual information and evidence provided in the text. In addition, the mostly linear and logical structure of technical instructions, “the reliance on imperative information structures” and “the proximity between text and action” (Sharpe, 2014, pp. 6–7) can help to convince readers to behave as expected.

2.3 C  omparison of Situational Characteristics of the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses Drawing on Biber and Conrad’s (2009) framework as adapted in Dontcheva-Navratilova (2009, 2011), this section compares contextual factors affecting interaction in academic, business, religious and technical discourses, focusing on situational variables, interpersonal and institutional relations, communicative conventions and purposes which the respective specialised discourse communities associate with the genres of research articles, corporate annual reports, sermons and user manuals. Our analysis of the situational context of the four specialised discourses and their representative genres is summarised in Table  2.1. While

Business discourse

Religious discourse

Local religious discourse community Public church building Shared deictic Centre Current report of the state Live church service Time setting Current scientific Real, authentic and of the company, future research concurrent coding plans Split coding and and decoding time Split coding and decoding decoding time time Religion (Christian, Business communication Domain Scientific research protestant) Discipline/area specific Company-specific Protestant church communication research service Discourse participants Addresser Writer-researcher Corporate body (company) Preacher Chief executive Individual/ institutional Stakeholders Congregation of Addressee Area-specific believers disciplinary community

Situational parameters Spatial setting Local/global scientific Local/global business discourse community community, general public, Split deictic Centre Split deictic Centre

Academic discourse

Table 2.1  Situational characteristics of the four specialised discourses

(continued)

Specific end-users

Technical communicator Specific company

Technical communication on specific technical issues

Current technical devices Split coding and decoding time

Local/global technical discourse community Split deictic Centre

Technical discourse

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

51

Social roles

Asymmetrical relations of power; the technical writer has knowledge to convey; readers need to understand and act according to instructions

Varying level of shared technical knowledge and discourse conventions

Instruction, informing, description and persuasion

Asymmetrical relations of power Church-driven authority Personal dimension

Relatively high level Varying level of shared knowledge; asymmetrical of shared background awareness of discourse knowledge and conventions discourse conventions Informing, reporting, description, persuasion

Explaining, teaching, conveying the church doctrine, persuasion

Local/global technical community General public

Local church community General public

Public authorities, competitors (other companies), general public Asymmetrical relations of power The writer has information on the company’s affairs, the stakeholders approve or reject the report

Local/global scientific community General public

Asymmetrical relations of power; the writer has new knowledge to convey The scientific community decides to ratify or not to ratify that knowledge Shared High level of shared knowledge disciplinary knowledge, high level of shared discourse conventions Communicative purposes General Informing, reporting purpose of results, description, persuasion

Audience

Technical discourse

Religious discourse

Business discourse

Academic discourse

Table 2.1 (continued)

52  O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Business discourse

Religious discourse

Technical discourse

Specific purposes

Providing general and Educating, sharing Summarising existing Reporting and specific technical values, text summarising knowledge, achievements and events, expositing, principle information about describing methods technical devices; application, life economic results, and procedures, describing steps, methods coaching, providing interpreting results, presenting new and procedures solutions describing plans and research findings, commitments claims Participant’s Purported to be based Purported to be based on Enhancing faith and Purported to be based on technical facts; valorised as sense of fellowship, facts/evidence; valorised attitude on fact; valorised as important, new, safe, seeking answers; efficiency, responsibility, important, new, useful and relevant valorised as innovation, common useful important, practical, benefits reassuring Communicative conventions Genre Research article Corporate annual report Sermon User manual Medium Written Written Scripted spoken Written Interactiveness Low Low to medium Medium to high Low Genre norms and Genre conventions Norms & Disciplinary and genre Genre conventions, conventions Culture-­specific cross-culturally quite conventions conventions Culture-­specific norms and norms and homogeneous, legally Culture-­specific norms conventions conventions binding content and conventions

Academic discourse

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

53

54 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

logically the domains which the four specialised discourses address are diverse, there are some striking similarities in the spatio-temporal settings pertaining to the academic, business and technical discourses. Being essentially written discourses, the academic, business and technical discourses are characterised by a ‘split’ context and thus are not constrained to a specific place and time of interaction. This endows them with the potential to address both a local or specific (related to topic, company or device, respectively) and a global audience (nowadays extended dramatically by the opportunities offered by the world wide web), thus putting pressure on the writer to build a credible representation of him/herself and to establish solidarity not only with a group of insiders that share similar values, experiences and conventions, but also with a larger non-­ homogenous readership. The setting in which religious sermons take place is very different, as it is defined by a specific time and place (a church and a scheduled service) and shared ideological background. Although they are an instance of scripted monologue (often available online as a written text), sermons are written primarily for oral delivery, and they address a clearly defined group of people, usually regular worshippers (although, of course, the attendees of a religious service may be diverse). It follows that the relationship between the speaker and the audience is more immediate and personal than with the other types of specialised discourses under investigation and may involve persuasive strategies characterised by a higher degree of interactiveness and emotionality. The technical and business discourses differ from the academic and religious discourses in being inherently institutional and addressing a large non-homogenous audience. Institutional contexts favour a merging of the three writer roles within an institutional identity. While the writer of a user manual is fully anonymous, which seems to motivate a lack of self-mention devices, the company presenting an annual report is to a certain extent represented by a specific officer who signs the letter to shareholders on behalf of the management of the company, and thus acts as an animator striving to create a slightly more personalised link between the writer and the reader. Although this approach allows the analyst to differentiate between the institutional and the personal identity of the

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

55

company official (van de Mieroop, 2007), it is hardly possible to claim that a letter to shareholders expresses genuinely personal views. The preacher delivering a sermon and the scholar (or team of scholars) writing a research article clearly act as individuals addressing a relatively clearly defined audience of believers and researchers working in the same area. However, while the academic writer is the originator of both the ideas and the text comprised in the research article, preachers mediate the views of the church they are affiliated to, although, as assumed believers, they are supposed to invest a personal dimension in their preaching. The scholar enacts simultaneously the roles of originator, author and animator who addresses other researchers working on the same topic and also a wider audience comprising the disciplinary discourse community, other scientists and potential users of the research results. The interaction between the professional identity of the scholar, which stems from expert knowledge of the discipline’s norms and conventions, and his/her personal identity, which is instrumental in generating original ideas, claims and views, reflects the inherent tension between ratified knowledge and new inventions, insight and approaches, all of which make the scientific world go round. In contrast, preachers are prototypically not sources of novelty or change; however, while voicing institutional views, they are both author and animator of the sermon, which enables them to personalise their discourse and adapt it to the expectations of regular worshippers at their church. In all the specialised discourses scrutinised in this study the writer is granted a position of power by virtue of his/her possession of expert professional knowledge which he/she is willing to impart to readers. However, the power balance between the participants is asymmetrical also because the addressee has the power to ratify the knowledge conveyed as reliable, trustworthy and useful, that is if the addresser does not manage to get past the epistemic vigilance (cf. Sperber et al., 2010) of the addressee and the audience, the persuasive process will not be successful. This reflects the pressure exercised by the social context on interaction in specialised discourse communities and the impact of social forces and power relations in society.

56 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Another crucial difference between the four discourses is the value systems they abide by. The technical discourse values usefulness, clarity, conciseness and inambiguity; in a business setting priority is given to stability, continuity, factuality and profit. Science shares some of these concerns by valuing clarity and proofs based on factual evidence, but its primary values seem to be originality and novelty. Although similarly to business discourse, religious discourse stresses the importance of continuity, it mainly valorises preservation of traditionally established views and seeks to prove its credibility through ethical concepts and emotions. Apart from sharing the communicative purpose of persuading the audience, the academic, business and technical discourses aim to provide information and describe facts and processes supporting it. The differences between the genre-specific communicative purposes of the research article, annual report and user manual lie in that the research article claims to present new knowledge which aspires to be ratified as valid by the disciplinary discourse community, the corporate report describes economic results intended to serve as a basis for future actions and commitments, and the user manual is intended to give useful instructions which should help the reader use the target device. These differences are reflected in the spectrum of speech acts employed to establish and maintain the social relations between the persuader and the persuadees—research articles and corporate reports use mainly assertion speech acts and show a limited occurrence of directives, while user manuals rely primarily on directives to transmit instructions in a succinct way. The communicative purposes of religious discourse differ considerably from those of the other three specialised discourses under scrutiny. More than providing information, sermons strive to enhance the beliefs of regular churchgoers, who, in contrast to the audiences of the academic, business and technical discourses, seem not to have a choice between acceptance or non-­ acceptance of the message. Those who do not believe might be excluded from membership of the Christian community and branded ‘atheist’, that is they would be categorised as ‘They’ (outsiders) against ‘Us’ (the in-group) (cf. Chilton, 2004; Wodak, 2007) and evaluated as ‘cruel’, ‘angry’ and committers of ‘abominable iniquities’ (REL-ENG-09). This indicates that persuasion in religious discourse is situated closer to the

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

57

manipulation end on the continuum of social influence as defined by Perloff (2010, p. 19). The persuasive strategies the academic, business, religious and technical discourses prioritise are also modelled by the professional, social and cultural norms of interaction that the members of the specialised discourse communities find convincing. The four discourses differ in the degree of free variation in the structure and wording of the text that the writers have at their disposal, as well as in the degree to which they follow Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principle and the extent to which they reflect politeness considerations. Thus in religious discourse the preacher has considerable freedom in the wording of the sermon; however, corporate reports and research articles comprise a set of genre-specific moves associated with a number of formulaic lexico-grammatical patterns, and user manuals rely on highly standardised ways of providing instructions, so guaranteeing effective communication. The comparison of the situational characteristics of the academic, business, religious and technical discourses suggests that despite the existing similarities, there are also considerable differences in the situational variables that affect the construal of persuasion in the four specialised settings, which is expected to affect the preference towards specific rhetorical strategies and linguistic realisation of persuasion in the specialised discourses under investigation.

2.4 The Sub-Corpora of the CECSD Corpus The CECSD corpus comprises four sub-corpora representing the four specialised discourses under investigation, each of which is further sub-­ divided into two sub-corpora representing Anglophone- and Czech-­ specialised discourses. As the description of the corpus in the following sections shows, the Anglophone texts tend to be longer than the Czech ones, which leads to a difference in the wordcount of the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora. As mentioned in Chap. 1, this difference was neutralised by normalisation to occurrences per 100,000 words.

58 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2.4.1 The Academic Discourse Sub-Corpus The Academic sub-corpus of the CECSD corpus (ACAD) comprises 60 single-authored research articles published in six linguistics and six economics journals in the period 2010–2017 (five articles per journal). The disciplines of linguistics and economics were selected as the object of research as they represent very different areas of the soft sciences continuum (i.e. social sciences and humanities), illustrating various patterns and methodologies of the social construction of knowledge. The ACAD sub-corpus was further subdivided into two disciplinary sub-corpora compiled along the same criteria to ensure their comparability following the principles of tertium comparationis (Connor & Moreno, 2005): the Economics (ECON) sub-corpus, which includes 30 research articles (15 English-medium and 15 Czech-medium texts) and the Linguistics (LING) sub-corpus, which also includes 30 research articles (15 English-­ medium and 15 Czech medium texts). This composition of the ACAD sub-corpus makes it possible to explore recurrent similarities and differences in the persuasive strategies and persuasive resources used to construe academic persuasion. The research articles included in the ACAD sub-corpus were published in peer-reviewed English-medium international journals and peer-­ reviewed Czech-medium national journals. The selection of international journals from which research articles by Anglophone authors were extracted was based on the criteria of high-quality, wide range of topics covered and inclusion in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). The national journals from which the research articles by Czech scholars were taken are included in the List of Peer-reviewed Non-impact Journals published by the Council for Research and Innovation of the Government of the Czech Republic; in addition, some of them are included in the SSCI, indexed in SCOPUS or ERIH Plus. It is obvious that the Anglophone research articles published in international journals address a large heterogeneous audience, while the Czech-medium research articles published in national journals address a small homogenous audience; this difference may have an impact on the persuasive strategies the authors opt for when making their persuasive attempts.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

59

Table 2.2  Composition of the Academic sub-corpus ENG

CZ

Total

Sub-corpora

RAs

Words

RAs

Words

RAs

Words

RAs LING RAs ECON Total

15 15 30

94,000 120,000 214,000

15 15 30

60,000 50,000 110,000

30 30 60

154,000 170,000 324,000

Table 2.2 provides an overview of the size and composition of the corpus. The analysis was carried out on the full text of the articles, excluding abstracts, notes, appendices and reference lists; in addition, the texts of the articles were cleaned to exclude citations and examples which do not reflect the use of engagement markers by the authors. The homogeneity of the corpus was maintained by selecting only empirical articles generally displaying the IMRD structure (Swales, 1990, 2004) and comprising sections typically labelled ‘Introduction’, ‘Data and method’, ‘Results and discussion’ and ‘Conclusion’. The coding of the rhetorical sections, however, was sometimes problematic due to the lack of explicit labelling, especially in the linguistics articles; in such cases, sections delimitation was done according to rhetorical moves. All research articles are single-authored by different scholars, thus reducing the impact of author idiosyncrasies. The reason for the choice of single-authored research articles was to assure differentiation between the functions of exclusive and inclusive self-mention devices, as especially Czech authors typically tend to use inclusive plural forms (Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997; Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018; Sudková, 2012). As to the linguacultural background of the authors, Anglophone writers are regarded as native speakers of English, judging by their name, affiliation and, if available, CVs (their nationality is not considered in the analysis), while it has been verified that all Czech authors are native speakers of Czech.

2.4.2 The Business Discourse Sub-Corpus The sections of this book which discuss business discourse draw their data from the English-medium business sub-corpus, which is composed of 60 texts from annual reports, containing 115,503 words in total, and the

60 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 2.3  Composition of the Business sub-corpus BUS-ENG

BUS-CZ

Total

Sub-corpora

Texts

Words

Texts

Words

Texts

Words

LET REV Total

25 35 60

38,000 77,000 115,000

20 40 60

13,000 87,000 100,000

45 75 120

51,000 164,000 215,000

Czech-medium business sub-corpus, also comprising 60 texts and containing 100,895 words (Table 2.3). The lower number of words in the Czech sub-corpus is due to an average shorter length of Czech documents and a generally larger number of words in English texts representing similar topics and genres (see Chap. 1). The Anglophone sub-corpus (BUS-ENG) includes 25 documents from annual reports of companies from English-speaking countries involved in the food industry, engineering, banking, transportation, oil drilling and computers. This variety should guarantee a representative cross-section through different economic activities. Next, 10 documents were chosen from English-language reports filed by Czech companies (active in beer brewing, engineering, telecommunications); 15 documents form part of a parallel corpus (with a Czech version published by the same company and included in the Czech sub-corpus). The last 10 documents were produced by big multinational companies based in non-­ English-­speaking countries (namely BMW, Bayer, IKEA). The diversity of companies reflected in the composition of the BUS-ENG sub-corpus is meant to illustrate the use of English as a lingua franca of business, regardless of where the company is based. The Czech-language business sub-corpus (BUS-CZ) contains 45 documents from companies operating mostly in the Czech Republic and reporting primarily or exclusively in Czech. Such Czech companies might be part-owned by foreign owners or subsidiaries of foreign corporations, or have foreign operations. Some are state-owned or controlled by the state as the major shareholder. The remaining 15 documents have English mutations in BUS-ENG. The annual reports included in the business sub-corpus date from 2014 to 2016, and they vary considerably in length. CEOʼs statements or letters are clearly shorter, being between 760 and 3,297 words. The

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

61

typical Czech-language letters are generally shorter, starting at slightly over 200 words. The structure of an annual report is to some degree at the discretion of the author: some reports have both a letter and a foreword (which is always shorter than a letter, but in functional terms very similar to it). On the other hand, texts of strategic reports (business and market reviews) are much longer. For this corpus, however, sections totalling from several hundred to low thousands of words were selected in order to assure comparability with the size of letters to shareholders, as well as to ensure a bigger variety of texts from diverse sources and to prevent the focus of the corpus from being deflected towards less overtly persuasive texts (i.e. reviews). Since the components of annual reports display different degrees of persuasiveness, comparison of more persuasive texts with less persuasive ones might help to reveal correlation with the corresponding language means. Thus, two specialised sub-corpora of comparable size were compiled within both the Anglophone and Czech business sub-corpora, namely the sub-corpus of executive letters (BUS-ENG-LET, containing 25 texts; BUS-CZ-LET, with 20 texts) and the sub-corpus of reviews in strategic reports (BUS-ENG-REV, with 35 texts, and BUS-CZ-REV with 40 texts). The underlying assumption is that comparison of more overtly persuasive letters to shareholders with less overtly persuasive reviews contained in strategic reports will highlight the typical lexical means employed for persuasion.

2.4.3 The Religious Discourse Sub-Corpus The research corpus gathered for the purposes of the analysis of religious discourse (REL) comprises altogether 100 individual scripted sermons of comparable length (50 in English and 50 in Czech) that were randomly selected from online sources. The sermons were delivered by 25 randomly picked native speakers of English and Czech respectively, who were anonymised for research purposes (one preacher is represented by two sermons). The whole REL corpus amounts to 190,000 words. As the size of individual sermons in the corpus varies cross-culturally, there is a difference between the wordcount of the two sub-corpora, which has been

62 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

resolved by normalisation, REL-ENG totalling 115,000 and REL-CZ totalling 75,000 words. In order to make the selection representative and, at the same time, thematically comparable, the REL part of the CECSD corpus focuses on a single theme only: Advent and Christmas. Furthermore, to enhance the homogeneity of the corpus, all the sermons have intentionally been recruited from mainstream Protestant denominations traditionally established in the UK, the USA and the Czech Republic, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Czech Brethren. Other major Christian churches, such as the Roman Catholic Church, would display differences based on the specific role homiletics plays in the given denomination (Allen, 1992; Robinson, 2014). Chronologically speaking, the selected sermons represent the last two decades, that is the years 1997–2017. The corpus is intended to present a relatively uniform set of reconcilable texts, both in the formal and thematic senses, manifesting a high degree of generalisability of the results.

2.4.4 The Technical Discourse Sub-Corpus The Technical (TECH) sub-corpus of the CECSD corpus comprises 40 user manuals, all retrieved in 2017 from downloadable internet resources. All are also available in printed form delivered to the customer when a technical device is purchased. The TECH sub-corpus includes technical devices, such as a TV set, camera, dishwasher, electric kettle, GPS, microwave, mobile phone, printer or vacuum cleaner, most of them are useful electrical appliances which most people use on a daily basis. The size of the TECH sub-corpus is about 305,000 words. It can be divided into two groups of texts, one comprising 20 English-medium manuals written for international companies and their customers (amounting to about 205,000 words), the other comprising 20 Czech-­ medium manuals for Czech companies and their customers (about 100,000 words). The length of the texts varies, the average being 10,250 words in the case of Anglophone and 5,000 words in the case of Czech user manuals. In order to obtain data for the English-Czech contrastive analysis, it was necessary to exclude from the texts all parts which

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

63

comprise addresses, figures, graphs and tables, because they do not normally contain linguistic realisations of persuasive strategies, although their role in enhancing persuasiveness and effectiveness of technical instructions is indisputable (Dobrin et  al., 2014, p.  476). The varying length of the texts analysed can be accounted for most notably by the fact that they are taken from user manuals for completely different technical devices published in the two languages under comparison; moreover, as demonstrated in Povolná (2018), when English- and Czech-language manuals for the very same devices were analysed, Anglophone manuals proved to be about 15% to 17% longer than their Czech counterparts.

2.5 P  ersuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses The analysis of persuasion in this section strives to identify strategies related to ethical, logical and pathetic appeals across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses. In so doing, it explores language resources which are typically employed to realise different persuasive strategies in the target genres of the four specialised discourses.

2.5.1 Persuasive Strategies in Academic Discourse Recent EAP, ESP and intercultural rhetoric research has explored different aspects of academic discourse contributing to persuasion with a focus on the genre of research articles, for example rhetorical moves (Swales, 1990), metadiscourse (Hyland, 2002a), evaluation (Hunston & Thompson, 1999), appraisal (Martin & White, 2005), stance (Hyland, 2005b), voice (Hyland & Guinda, 2012) and engagement (Hyland, 2005b, 2014). Yet these studies have rarely viewed academic interaction through the lens of the three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos and pathos. Such an approach, however, can bring new insights into how scholars make their persuasive attempts when striving to convince their readers to accept their views and claims. In what follows, persuasive strategies will

64 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

be analysed in the Anglophone academic sub-corpus as a whole; disciplinary variation across the linguistics and economics research articles will be addressed in Chap. 3.

2.5.1.1  Strategies Related to Ethos The ethical appeal is regarded as a key factor in making persuasive attempts in the soft sciences, which, rather than relying on hard facts and material evidence, construct knowledge by recasting and interpreting data, views and opinions from a different perspective (Hyland, 2000, 2008, 2011a). Thus, in order to enhance persuasion, soft sciences writers strive to establish their credibility, with the aim of creating a relation of sympathetic understanding and willingness to share views and knowledge with their readers. An analysis of the ACAD sub-corpus suggests that in the genre of research articles scholars build up their credibility by sharing personal views and modulating commitment to claims, providing credentials of their expertise in the field and referring to established authorities, claiming common ground and creating a sense of community with the audience. These strategies enable writers to claim a disciplinary identity and to position themselves with regard to existing knowledge, views and approaches.

2.5.1.1.1  Enhancing Personal Credibility by Showing Involvement and Sharing Personal Views Credibility in academic discourse depends to a large extent on the degree of visibility and authoritativeness writers are prepared to project in their texts when providing personal support for their claims and expressing attitudes, judgements and assessments. Self-mention is one of the most common devices used in soft sciences to indicate the personal involvement of the author (e.g. Harwood, 2005; Hyland, 2002a, 2008, 2015; Lafuente-Millán, 2010; Mur-Dueñas, 2007; Tang & John, 1999); however, its prominence across different disciplines varies.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

65

The most frequent realisations of self-mentions in the ACAD sub-­ corpus are first-person singular pronouns (Example 1) and possessives (Example 2) granting visibility to the author; yet personal attribution may also be interpreted as a hedging device modulating the level of commitment to views and claims (Myers, 1989). In Example 1 the author presents his/her own conceptualisation of property rights institutions, which is then related to the approach and methods of other colleagues; the representation of the author’s view as innovative, but coherent with disciplinary knowledge (cf. Hyland, 2008; Livnat, 2012), is instrumental in claiming credibility and trustworthiness. 1. In this paper I view property rights institutions as a component of democracy and isolate their effect on economic growth in post-independence African countries. This approach follows the argument of Acemoglu and Johnson (2005) and others who focus on institutions and growth, but with methods more similar to those used by Tavares and Wacziarg (2001). (ACAD-ENG-ECON-03) 2. Although it is rare in my data for participants not to adhere to the rules of engagement in legitimate talk as outlined above, on occasion the rules are broken, as can be seen in this extract. (ACAD-ENG-LING-04) The use of my data in Example 2 allows the author to highlight his/her agency in the research process and at the same time to restrict the validity of the claims made to the sample under investigation. This is instrumental in casting the authorial persona of a credible colleague willing to share his/her views and findings with readers, while adopting an appropriate position of authority grounded in expert knowledge and disciplinary community membership. The character of self-mentions is non-homogeneous, which can help the writer project different roles or identities along a continuum of various degrees of authorial power (Tang & John, 1999). While the most prominent roles of self-mentions outline the structure of the text, put forward claims and express opinions and views, they can also be used to describe the various steps of the research process (Example 3). This function of I highlights that the researcher is in control of the research process and assumes responsibility for the decisions taken in applying analytical

66 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

methods and procedures. This use of personal pronouns also has a self-­ promotional function aimed at marketing the research and highlighting innovations and the competent applications of rigorous procedures (Harwood, 2005). 3. I estimate Eq. (4) with two modifications. First, I replace NEWUSER with (1) an indicator variable equal to 1 for effective hedgers (0 otherwise), and (2) an indicator variable equal to 1 for speculative/ineffective hedgers (0 otherwise). Second, I interact these variables with POST. I find (unreported) evidence of a reduction in CURR3 and CASH3 for speculative/ineffective hedgers after initiation, but no change in these ETRs for effective hedgers. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-09) Another resource academic writers use for conveying their own attitudes towards propositions is the attitude marker (e.g. useful, important, interestingly). Although they may be seen as infringing on the objectivity of academic discourse (Ho & Li, 2018), attitude markers indicate the willingness of the writer to adopt a more subjective stance and to share personal judgements and evaluations with the reader (Example 4). 4. Interestingly, although disagreement is a structural feature of this genre of interaction, it is buttressed by an expectation of extreme formality, guided by rules that can be up to seven centuries old. (ACAD-ENG-LING-08) By relating the writer’s views to values shared by the academic discourse community attitude markers strengthen the feeling of in-group membership and collegiality between the writer and the readers.

2.5.1.1.2  Enhancing Credibility by Modulating Commitment to Claims The degree of commitment and detachment to claims in academic discourse is typically associated with the use of hedges and boosters (e.g. Hu & Cao, 2015; Hyland, 1998a, 2001b; Martín-Martín, 2008;

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

67

Salager-­Meyer, 1994; Vassileva, 2001; Vázquez & Giner, 2008, 2009; Yang, 2013). Writers use hedges and boosters in their attempts to persuade readers to agree with their knowledge claims and opinions by showing solidarity with and collegial respect for members of the disciplinary discourse community (Hyland, 1998a, 2000). While hedges are clearly an implementation of negative politeness strategies, as they open space for alternative interpretations and views (Hyland, 2005b; Myers, 1989), boosters are not intrinsically a politeness device, as their contribution to the expression of solidarity depends on their contextual interpretation (Holmes, 1995, p. 77). Hedges are used considerably more frequently than boosters across the academic sub-corpus (see Chaps. 3 and 7); this is in agreement with the findings of previous research, which indicates hedges as the most frequent metadiscourse markers across the soft and hard sciences (e.g. Hu & Cao, 2015; Hyland, 2005b; Hyland & Jiang, 2018; Mur-Dueñas, 2011). This confirms the crucial role of hedges in persuasive texts, as they help the writer to achieve scholarly credibility by striking “a difficult balance between commitment to his/her ideas and respect and dialogue with the reader” (Dafouz-Milne, 2008, p.  107). More specifically, hedges are employed for mitigating opinions, cautious presentation of scientific claims and anticipating possible disagreement and criticism (Example 5). 5. This perhaps suggests a more thoroughly applied approach in these disciplines, divorced from the ‘hard’/‘soft’ foundations displayed by Engineering/ Business Studies. (ACAD-ENG-LING-05) 6. Furthermore, this paper clearly shows that returns to short selling strategies are severely limited by the costs of borrowing stock in some cases. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-08) The lower rate of boosters may be seen as a sign of “shift in rhetorical ethos” (Gillaerts & van de Velde, 2010, p. 137), as it seems that especially with the globalisation of scientific interaction, academic ‘omniscience’ is questioned and gives way to a more dialogic and interactive way of building up a credible and persuasive authorial persona. However, a higher rate of boosters (Example 6) may occur in disciplines which rely to a large extent on rigorous mathematical and statistical tools (such as economics

68 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

in this research), which contributes to a perception of greater reliability and objectivity of their results.

2.5.1.1.3  Enhancing Credibility by Providing Credentials and Reference to Authorities Scholars’ credibility also depends on their competence and possession of reliable information. Showing expert knowledge in one’s field and allegiance to the specific views and approaches of the disciplinary community can be conveyed by the use of citations which create explicit intertextual connections to existent literature (Bazerman et al., 2005) and position one’s research within prior disciplinary knowledge. Within the metadiscourse framework, citations pertain to the interactive metadiscourse category of evidentials, whose function is to contextualise and justify the current research (cf. Hyland, 2005a; Hyland & Tse, 2004; Thompson, 2001). Citations are used extensively in all research articles included in the ACAD sub-corpus. The persuasive force of citations stems from their potential not only to acknowledge selected previous research and pay homage to pioneers (Example 7), but also to evaluate the work of others and thus support the writers’ arguments and knowledge claims (Example 8) (Hyland, 1999; Petrić, 2007). 7. As a general principle, disaligning responses tend to be delayed, with some time lag intervening between the completion of the prior action and the substance of the disalignment (Pomerantz, 1984; Sacks, 1987; Schegloff, 2007; Schegloff and Lerner, 2009). (ACAD-ENG-LING-06) 8. Gravity equation estimation in papers such as Frankel et  al. (1998), Bernasconi (2010) and Martinez-Zarzoso and Vollmer (2010) consistently finds that higher per-capita-income countries trade more with one another, total incomes held constant, though these papers generally lack general-­equilibrium foundations which integrate production and demand. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-11) 9. As outlined elsewhere (Sealey and Carter 2004; Carter and Sealey in press), these interactions can be conceptualized and described from different analytical perspectives. (ACAD-ENG-LING-01)

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

69

Although occurring relatively rarely (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2015; Hyland, 2003), self-citations (Example 9) reflect a self-promotional effort on the part of the writer (Sealey) to make their own research visible and provide credentials for their expertise, as in academic settings the integration of published research into the particular field’s reference literature is a sign of acceptance of new claims as ratified knowledge (Fløttum, Dahl, & Kinn, 2006; Hyland, 1998b).

2.5.1.1.4  Enhancing the Sense of Community and Creating Common Ground Apart from constructing their professional and individual credibility, academic writers need to establish solidarity with readers and thus increase the force of their persuasive attempts. A sense of community and alliance with the audience may be achieved by acknowledging the reader’s presence, building shared common ground and proximity of values and goals. The rhetorical means that writers use for constructing such an in-group relationship with readers are different types of engagement markers, such as appeals to shared knowledge, reader pronouns and personal asides (Hyland, 2005b). The proximity dimension is typically signalled by appeals to shared knowledge (e.g. of course, obviously, traditionally), which seek to create a feeling of collegiality by positioning “readers within the apparently naturalised and unproblematic boundaries of disciplinary understandings” (Hyland, 2001a, p. 566). Thus in Example 10 the writer assumes that the readers are well aware of the issue of sampling reliability in research and therefore points to limitations of the study, while in Example 11 the readers are positioned as in-group members and as such holders of expert knowledge on the statistical technique known as ‘two-stage least squares approach’. 10. Most obviously, the fact that some disciplines are represented by relatively small numbers of writers raises questions about the representativeness of the results in relation to those disciplines. (ACAD-ENG-LING-05)

70 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

11. Typically in two-stage least squares approach, we need some source of exogenous variation that affects one side of the supply/demand relationship without affecting the other. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-08) While creating a sense of community and in-group membership, engagement markers may also be seen as pertaining to the pathetic persuasive appeal (i.e. ethos-pathos interface), as they appeal to the positive emotions of the readers, who are expected to be pleased to be treated as in-­ group expert members of the disciplinary community.

2.5.1.2  Strategies Related to Logos The importance of explicit signalling of logical reasoning by conjunctions and linking adverbials indicating extension, elaboration and enhancement of propositional meaning in academic discourse has been extensively evidenced by previous research (e.g. Biber et al., 1999; Hůlková, 2017; Hyland, 2005b; Povolná, 2016). These are categorised as logical markers, sequencers and code glosses within the interactive metadiscourse category. Apart from signalling textual relation, linking devices function interpersonally, involving readers as discourse participants and addressing their need for explicit signalling of the argument development (Hyland, 2005a, p. 42), which in Example 12 is enhanced by the use of the reader pronoun we and the hedging modal might. This complex persuasive appeal, an instance of ethos-logos interface, is even more evident in the use of cognitive directives which may be interpreted as positive politeness devices guiding the reader through the steps of the argumentation chain (cf. Lafuente-Millán, 2014). Thus in Example 13 the imperative form suppose introduces a hypothetical situation which furthers the argument by suggesting two possible correlations between the increase of income inequality and consumption. 12. In these conceptualisations, im/politeness mismatch is given a central role because both areas assume that the patronising speaker is under-­ estimating the competence of the hearer. Thus, in terms of politeness, we might expect it to correspond to an attack on sociality rights, relating to

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

71

expectations of fair treatment and respect. However, where research in this area diverges from that into second-order sarcasm, for instance, regards the intentionality of the speaker because the assumption is often that the mismatch is a result of social stereotypes rather than the accomplishment of local, interpersonal impoliteness goals. (ACAD-ENG-LING-12) 1 3. Suppose we have a high and a low per-capita income country trading with one another. (a) If income inequality increases in the high-income country, this shifts consumption toward the skill or capital-intensive good, which is the export good. This will lead to a reduction in the volume of trade, loosely analogous to our home-bias result above. (b) If instead income inequality increases in the poor country, consumption is shifted there toward the skill or capital intensive good, which is the import good. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-11) An important, highly prominent aspect of the logical persuasive appeal, not least in hard sciences, is the providing of proof by experimental results, quantification, statistics and examples. In the ACAD corpus, this persuasive principle is activated most extensively in economics research papers, as due to the use of mathematical and statistical methods economics shares some of the features of hard science discourse, for instance the use of formulae and other mathematical and statistical tools. Nevertheless, exemplification, (quasi) experiments, descriptive statistics and statistical tests are also used in the humanities, and the results of these are often visualised in tables, figures and graphs to which the text refers (Example 14). 14. Table 1 presents frequencies and percentages for comments in support of the commercial (Pro) and those not in support of the commercial (Con). (ACAD-ENG-LING-09) Despite their undeniable contribution to the enhancement of persuasion, especially over the last two decades, during which academic discourse has become increasingly multi-modal, visuals are outside the scope of this investigation, which focuses on rhetorical strategies and language resources pertaining to the interpersonal dimension of discourse.

72 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2.5.1.3  Strategies Related to Pathos The pathetic persuasive appeal is generally considered to be backgrounded in academic discourse. However, reader reference and personal asides (Hyland, 2005a) appeal to the desire of readers to feel included as in-­ group members, showing that their opinion matters and attending to their positive face needs. The most direct way in which the writer can appeal to the reader is by the use of reader pronouns. Inclusive first-person plural pronouns (we, our) act as positive politeness devices (Myers, 1989) since they bind the writer and the reader together as members of the same disciplinary community, that is they share similar values, assumptions and goals. This is essential to academic persuasion in the humanities, where the interpretation of claims is based on discussion and argument rather than establishing facts (Hyland, 2008). As Example 15 shows, the writer may position the reader as a competent co-researcher sharing the author’s understanding of the phenomena under investigation, thus creating an atmosphere of collegiality and agreement. By doing so, the writer appeals to the emotional need of readers to be treated as in-group members sharing the author’s expertise (Ho & Li, 2018). In Example 16 the writer shows deference to the readers by acknowledging their expertise and qualifying his/ her research goals as modest. 15. The interactional work we observe afterwards tends to be in remediating the discrepancy and restoring a normative epistemic gradient. (ACAD-ENG-LING-11) 16. Since this is beyond our current state of knowledge, my more modest goal is to examine the role of the SDF as a proximate driver of U.S. external adjustment. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-15) Another resource helping the writer to evoke positive emotions and a feeling of inclusion is the personal aside (Example 17), although this is relatively rare. 17. (I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this addition to the analysis.) (ACAD-ENG-LING-04)

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

73

By showing the writer’s willingness to share subjective feelings and comments, personal asides contribute to the development of a closer relationship between the writer and the reader.

2.5.1.4  Th  e Interplay of Persuasive Appeals in Academic Discourse The analysis of persuasive appeals partaking in the build-up of academic persuasion shows that academic writers rely on the interplay of all three Aristotelian appeals when making their persuasive attempts. The ethical persuasive appeal focused on establishing the credibility of the writer and positioning readers as in-group members bound with the writer by relations of collegiality, proximity and agreement seems to be the key aspect of persuasion in soft sciences research articles. The prominence of the interpersonal dimension in the soft sciences, however, does not mean that the importance of the logical persuasive appeal related to logical reasoning and proofs by empirical evidence and statistics should be underestimated, as it is an inherent aspect of knowledge-making in any science. Finally, the pathetic appeal, though somewhat less visible, also plays an important role in motivating readers to follow the writer’s argument and take a sympathetic view of the suggested claims and views. As to the language resources realising academic persuasion, it seems that all three persuasive appeals tend to be expressed primarily by “structurally elaborated and explicit grammatical structures” further enhanced by evaluative lexis. Thus research articles may be seen as displaying opinionated persuasion which is characterised by a prominence of explicit lexico-grammatical stance and engagement devices and a lesser reliance on evaluative vocabulary (Biber & Zhang, 2018; Biber, Egbert, & Zhang, 2018).

2.5.2 Persuasive Strategies in Business Discourse The function of annual reports is to inform and convince their target audiences. Since attitudes influence human thought and action (Perloff, 2010, p. 41), persuaders aim to change these attitudes because they need

74 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

to promote a certain kind of behaviour in their stakeholders. Although corporate persuaders use a variety of strategies and language devices, basically they appeal to the three classical Aristotelian persuasive principles. The appeal to logos requires a logical, rational and objective message, and it is fulfilled mainly by provision of well-structured and objective facts. The appeal to ethos involves acting as a credible, reliable, cooperative, competent and empathic source, so businesses show involvement and personal views and create a sense of community, particularly by self-­ mention of authors (i.e. executives) and the company itself. Lastly, the appeal to pathos is realised by evoking positive emotions (and suppressing negative ones), sounding polite and attractive and by emphasis on responsibility and care. Persuasion in annual reports may be explored from several points of view. These comprise the concept of evaluation as “the expression of the writerʼs or speakerʼs opinion, attitude or stance” towards the message (Hunston & Thompson, 1999, p.  5), which broadly corresponds to Martin and White’s wider concept of appraisal (Martin & White, 2005) and Hyland’s narrower concept of stance. According to White (2004), evaluation concerns two areas, emotion and opinion; the latter can be further divided into appreciation (opinion on aesthetics) and judgement (opinion on ethics). Persuasive strategies in corporate annual reports are predominantly realised by lexical persuasive devices, namely evaluative, attitudinal and contextually persuasive lexis, but also by self-mentions, including the personification of a company as a collective agent, and interactive devices modulating commitment to claims (especially hedges and boosters).

2.5.2.1  Strategies Related to Ethos Logos and ethos are undoubtedly the principal persuasive appeals in the business discourse. Garzone (2004) states that annual reports serve conflicting needs: to provide an objective picture of operations based on facts and “to convey a positive corporate image and convince potential investors of the reliability of the company’s management’ (p. 323).

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

75

2.5.2.1.1  Enhancing Credibility by Showing Involvement and by Engaging Readers Ethos is supported by trustworthiness of the company and its management. Annual reports refer to the executivesʼ expertise and experience, provide credentials and quote achievements of the corporate entity. In the most overtly persuasive sub-genre of annual reports, letters to shareholders, credibility is enhanced by sharing experience and values with the addressees, as well as claiming common ground. These strategies are mediated by self-mentions, particularly first-person singular pronouns, which represent the persuader personally, and first-person plural pronouns: either the exclusive we, more common and representing the company as a unity of management, owners and employees, or the inclusive we (Harwood, 2005). The exclusive we (and its forms our, us) (Example 18) is clearly a self-mention (Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 170), but authors do not adhere to it consistently. The subjects alternate between first and third person, making reference to the company and to such phenomena as products, programmes, goals, events and economic concepts. 18. If we fail to achieve cost reductions at the necessary pace, then our ability to invest in future programmes and technology may be reduced. (BUS-ENG-REV-08) The inclusive we supports the sense of community, as it involves different classes of the company’s stakeholders, who are thus engaged by the writer. It helps to claim common ground, which enhances approval of readers with corporate actions. Direct appeal to the audience, that is explicit usage of the second-person pronoun you, is the least frequent way of expressing personality. The dominant language means of stance in BUS-­ ENG is the first-person plural pronoun. The combined frequency of first-­ person singular pronouns (I, me and my) is considerably lower, and the occurrence of second person (you and your), that is direct appeal engaging the reader, is practically negligible. It is also evident that the more persuasive a sub-genre is, the higher frequency of first-person pronouns is found. The sub-corpus BUS-ENG-­ LET displays a frequency of first-person pronouns (plural and singular)

76 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

almost twice as high as the complete BUS-ENG. Even the frequency of second-person pronouns (you, your) in the letters is more than three times as high as in the complete corpus.

2.5.2.1.2  Creating a Sense of Community and Sharing Self-reference or self-mention, like other devices of stance, appeals primarily to ethos. Corporate persuaders establish direct appeal to readers and share opinions and experience in order to create a sense of community. Being seen as reliable, cooperative and sharing helps to change stakeholdersʼ attitudes in the corporationʼs favour. Additionally, authorial involvement and engagement of readers, realised by first- and second-­ person perspective, allows emotional appeal, which pertains to pathos as well, unlike the impersonal third person. Direct address is also connected with politeness, which reflects the dependence of companies on their stakeholders and their favourable attitude. An ultimate goal of a successful corporate persuader is to create a positive impression of the company, not only by providing relevant, credible and satisfying information, but also by establishing a rapport. As Example 19 illustrates, community is built by a friendly, caring and trustful relationship with stakeholders, meeting their expectations and highlighting togetherness. 19. We are transforming our businesses to enable Microsoft to lead the direction of this digital transformation, and enable our customers and partners to thrive in this evolving world. (BUS-ENG-REV-03) The narrative of belonging and stressing common ground is related to trustworthiness, conveyed by willingness to share and be involved personally. Particularly in this area drafters of annual reports employ contextual metaphors of journey, family and war. This type of persuasion appeals strongly to emotions, too, and forms an interface with pathos.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

77

2.5.2.1.3  Boosting Credibility by Sharing Personal Views and Attitudes Apart from showing involvement, authors of annual reports show their personal views explicitly. They mediate their own interpretation of facts and aim to mould readersʼ interpretation and evaluation. Evaluative lexis expresses attitude (opinion on goodness or badness) as part of its denotation, but there are also many contextually persuasive words capable of persuading which are primarily not evaluative (see Chap. 4). Such words usually have positive connotations, are likely to appeal to readers and so are preferred by corporate persuaders. Example 20 demonstrates how not only positively connoted lexis helps authors convey their preferences; negatively connoted lexis (limiting, reduce) communicates desirable phenomena when it negates and diminishes something bad. 20. Sustained global co-operation is vital for providing better living standards for a growing population, while limiting the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG). The entry into force in November of the United Nations (UN) Paris Agreement on climate change is an important foundation for developing ways to reduce global emissions effectively over the years ahead. (BUS-ENG-LET-17) While appeals to shared knowledge, whose function is to claim common ground between persuaders and persuadees, are quite an infrequent interactional resource in BUS-ENG-LET, attitude markers, by which the author expresses “appraisal of propositional information, conveying surprise, obligation, agreement, importance” (Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 168) and other attitudes and judgements, are better represented. In Example 21 the author evaluates events affecting the business and presupposes approval of their judgment from the reader. Evaluative adjectives such as significant, key, expected, important, major and necessary persuade by invoking a judgment. Some nouns and verbs (such as risk and support) have a similar function. Nouns and verbs are denotatively more concrete than evaluative adjectives, so they are often used as terms, without a persuasive intention.

78 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

21. 2016 will be long remembered for its significant and largely unexpected economic and political events. (BUS-ENG-LET-01) Corporate persuaders boost their credibility by speaking as experts in their field, confident of their judgment and actions. In letters to shareholders, where readers know the author, readers should also feel as if the executive is presenting the facts to them directly. This may be achieved by adverbials referring to the manner of presentation or opinion, such as typically, personally and generally. On the whole, authors of texts in BUS-­ ENG do not seem to use many evaluative words which would influence the whole clause or sentence; evaluative lexis tends to have a local syntactic effect. Personal attitudes are thus frequently realised by stance adjectives and adverbs (significant, important, expected, even, key, major, necessary) (Example 22), which help trustworthy authors to communicate their expert opinions. Hedges and boosters are rarely found in business discourse, as annual reports are meant to be persuasive but not argumentative. The authors are supposed to convey facts and evidence, not suggest hypotheses and theories whose certainty would have to be boosted or their probability hedged. 22. Even after returning that capital, we ended the year with a Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio of 12.6 percent, 50 basis points higher than when we started the year. (BUS-ENG-LET-02)

2.5.2.2  Strategies Related to Logos The appeal to rationality and logic is realised in a straightforward way in annual reports by an abundance of figures, dates and names, supported by visual representation in tables, graphs and diagrams, particularly in strategic reports (which include market and business reviews and financial statements). These strategies of reference to facts and provision of evidence utilise unmarked linguistic means: declarative sentences, simple tenses and several dominant verb types, namely material verbs—verbs of

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

79

doing and happening and relational verbs—plus verbs of attribution and identification (cf. Thomas, 1997, p. 53). The logical strategy of providing evidence (and the ethical strategy of purposeful modulation of commitment to claims) is associated with the choice of how the agent or causer is reported. The verbal voice is a linguistically relevant phenomenon. Thomas (1997, pp. 54–60) points out that companies prefer to report by using the active voice and doing verbs in successful periods, thus implying personal achievement on the part of their competent management, but resort to the passive voice in bad times, thus avoiding assignment of personal responsibility for failure. However, as the following examples demonstrate, the active and passive often alternate for stylistic reasons, to avoid a stereotypical perspective, or when a noun phrase is further specified (Example 23). The subjects often change within one sentence (Example 24), and with inanimate subjects the choice of verbal voice does not evoke any connotations of success or failure. 23. Importantly, the Board has taken extensive action to strengthen ethics and compliance procedures across the Group over recent years, so that high standards of conduct are embedded as an essential part of the way we do business. (BUS-ENG-LET-05) 24. Over the years Microsoft has experienced great success, and today we are just at the beginning of an incredible new wave of opportunity. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) Facts are illustrated and supported by examples which contribute to the objectiveness desired. The argumentation follows logical principles and causal relationships, which is an area where contrastive, listing and resultive linking adverbials appear in the business discourse, although far less frequently than in the academic discourse. Extensive enumerations conveying a sense of completeness of information (Example 25) are another remarkable feature of annual reports. 25. The breadth, depth and strength of our sales and trading, distribution and research capabilities span a broad range of asset classes, currencies, sectors and products, including equities, commodities,

80 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

credit, futures, foreign exchange, emerging markets, G10 rates, municipals, prime finance and securitized markets. (BUS-ENG-REV-13)

2.5.2.3  Strategies Related to Pathos Pathos is the least common rhetorical appeal in annual reports, but it definitely is not absent. In particular, letters written by executives contain expressions of praise, appreciation, gratitude and, sometimes, emotive evaluation. Appeals to the position of the company on the market, hope for the future and empathy (usually in the social responsibility section) are not uncommon. However, humour, irony, hate, fear and other emotional categories are avoided as too expressive. Risks and threats tend to be dealt with positively, as problems to be solved and challenges which cannot endanger successful operations (Vogel, 2018, pp. 65–66).

2.5.2.3.1  Evoking Positive Emotions by Choices of Positively Versus Negatively Connoted Lexis Evoking positive or negative emotions by lexical choices is the dominant strategy promoting pathos in annual reports. As Hunston and Thompson (1999, pp. 13–16) set out, evaluation is based on comparison, and it is subjective and value-laden. They believe that some lexical items are clearly evaluative and identifiable by lexical analysis. This approach complies with the idea that persuasion in the Informational Persuasion register (Biber & Zhang, 2018) depends on selection of appropriate (evaluative) lexis. Drafters of annual reports largely avoid words with negative connotations (poor, old, unsuccessful, miss, slowly, fail, weaken). Some such words have a terminological status (e.g. loss, threat, liability) in the business discourse, so their occurrence is high despite negative connotations. Paradoxically, highly positive evaluative words, typically adjectives, are absent or very rarely used, as they might be perceived as too aggressive, thus arousing epistemic vigilance processes.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

81

The most relevant types of evaluation (as defined by Hunston & Thompson, 1999, pp. 22–25) in corporate reports are importance/relevance (e.g. adjectives significant, important, key, major), desirability/goodness (typically realised by attitudinal adjectives, e.g. strong, useful, successful, support, advantage) and certainty. Also, syntactic patterns in which evaluative words occur are decisive for the persuasive effect. In this way, a negatively connoted word which is negated by its environment, for example by a preventing verb, contributes to persuasion positively (Example 26). 26. On 1 July, the new sanction regulation for all carriers using ČEPRO depots came into force. Its purpose is to prevent undesirable and risky situations. (BUS-ENG-REV-24)

2.5.2.3.2  Pathetic Appeal by Creating an Atmosphere of Community and Caring While usage of first-person pronouns represents an ethical commitment on the part of the writer and a ‘corporate persona’, usage of you/your is considered “an element of pathos in discourse, presupposing the notion (…) that the stockholders are the actual owners of the company’ (Garzone, 2004, p. 326). Although the occurrence of your in BUS-ENG is lower than that of you, the ratio is reversed in the more interactional BUS-­ ENG-­LET, where your is markedly more common (Example 27). The possessive evokes ownership and can be used to express this, but more often it serves the purpose of establishing an intimate and close contact, strategically employed to communicate a caring attitude. 27. Looking ahead, our vision is to teach human language to all of the computing experiences that surround us. We imagine a world in which a deeply personal agent understands you, your organization, and your world, helping you get more out of every moment. (BUS-ENG-LET-03)

82 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Corporate persuaders use self-reference (dominated by first-person plural, but also by reference to the organisation) to achieve an atmosphere of caring and responsibility. They stress an inclusive environment and socially responsible policies (see Chaps. 4 and 7), as well as their identification with stakeholders’ interests and efforts to maximise stakeholders’ benefits. Along with authorʼs involvement and reader’s engagement, evaluative lexis with positive connotations is a principal persuasive strategy in the business discourse. Lexico-grammatical devices of stance, namely modal verbs, stance adverbials and complement clause constructions (Biber & Zhang, 2018, p. 107) seem to be of little relevance to this discourse, especially when compared with the academic discourse.

2.5.3 Persuasive Strategies in Religious Discourse In comparison with other types of specialised persuasive discourse investigated in this volume, the religious one can be understood to be unique in that it employs all three components of Aristotelian appeal (cf. Halmari & Virtanen, 2005, p.  5) equally. Obviously, the three types of appeal achieve the highest efficiency of persuasion when exploited in an orchestrated interplay. The investigation in persuasion has indicated that such blended treatment of appeal represents a truly constitutive element of the discourse of sermons.

2.5.3.1  Strategies Related to Ethos Ethos in sermons (moral appeal) is inevitably related to the desired effect of doctrine as presented by the preacher, that is the application of biblical principles. Through stating doctrinal truths the ethical appeal imbues the sermon’s topic with credibility (Overstreet, 2014, p. 164).

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

83

2.5.3.1.1  Enhancing Credibility Through Exemplification and Sharing Personal Experience The credibility of the sermon may be boosted by means of exemplification and sharing personal experience on the part of the preacher. Although such an approach builds on support of the argumentation by outside sources, it operates predominantly on a personal level. Sermonical exemplification is thus rendered by sharing of the preacher’s personal experience, stories, reminiscences and illustrations (Example 28), but also by figurative language, such as metaphors, parables and analogies. 28. Each year on Christmas morning my family writes a letter to Jesus and puts it into the stocking. This is a tradition my husband and his family have been doing since he was a little guy (…). (REL-ENG-06) Such personal traits of exemplification combine logical appeal with ethical appeal, especially within the construal of the preacher’s credibility. Often, the full-fledged Aristotelian triad, including the pathetic appeal, is at play in sermons. 29. Early in December I had a dark spot removed from the top of my left ear. The surgeon didn’t think it was anything to be concerned about, but they would send it off for analysis. (…) I went home and cried. My Christmas season was overshadowed with a dark cloud of fear (…). (REL-ENG-45)

2.5.3.1.2  Procuring a Narrative of Belonging and a Sense of Community via Personal Structures Preachers often facilitate the ethical appeal to the audience through sharing a narrative of belonging; this concept naturally enhances a sense of community (‘church family’). Above all, the narrative of belonging is linguistically realised through the use of personal structures, especially by the frequency of occurrence and distribution of pronominal

84 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

author-­reference and other self-reference devices. The occurrence of personal pronouns and possessives (I/me/my and we/us/our) is, especially in comparison with other types of specialised discourses, relatively high (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013; Hyland, 2002a; Povolná, 2019); the reference structure of sermons is apparently relatively dense; as a rule, many people are mentioned and the speaker does not hide between the lines. From the point of view of authorial presence in the corpus, the normalised rate of I/me/my is almost twice as low as that of we/us/our. This rate testifies to the prevalence of inclusion within the grammatical structures, and the preference on the part of the preacher to speak ‘for the congregation’, rather than for himself only; the speaker-oriented stance manifested in sermons is somewhat backgrounded at the expense of engagement of the audience (cf. Hyland, 2005b). The normalised rate of the incidence of you/your is evidently higher than in other types of specialised discourse studied in this volume (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013; Hyland, 2001a). This discrepancy is related to the incomparably higher degree of self-reference and subjectivity of sermons and, in addition, to the omnipresent appeal to the audience axiomatically observed in religious discourse. As regards the rate of the author-exclusive pronouns they/them/their, these are used in two different modes. Firstly, there is neutral reference to particular individual or an entity, such as angels, shepherds or the Magi. Secondly, a number of they/them/their items are employed in an author-­ exclusive sense that denotes a negative pattern of behaviour or personality. As a consequence, they/their/them are given a clearly negative connotation and used to label ‘the other side’, evil, Satan or simply the mundane: 30. They betrayed his love. (REL-ENG-26).

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

85

2.5.3.1.3  Direct Appeal to the Audience via an Intricate Use of Speech Acts Speech acts can serve as an effective tool of persuasion as well as distinct metadiscourse markers (Hyland, 2005a; Povolná, 2019; Tse & Hyland, 2006). Their purposeful usage may not only express the speaker’s communicative intention, but also enhance their persuasive power towards the audience (Hyland, 2005a). Questions of several sorts play a vital role in pursuing the goal of sermonical persuasion. Their relatively high incidence can be ascribed to the very nature of sermons, which are marked as interactive and dialogic. Genuine questions are extremely infrequent; all the questions examined represent rhetorical questions. By means of rhetorical questions preachers make the audience think about the issues they are addressing, yet the persuasive pressure is not as explicit as in the case of directives. Instead of direct appeal, they provide indirect stimuli. Typically, no real answer uttered aloud is expected from the audience; nevertheless, this does not imply that the preacher does not intend to elicit a response from the congregation. Rhetorical questions are strongly assertive and demand an effect. The answer is either obvious or it may help the listener to understand the message, evoking an explicative, comprehension or summative effect (Example 31). Consequently, the listeners’ attention span is broadened, active listening encouraged and persuasive force increased. 31. Why was a virgin birth necessary? (REL-ENG-24) In REL, exclamations are a genre-specific speech act fulfilling distinct stylistic and rhetoric functions. They appear to perform a number of (overlapping) functions, such as: And how that fits! (REL-ENG-18) / Emphasis Marker/, But what a mistake that was! (REL-ENG-46) / Summary/, Attention Getter and Transition Organiser. Needless to say, all the categories of exclamation serve axiomatically as vehicles of emotion, emphasis and enticement. Furthermore, as they appeal directly to the audience, undoubtedly they reinforce the feeling of interaction between the preacher and the audience.

86 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Somewhat surprisingly, the lowest rate among the speech acts was traced to directives. It is assumed that directives improve the interpersonal relationship with their readers (Hyland, 2002b, 2005a; Tse & Hyland, 2006), thus enhancing listener participation. They aim at a future action on the part of the audience, be it a decision, a mental response or an act. In observation of Hyland’s (2002b) classification of directives, which refers to “the principal form of activity they direct readers to engage in” (pp. 217–218), the occurrences of directives observed in sermons focus on all three main categories (i.e. textual, cognitive and physical acts). The textual acts in sermons typically comprise internal references to the Bible (Take a look at Mark 12:3); rarely do they refer to an external source (e.g. See what C. S. Lewis has to say about this.). The physical acts are invariably represented by real-world context, such as Go and do the same at church. By far the most frequent category of directives in sermons relates to cognitive acts, an outcome which is closely associated with the rhetorical nature of the genre (e.g. This morning I want us to consider the idea of being chosen). If realised as pure imperatives, rather than communicating a genuine command or prohibition, sermonical directives often quote Scripture (at times in a paraphrase), thus giving implicit instruction (Rejoice! Do not be afraid! (REL-ENG-34)), or providing goodwill guidelines such as reminder, recommendation or encouragement to the congregation, for example Listen for Christmas! (REL-ENG-34). In summary, unlike most other types of specialised persuasive discourses under scrutiny, in order to activate persuasion sermons strongly prefer implicit persuasion mediated through questions and exclamations rather than directives.

2.5.3.1.4  Ethical Appeal to Shared Knowledge via Engagement of the Audience The range of lexically expressed engagement markers (Hyland, 2005b) that are capable of appealing to knowledge shared with audience is rather limited, both in number and in content. This low occurrence evidently has something to do with the style of sermons; engagement appears to be stylistically symptomatic of more technical and academic discourses. If

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

87

utilised, engagement markers facilitating shared knowledge in sermons seem to focus on areas of precision and clarity in presentation of the doctrine (Certainly the long journey and its hardships did not deter the wise men. (REL-ENG-07)). Furthermore, explicit appeal to shared knowledge serves to enhance the sense of community, creating common ground. 32. The reason, of course, is that a Savior has been presented… (REL-ENG-18) 33. I think we are all familiar with the events at the beginning of WWII. (REL-ENG-16) In Examples 32 and 33, for instance, such appeal refers listeners to common knowledge of the Bible and essential Christian teaching, evoking an atmosphere of familiarity.

2.5.3.2  Strategies Related to Logos 2.5.3.2.1  Appealing to the Audience Through Logical Reasoning Within authorial appeal to the audience in sermons, logical argumentation and reasoning play a leading role. Example 34 illustrates how an argument is intentionally construed by means of a sophisticated set of conditional clauses: 34. I read the story of a man named Edwin Rushworth. Rushworth had been a sceptic all his life. But he resolved to read for an hour a day the book that he had so long derided. “Wife”, he said, as he looked up from his first perusal, “if this book is right, we are all wrong!” He continued his readings for another week. “Wife”, he exclaimed at the end of that time, “if this book is right, we are lost!” He went on reading with more avidity than ever. “Wife!” he said earnestly a few nights later, “if this book is right, we may be saved!” And they were! (REL-ENG-02) In the adduced example, logical and ethical appeals are employed in an anecdotal narrative; layering the individual components one by one, the

88 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

preacher heads for a climax with a humorous flavour. In the process, the hearer is ushered into the preacher’s way of argumentation and gradually led to the desired conclusion. Alternatively, logos-oriented appeal is manifested through intricate reasoning backed by direct references to Scripture. Thus, the logical argumentation receives a hallmark of authority and reliability, which in effect results in a distinct persuasive power (Example 35). 35. Now back to Romans 8:32. Here’s the logic that the Apostle Paul is using—if God subjected Christ to the extreme physical and emotional suffering for our eternal salvation, it would make no sense for God to turn his back on us during our present time of need. In other words, the guarantee of our future (sealed by the Cross) also guarantees everything we need right here, right now. We have other Scriptural evidence of this promise too: “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). (REL-ENG-29) Apart from its multiple direct biblical citation, the lexis used in Example 31 is notable for its persuasive effect: the preacher deliberately chooses words which in themselves overtly draw one’s attention to the reasoning process (logic, Scriptural evidence), thus building a scaffolding of fact-based argumentation as well as text cohesion (in other words, other, sealed, knowledge, guarantees or the use of the logic-triggering conditional clause).

2.5.3.2.2  Enhancing Message Credibility Through Intertextual References and Facts Naturally enough, the credibility of the sermonical content as well as the personality of preacher are largely dependent on citation of reliable sources to build authority. Logos, which appeals to the audience’s sense of reason, is in this way centred on factual fundaments provided first and foremost by the Scriptures but also by other writings, such as biblical dictionaries, concordances and commentaries. The sermon then

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

89

functions as a tool of conveyance, exploitation and interpretation of the Bible-­based message, be it linguistically realised through direct quotes from the Bible or indirect, periphrastic references, as in Example 36: 36. Romans 14:11 teaches us, “For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” (REL-ENG-15) Admittedly, biblical citations reach the audience not only at the level of logos; they also have a strong relation with ethical appeal. In particular, references to authority are capable of investing a preacher with the necessary impression of reliability. In this quest, other sources, too, such as media and books, or simply information that the preacher has heard, serve as sources of evidence and support for the argumentation (Example 37). 37. Someone wrote of Herod that he was “Jewish in religion, heathen in practice, and monster in character”. (REL-ENG-24) The reasoning in sermons may also be intentionally corroborated through the use of hard data such as statistics or supportive credentials (Bazerman et al., 2005; Hyland, 1999). The message therefore receives a touch of seriousness, factuality and reliability, which—in the realm of religion—yield a necessary rhetorical counterpart to the spiritual, intangible and mystical: 38. The dictionary definition of a miracle is “visible interruption of the laws of nature understood as divine intervention often accompanied by a miracle worker.” (REL-ENG-01) Consequently, through enhanced credibility, the palpable goal of logosoriented appeal is realised: a solid ground for the message is provided, ensuring clarity and the necessary context.

90 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2.5.3.3  Persuasive Strategies Related to Pathos Pathetic appeal to audience is primarily mediated via affect, by either linguistic or extralinguistic means; hence, emotions in the broadest sense of the word represent an organic realisation of pathos (Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 14).

2.5.3.3.1  Enhancing Pathetic Appeal via Stirring Emotions A whole scale of emotions may be ignited in religious discourse in general, including sheer-joy sharing, encouragement, excitement, enthusiasm, sentiment, happiness and the like (on the positive pole), and compassion, sadness, fear induction, feelings of guilt or threat (cf. Adam, 2019; Dillard & Peck, 2000, pp. 465–466). Affect arising during a sermon (Example 39) is assumed to serve as encouragement to believers to strive for a godly life and to realise and accept spiritual truths (see e.g. Adam, 2017; Dillard & Peck, 2000; Dillard & Seo, 2013, pp. 160–166). 39. How will you respond to Jesus? Will you respond with antagonism, apathy, or adoration? (…) Some bow down in adoration. Will you bow down to Him today? (REL-ENG-7) Research presented in Chap. 5 of this volume addresses the persuasive power of humour; seen against the background of the serious, humour is shown as an effective bridge connecting the preacher and the audience. Via positive pathetic appeal the congregation is led naturally to a deeper realisation of the principle discussed, and the doctrine can be readily applied.

2.5.3.3.2  Persuasion Ignited via a Pathetic Presentation of the Doctrine Another underlying, and latently omnipresent, persuasive strategy adopted in sermons consists in a favoured pattern that can be summarised as follows: in their core (typically concluding) argumentation, preachers

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

91

will end up at the cross. The story around the crucified Jesus and the act of redemption as if it were behind the scenes no matter the topic of the sermon; all this works towards that climax, including corresponding emotions, such as sentiment, gratitude and feelings of guilt. This strategy becomes most prominent in conclusive sections that are meant to remain in the believers’ minds as a pathetic stimulus. 40. If there is one here today who has not placed his or her trust in Christ Jesus, this day can be a time of joy and rejoicing for you also. The Bible says that all who have not received Jesus Christ as their Savior stand condemned by their sin. Yet, Christ came to the world, suffered and died for you, that you might have eternal life. You can today, in repentance ask God even at this moment to save you. (REL-ENG-09) In Example 40, the audience is exposed to and challenged by a sophisticated sequence of individual persuasive moves; the climax often comes through the pathetic phase, in the course of which emotions are stirred. Such an emotive load is then expected to result in a more powerful impact on the addressee, with the ultimate goal of bringing about a mental conclusion or practical action. The persuasive power is exercised linguistically through constant reference to the redemptive deed of Christ, logical argumentation and a set of conductive questions that inevitably lead the hearer to prefabricated conclusions; all this is actuated by the coercive pathetic force of persuasion. The coercive emotions induced in this sermon encompass threat of condemnation. The message latently perceivable between the lines clearly communicates the need to act immediately.

2.5.3.3.3  Expressive Evaluation via Evaluative Lexis Evaluative language is inevitably associated with the effectiveness of the persuasive process. Primarily, it encompasses positive and negative lexical items, and modality. The top adjectives are recruited from both positive and negative semantic fields. The adjective with the highest normalised rate is good, followed

92 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

by great. Analysis bears witness to the prevalence of positively loaded adjectives, both in number and in the variant. Such a structure is obviously related to the overall positive atmosphere of sermons, which is intentionally construed as encouraging and motivating, and is amended by another set of high-occurrence adjectives operating in the same spirit. The negative evaluation adjectives create an effect of binary opposition to the positive set (e.g. good—bad; blessed—wicked), fulfilling the role of the deterrent, warning or even threat. Conversely, the positive set often reflects a remarkably strong sometimes extreme degree of positivity, such as great and wonderful. Also the notion of correctness, rightness and truth, being in concordance with the Christian doctrine, appears to be literally highlighted in the corpus in opposition to the world of evil and wrong: true, right. Of the stance adverbs that express doubt and certainty, which range from judgments of absolute certainty to indication of belief at various levels of probability (Biber et al., 1999, p. 854), the most prominent is really, as in Example 41. 41. There really is no other kind of Biblical faith but “unfeigned”. (REL-ENG-06) This adverb prototypically indicates emphasis on the truthfulness of the proposition and the credibility of the preacher, directly enhancing the potential of successful persuasion. The occurrence of stance adverbs in sermons under scrutiny is extremely low. This is most probably caused by the specific style of sermons: originally spoken, not academic, typically semi-formal, rather personal. The last category of adverbs observed are labelled style stance adverbs (Biber et al., 1999, p. 857); these comment on the manner of conveying the message. The data collected suggest that the incidence of style adverbs in the corpus is relatively modest. If such metalanguage is used, with the intention of modifying or specifying his or her attitude, the speaker puts emphasis on three semantic aspects: (i) the trustworthiness of the message (truly); (ii) the simplicity and transparency of the message (simply); (iii) and the preacher’s honesty and credibility (honestly, sincerely).

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

93

To sum up, the use of evaluative lexis in sermons (within the whole structure of lexico-grammatical stance development) evidently tends to employ the opinionated sort of persuasion rather than the informational variant (cf. Biber & Zhang, 2018). Preachers appear to build their argumentation on lexical as well as grammatical means related to pathetical appeal embedded in shared values with the audience and omnipresent emotive load, such as the intentional tension between good and evil.

2.5.4 Persuasive Strategies in Technical Discourse Technical communication and in particular the genre of user manuals is a relatively scarcely researched area (Dobrin et al., 2014; Sharpe, 2014). In order to fill the gap, this study analyses persuasive strategies and their linguistic manifestations with regard to the three classic Aristotelian appeals, that is ethos, logos and pathos (cf. Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 5), with the aim of revealing how writers attempt to produce persuasive and effective technical instructions. The following section focuses on the most important rhetorical strategies applied in the Anglophone component of the TECH sub-corpus, since a cross-cultural analysis of Anglophone and Czech user manuals will be carried out in detail in Chap. 6. Many persuasive strategies can be applied in user manuals, although not all with the same frequency. Some are clearly preferred, such as logical reasoning and reference to statistics and facts, providing evidence, proof by exemplification, reference to expert opinion and above all direct appeals to the audience. Some are used only occasionally, such as claiming common ground and goals and creating a sense of community, while some such as appeals to hope and empathy are not represented at all. With regard to Biber and Zhang’s (2018) distinction between informational and opinionated persuasion, technical discourse, including the genre of user manuals, represents the informational type of persuasion although certain language means identified in the analysis, such as stance categories of metadiscourse markers, indicate that even this type of discourse comprises instances of opinionated persuasion.

94 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2.5.4.1  Strategies Related to Ethos Persuasive strategies related to the key principle of persuasion, that is the ethical appeal, which are overtly manifested in the TECH sub-corpus, are mostly represented by categories of interactional metadiscourse markers (Hyland, 2005a; Tse & Hyland, 2006). These categories, studied in detail in Chap. 6, “focus on the participants of the interaction and seek to display a tenor consistent with the norms of the disciplinary community” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p.  5), thus appealing to the readers and giving them instructions on how to behave in agreement with the guidelines provided by the persuaders, who thanks to their knowledge of the relevant technical aspects have a superior role and thus are entitled to give instructions on what to do. By showing that they have the relevant knowledge and know how to solve particular problems, technical writers clearly enhance their credibility and expertise. Meanwhile, by taking readers into consideration they create an atmosphere of collegiality and a sense of community, thus enhancing the ethos-pathos interface. The most important strategy applied in the whole TECH sub-corpus is the direct appeal to the reader, realised above all by directives and reader reference pronouns. These linguistic means contribute to the establishing of a close relationship between the technical writer and the potential reader and the message conveyed in the given text. Owing to the persuaders’ knowledge of technical aspects which potential readers of user manuals need, writers have greater power and can thus explicitly direct their readers to take necessary actions. This strategy can be enhanced by reader-­ reference pronouns, which at the same time contribute to the creating of an atmosphere of collegiality, thus appealing to the pathetic persuasive appeal. Directives are unambiguously the most important means enabling technical writers to express their persuasive power and appeal to potential readers to perform an action in agreement with instructions. Consequently, they are clearly involved in the interactive process of persuasion (Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, pp. 3–4). They are speech acts that, according to Searle (1976), try to “get the hearer to do something” (p. 11), that is to persuade the addressee to perform an action. The user manuals under scrutiny

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

95

display all three main realisation forms of directives: (1) imperatives of full verbs (e.g. insert, select, put), (2) modal verbs of obligation, necessity or prohibition addressed to the reader (e.g. the button must be pressed again, the driver must not be distracted) and (3) predicative adjectives expressing the writer’s judgement of the necessity or importance of performing an action (e.g. it is important to follow the setup and calibration procedures). Directives expressed by imperatives are naturally selected by all technical writers in the TECH sub-corpus as the most direct and explicit “grammatical method of instructing people” (cf. Crystal & Davy, 1969, p. 237). They are the clearest way in which the persuasive force can be expressed, since, in many cases, when using particular technical devices readers need to interpret the instructions as precisely and quickly as possible, which imperatives clearly enable (see Example 42). The urgency of action can be supported by the strategy of modulating commitment to the claims stated in the instructions, which can be achieved through the use of boosters, that is persuasive means which technical writers, those who possess the relevant technical information, can use while emphasising their expertise and credibility, as is the case of the frequency adverbs never and always in the following example: 42. Never remove the TV cover. Always contact Philips TV Customer Care for service or repairs. (TECH-ENG-01) When expressed with modal verbs, directives are often combined with explicit reader-reference pronouns, which get readers involved in the discourse and make them active participants in the action to be taken, thus contributing to the sense of community between the technical writer and his/her readership, as in: 43. Upon termination, you must immediately destroy the Software, together with all copies, adaptations, and merged portions in any form. (TECH-ENG-07) Of the three possible types of acts performed by directives (Hyland, 2002b), physical acts (see remove and contact in Example 42 and destroy

96 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

in Example 43) are characteristic of the genre of user manuals (for details on all types, see Chap. 6).

2.5.4.2  Strategies Related to Logos The appeal to the rationality and logic on the part of the audience, that is logos, is realised in the TECH sub-corpus above all by the use of explicit signals of logical relations holding between sentences: by introducing exemplifications, or by reference to relevant technical facts given elsewhere in the same text, often in the form of tables, graphs or charts, or outside the given text using conjunctions and linking adverbials (Biber et al., 1999, pp. 875ff), most of which are studied under the label interactive metadiscourse categories (Hyland, 2005a) in Chap. 6. These categories “are concerned with ways of organizing discourse to anticipate readers’ knowledge and reflect the writer’s assessment of the reader’s processing abilities” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p. 4), thus helping the readers of user manuals to understand and follow the instructions in agreement with the writer’s communicative intentions. One of the more frequently expressed semantic relations in the user manuals under scrutiny is that of condition, since conditions are often used by technical writers to enhance logical reasoning; in other words, to give instructions on what to do if something unexpected or even dangerous happens, thus easily persuading readers to take appropriate action, as in: 44. If you are allergic to paint or metal parts of the device, you may experience itching, eczema, or swelling of the skin. (TECH-ENG-19) In addition to the logical connector if, Example 44 comprises the reader-reference pronoun you, which appeals to the reader, and the modal verb may, which expresses possibility of what might happen, thus functioning as a hedging device which modulates the writer’s commitment to the claim given as a consequence of the stated condition.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

97

45. If a leak is detected, avoid any naked flames or potential sources of ignition and air the room in which the appliance is standing for several minutes. (TECH-ENG-03) Apart from modal verbs, sentences with conditional clauses often include imperatives, especially those relating to physical acts (Hyland, 2002b). Technical writers often instruct readers that if something happens or does not happen, then they are expected to take action (air the room) or prevent something from happening (avoid any naked flames). Since the use of modals and imperatives represents direct appeal to the audience, that is the ethical appeal of the persuader, Example 45 demonstrates how appeals to logos (the use of logical connectors) and ethos (the use of directives) often operate at the same time, thus representing the ethos-logos interface (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018b; Povolná, 2019), which is typical of the language of user manuals. Another semantic relation that frequently contributes to the logical reasoning in the TECH sub-corpus is that of cause and reason. This is exemplified in Example 46, in which the first clause introduced with the causal conjunction since describes some circumstances, while the subsequent one, which comprises the evaluative predicative adjective vital, explains the consequence of what is stated before, thus modulating the writer’s commitment. In line with Hyland (2002b), the use of predicative adjectives, such as available, advised, applicable, designed, necessary, required, dangerous, important, intended, recommended and vital, is viewed as one of the three realisation forms of directives, which, similarly to imperatives and modal verbs, express the directive force and instruct readers on what to do while representing the ethos-logos interface. 46. Since all methods of conventional electricity generation have a negative effect on the environment (acidic and climate-influencing emissions, radioactive waste, etc.), it is vital to conserve energy. (TECH-ENG-04) Of the remaining relations, the expression of which contributes to logical reasoning in the TECH sub-corpus, it is worth mentioning consequence, which is frequently expressed with linking adverbials. Readers first get some information from which the subsequent instructions

98 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

logically follow. In addition, what follows is often emphasised with a modal verb, such as should, functioning as a directive, as in: 47. This symbol alerts the user that important literature concerning the operation and maintenance of this unit has been included. Therefore, it should be read carefully in order to avoid any problems. (TECH-ENG-10) Example 47 also demonstrates that sentences comprising modal verbs with a weaker directive force, such as should, sound more like recommendations. This strategy is often applied in user manuals, since should “provides a hedged expression of obligation […] and is typically regarded as more polite” (Biber et al., 1999, p. 495). Leech (2003) holds the view that the decrease in the use of the stronger must and a shift to the weaker need to and should is possibly “associated with a tendency to suppress or avoid overt claims to power and authority by the speaker or writer” (p.  237). This tendency occurs frequently in the TECH sub-corpus, clearly contributing to an atmosphere of collegiality and care for potential readers. An important aspect of the logical persuasive appeal typically used in user manuals is the providing of proof by exemplification. “Reasoning-­ based persuasion” [relying] “on logic, examples, and evidence” (Johnson-­ Sheehan, 2015, p. 361) clearly supports the writer’s claims. This is shown in Example 48, which comprises the linking adverbial for example used for exemplification. This example demonstrates the interplay of all three persuasive appeals, that is ethical (appeal to the readers: do not expose), logical (exemplification: for example) and pathetic (care for readers: your). It can be claimed with some justification that it is difficult to find examples which illustrate just one of the three appeals in the TECH sub-corpus. 48. Do not expose your device to direct sunlight for extended periods of time (on the dashboard of a car, for example). (TECH-ENG-19) Another strategy often applied by technical writers is reference to facts which are stated somewhere else in the same text or in a completely different text, commonly an online one. This strategy is mostly associated

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

99

with adjectives such as shown, specified or the preposition according to, as included in the following example: 49. Plastic parts over 25 grams are marked according to international standards that enhance the ability to identify plastics for recycling purposes at the end of the product’s life. (TECH-ENG-07) Finally, it must be stated that exemplification and evidence are usually associated with visuals, not only small images and icons, but also bigger figures, graphs and tables. These visual representations of information, which are mostly comprised in the body of the user manual, naturally contribute to the logical persuasive appeal.

2.5.4.3  Strategies Related to Pathos The pathetic persuasive appeal is the least represented in the TECH sub-­ corpus. As demonstrated above, it usually operates together with the other types, in particular the ethical appeal, thus representing the ethos-­ pathos interface. The strategies most frequently applied are creating of an atmosphere of collegiality and of caring and responsibility, which tend to be realised by reader-reference pronouns, rhetorical questions, directives with exclamatory sentence structure and appeals to shared knowledge. Both rhetorical questions and exclamations are applied in order to establish a suitable relationship between the technical writer, his/her message and potential readers, who are pulled into the discourse in order to become active participants. Rhetorical questions as language means that can make readers active and convince them to act according to the instructions are used only marginally in the user manuals under scrutiny. Several instances are included in the following example: 50. Step 1: Is the printer set up correctly? • Is the printer plugged into a power outlet that is known to work? • Is the on/off switch in the on position? • Is the print cartridge properly installed? See Changing the print

100 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

cartridge. • Is paper properly loaded in the input tray? See Loading media into the input trays. (TECH-ENG-07) It must be stressed that all questions identified in the TECH sub-­ corpus, including those in Example 50, represent rhetorical questions, which are like strong assertions, meaning, for example, “the printer must be set up correctly”, “the on/off switch must be in the on position”, thus expressing the directive force (cf. Povolná, 2019), such as “set up the printer correctly” or “put the on/off switch in the on position”. By using rhetorical questions, writers clearly enhance the dialogue with their target audience while introducing suggestions or giving commands on what to do for successful performance of the task stated in the questions. Example 50 also comprises the adverbs correctly and properly, both functioning as attitude markers according to Hyland (2005a), here modulating the technical writer’s claims and enhancing his/her credibility. They represent the most important attitude markers found in the Anglophone part of the TECH sub-corpus. As to exclamations, these can be expressed by many different structures (cf. Biber et  al., 1999, p.  2019). In Example 51, the exclamation WARNING! is immediately followed by instructions on what to do. Exclamatory sentences of similar type tend to be associated with all kinds of warnings, which, in fact, do not function as exclamations but rather directives with the meaning ‘be careful’, thus directly appealing to readers and showing the writer’s responsibility and care for the users of particular technical devices. Sometimes neither the exclamation mark nor expressions such as warning or caution are used, but the given context makes it clear that they represent warnings. 51. WARNING! Read this information before operating the phone. (TECH-ENG-15) Sentences with exclamation marks are used by technical writers as a useful way of attracting the readers’ attention. Hyland (2005a) considers them attitude markers, since they express the author’s attitude to the propositional content of the message conveyed in the instructions.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

101

The strategies of claiming common ground and establishing a sense of community can be realised by different linguistic means appealing to shared knowledge, such as adverbs (normally, typically) and adjectives (established, traditional, typical). However, appeals to shared knowledge are not typically used in the TECH sub-corpus because technical writers mostly intend to provide new information to their readers and only exceptionally do they refer to something already known to their readers. Finally, based on the exemplifications presented above, it is important to emphasise that the interplay of all three persuasive appeals is in fact present in most strategies applied in the TECH sub-corpus as a whole.

2.6 C  omparison of Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses The comparative analysis of persuasive strategies across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses indicates that despite the variation in the contexts in which the interaction takes place the four specialised discourses show considerable similarities and draw on all three persuasive principles in the construal of persuasive attempts. The ethical persuasive appeal is the most prominent in all specialised discourses under investigation. This seems to indicate that the credibility and trustworthiness of the writer, which essentially stem from his/her professionalism, experience and expertise in the specialised area of knowledge, are the primary qualities granting the persuader a chance to be successful in his/her persuasive attempts. Logically, in all four discourses, writers endeavour to prove their expertise by supporting their views and opinions by reference to authorities and by providing credentials for their expert membership status in the professional discourse community. The logical persuasive appeal is activated by providing factual evidence and statistics to support opinions and claims, as well as by relying on logical reasoning to build up a coherent argument so as to convince the audience to accept the interpretation of the information conveyed. At the same time writers strive to enhance their personal involvement and to create a

102 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

rapport with the audience based on communality and shared values, experiences and beliefs. By positioning readers as knowledgeable peers sharing an interest in the issue at hand, persuaders assume shared values and goals with the audience and satisfy the emotional needs of readers to be treated as in-group members, thus drawing simultaneously on the ethical and pathetic principles of persuasion (Table 2.4). The differences between the academic, business, religious and technical discourses reside in the relative importance of the individual persuasive strategies employed, the linguistic resources realising these strategies and the specific way in which the ethical appeal is interwoven with the logical and pathetic appeals. The personality dimension, conveyed by an extensive use of self-mention and reader reference, is clearly the most prominent in religious discourse. Preachers often support their argument with anecdotal stories from their personal life or the lives of other people; they appeal directly to the audience by asking questions and uttering exalted exclamations, and they employ evaluative lexis to explicitly categorise individuals, events and actions as good or bad from the perspective of the Christian doctrine. The ethical persuasive appeal is typically interwoven with the logical appeal, which in sermons resides in quoting or referring to the text of the Bible dogmatically, as it is seen as a source of infallible factual proof. Probably the most specific feature of religious persuasion, as compared to the other three specialised discourses under scrutiny, is the extensive use of the pathetic appeal, expressed via strong emotional engagement with the audience, and humour. In contrast to religious discourse, academic, business and technical discourses are, on the one hand, less personal and emotional, and, on the other, generally anchored in factual information and verifiable data, although open to subjective interpretation. Thus knowledge-making in the domain of science is inherently connected to logical reasoning and proofs by empirical evidence. In academic discourse, the logical appeal is enhanced by explicit logical connectors and cognitive directives showing the reader the path along the chain of reasoning. The ethical principle of academic persuasion comprises the construal of proximity with the reader via personal intrusions and reader engagement resources and, most importantly, by careful modulation of commitment to claims. In order to persuade readers to accept their views and claims, academic writers tend

Academic

Type of discourse

Showing involvement  (self-mentions) Sharing personal views  (self-mentions, attitude markers) Modulating commitment to claims  (hedges and boosters) Reference to authority/expertise  (citations, text act directives) Providing credentials  (self-citations) Claiming common ground  (reader reference, appeals to shared knowledge) Sense of community  (self-mentions, appeals to shared knowledge) Reference to expert opinion  (citations, text act directives)

Ethos

Evoking positive/ negative emotions  (reader reference, evaluative lexis) Expressive evaluation  (evaluative lexis, attitude markers) Creating an atmosphere of collegiality  (reader reference, appeals to shared knowledge, questions, asides)

(continued)

Pathos

Logos Logical reasoning  (transition markers, cognitive directives) Reference to statistics/facts  (intratextual reference to data and visuals) Experimental proof  (reporting experimental results) Proof by exemplification/testing  (reporting statistical tests and sample analysis) Providing evidence  (referring to facts and other evidence)

Table 2.4  Persuasive strategies across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

103

Business

Type of discourse

Showing involvement   (self-mentions, company as excl. we) Direct appeal to the audience   (direct address, expressing gratitude for support) Sharing personal views   (self-mentions, attitude markers) Modulating commitment to claims   (hedges and boosters, negation of undesirable concepts) Reference to authority and expert opinion   (independent Auditor’s report) Providing credentials   (biographic information, claiming expertise and achievements) Claiming common ground   (self-mentions, appeals to shared knowledge) Sense of community   (self-mentions, appeals to shared knowledge)

Ethos

Table 2.4 (continued) Pathos Evoking positive/negative emotions   (evaluative lexis, choices of positively connoted lexis, reader reference) Creating an atmosphere of community   (reader reference, appeals to shared knowledge, questions, asides) Creating an atmosphere of caring and responsibility   (reader reference, questions, asides, care for minorities/ women/disabled/larger community/environment)

Logos Logical reasoning   (causal relationships, listing) Reference to statistics/facts   (intratextual reference to data: Facts, figures and visuals) Proof by exemplification/testing   (quoting specific examples and cases) Providing evidence   (factuality, referring to facts, figures; pictures, quotes of customers/partners, etc.)

104  O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Religious

Type of discourse

Ethos

Showing involvement   (personal structures, sharing personal experience and views, attitude markers) Providing credentials   (self-citations, Bible citations) Narrative of belonging and sense of community   (self-mentions, reader pronouns, directives and attitude markers) Reference to authority   (Bible citations, claiming church authority, text act directives) Claiming common ground   (appeals to shared knowledge, appeal to moral principles, rhetorical questions)

Evoking positive/negative emotions   (humour, fear induction, reader reference) Pathetic presentation of doctrine   (religious sentiment, focus on the core of the gospel, rhetorical questions and exclamations) Expressive evaluation   (evaluative lexis, good-bad prism, attitude markers) Creating an atmosphere of fellowship   (reader reference, engagement markers, emphasis on community, appeals to shared knowledge, asides) (continued)

Pathos

Logos Logical reasoning   (argumentative structure, cognitive directives, conducive questions, scaffolding method) Intertextual evidence   (Bible quotes, citations of secondary religious discourse) Proof by exemplification   (parables, allegories, analogies, examples, personal reminiscences) Reference to facts   (media, statistics, certainty markers)

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

105

Technical

Type of discourse

Direct appeal to the audience   (directives, rhetorical questions, exclamations) Reference to expert opinion   (textual act directives, evidentials) Modulating commitment to claims   (hedges and boosters) Supporting credibility and competitiveness   (evaluative lexis) Claiming common ground and goals   (appeals to shared knowledge) Sense of community   (self-mentions, appeals to shared knowledge)

Ethos

Table 2.4 (continued) Pathos Creating an atmosphere of caring and responsibility   (directives with exclamatory sentence structure, rhetorical questions, expression of care for children and handicapped persons) Creating an atmosphere of collegiality   (appeals to shared knowledge, questions, reader reference)

Logos Logical reasoning   (markers of logical connections between sentences or longer parts of the text) Reference to statistics and facts   (intratextual reference to data given in tables, graphs and other visuals, or reference to data outside the given text) Proof by exemplification   (listing other similar devices, materials or data, code glosses, evidentials) Providing evidence   (reference to norms and standards)

106  O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

107

to hedge numerous statements, thus acknowledging alternative interpretations, while occasionally boosting certain opinions and views to show their involvement with the issue at hand. This delicate balance between detachment and commitment seems to be the distinctive feature of academic persuasion as compared to the other three specialised discourses explored in this study. Expertise and positive achievements are vital for claiming credibility and reliability in business discourse. Annual reports are intended to supply objective statistics and convincing examples of a company’s prosperity, thus providing factual proofs of the management’s trustworthiness and valid reasons for the stakeholders to invest in the business. As a result, the logical persuasive appeal seems to be primary in business discourse; however, some level of personalisation of the relationship between the company and the reader may further enhance institutional trustworthiness and persuade the audience to remain the company’s clients or partners. This is achieved by the personal voice of a CEO cast in the letter to shareholders, as well as by evaluative lexis stressing the association of the company with shared positive values, such as stability, profit and growth, while backgrounding potential difficulties and risks. Similarly to business discourse, technical discourse relies on objective facts and undertakes to convey specialised information to a more general or lay readership. However, while the corporate report strives to prove the company’s good state of health, the user manual is intended to assist end-­ users in the step-by-step procedures they need to carry out to use a specific technical device. Therefore, the credibility of writers of user manuals depends on their ability to represent the producer as a reliable expert in the field and to provide clear detailed instructions, which would allow the user to achieve the desired goal. Consequently, technical discourse is characterised by the frequent occurrence of directives, explicit logical linkers and stereotyped expressions which can be easily processed by the reader. Compared to the other three specialised discourses under investigation, it is the discourse marked by the lowest degree of creativity and variation. Since in addition to the efficient operation of the device, the safety of users is a major concern, user manuals may also include exclamations warning readers about various dangers related to operating the device.

108 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

The existing similarities and differences between the academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses seem to suggest that establishing the credibility of the persuader, creating a rapport between the persuader and the audience and the construal of common ground and communality on the basis of shared values are universal aspects of persuasion in specialised discourses. The relative importance of the individual appeals in the four specialised discourses and the language resources used for their realisation differ as a function of situational constraints and the specific goals that persuaders undertake to achieve by their persuasive attempts. While all four specialised discourses rely on both lexico-­ grammatical devices and evaluative lexis when realising persuasive attempts, the prominence of these language resources varies across the four genres under scrutiny. Research articles and sermons seem to show a preference for an explicit expression of persuasion via lexico-grammatical stance and engagement devices and thus may be regarded as pertaining to opinionated persuasion genres; corporate reports and user manuals, on the other hand, tend to rely on evaluative lexis, thus indicating persuasion in a less explicit way, which is typical of informational persuasion genres (Biber & Zhang, 2018; Biber et al., 2018).

2.7 Concluding Remarks This chapter has introduced specific features of the four specialised discourses under investigation—the academic, the business, the religious and the technical discourse. It has also briefly described the communicative functions and patterns of writer-reader interaction essential to understanding the build-up of persuasion in the four genres representing each of the discourses under scrutiny—the research article, the annual report, the sermon and the user manual. In order to compare similarities and differences between the four specialised discourses, the situational characteristics that constrain the array of strategies that persuaders rely on in their persuasive attempts, as well as the language resources they have at their disposal for the wording of their persuasive texts, have been outlined. The comparison has shown that while some of the specialised discourses share several characteristics, such as the ‘split’ context of

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

109

production and processing, the interplay of the animator, writer and principal roles of the persuader and the audience composition, they also display clear differences which are expected to affect the persuasive process. A feature common to all specialised discourses seems to be the possession of expert knowledge and professional expertise, which endows persuaders with credibility and trustworthiness indispensable in getting past the epistemic vigilance of persuadees. Academic, business and technical discourses also share a reliance on rationality, evidence and factual proof which play a paramount role in the persuasive process, while religious discourse tends to evoke feeling and emotions in order to foster the belief of regular churchgoers. These similarities and differences are reflected in preferences for a specific combination of persuasive strategies and language resources to express persuasive intents as conventionalised in research articles, annual reports, sermons and user manuals. The main focus of this chapter is the description and subsequent comparative analysis of persuasive strategies used in the discourses under investigation through the lenses of the three persuasive appeals—the ethical, the logical and the pathetic. This analysis has identified the prevailing strategies in the Anglophone components of the CECSD corpus in order to prepare the ground for the cross-cultural comparison presented in the subsequent chapters of this book. The results of the analysis indicate that persuasion in the four specialised discourses stems from an interplay of all types of appeal—ethical, logical and pathetic—and is based on enhancing the credibility and trustworthiness of the persuader, the presentation of a rational and valid argument, and, less frequently, evoking the emotions of persuadees. The most prominent persuasive principle seems to be the ethical appeal commonly associated with strategies showing personal involvement, claiming common ground, modulating views and claims, reference to authorities and providing credentials. These strategies are realised by various language resources, such as personal structures referring to the persuader and the persuadee, citations, epistemic modality markers and evaluative lexis. The logical persuasive appeal, indicated by markers of logical reasoning and providing evidence and proofs by exemplification, experiment or statistics, is particularly prominent in academic, business and technical discourses. Functioning as an enhancement device in all genres and discourses, the pathetic

110 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

persuasive appeal is most extensively present in religious discourse, where the use of evaluative lexis and non-assertion speech acts is instrumental in the making of persuasive attempts. It seems obvious that persuasion in academic, business, religious and technical discourses shares some tendencies which stem from the specificity of specialised discourses as highly conventionalised forms of communication within professional discourse communities, while variation is affected by contextual constraints imposed by the specific area of knowledge and practices of the specialised discourse community, and is also reflected in the conventional language means used to express the persuasive intention of the persuader.

References Adam, M. (2017). Persuasion in religious discourse: Enhancing credibility in sermon titles and openings. Discourse and Interaction, 10(2), 5–25. https:// doi.org/10.5817/DI2017-2-5 Adam, M. (2019). Enhancing persuasion in sermon conclusions through fear induction. In M. Crhová & M. Weiss (Eds.), Silesian studies in English 2018. Proceedings of the 5th international conference of English and American studies (pp. 7–23). Opava, Czech Republic: Silesian University in Opava. Allen, R. J. (1992). Preaching the topical sermon. Louisville, KY: Westminster/ John Knox Press. Banks, D. (2008). The development of scientific writing: Linguistic features and historical context. London: Equinox. Bazerman, C., Little, J., Bethel, L., Chavkin, T., Fouquette, D., & Garufis, J. (2005). Reference guide to writing across the curriculum. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press. Bell, A. (1997). Language style as audience design. In N. Coupland & A. Jaworski (Eds.), Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook (pp.  240–250). New  York: St Martin’s. Bennett, K. (2009). English academic style manuals: A survey. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8, 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2008.12.003 Bhatia, V. (2004). Worlds of written discourse. London/New York: Continuum. https://doi.org/10.1017/S027226310633029X

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

111

Bhatia, V. (2005). Generic patterns in promotional discourse. In H. Halmari & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across genres: A linguistic approach (pp. 213–228). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ pbns.130.13bha Biber, D., Egbert, D., & Zhang, M. (2018). Lexis and grammar as complementary discourse systems for expressing stance and evaluation. In M.  Goméz González & L. Mackenzie (Eds.), The construction of discourse as verbal interaction (pp.  201–226). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https:// doi.org/10.1075/pbns.296.08bib Biber, D., & Gray, B. (2010). Challenging stereotypes about academic writing: Complexity, elaboration, explicitness. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9, 2–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.01.001 Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson. https://doi. org/10.1017/S136067430221028X Biber, D., & Zhang, M. (2018). Expressing evaluation without grammatical stance: Informational persuasion on the web. Corpora, 13(1), 97–123. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2018.0137 Candlin, C., & Gotti, M. (2007). Intercultural aspects of specialized communication. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2005. 05.001 Chilton, P. (2004). Analysing political discourse. London/New York: Routledge. Čmejrková, S., & Daneš, F. (1997). Academic writing and cultural identity: The case of Czech academic writing. In A. Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp.  40–62). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110821048.41 Connor, U., & Moreno, A. (2005). Tertium comparationis: A vital component in contrastive rhetoric research. In P. Bruthiaux, D. Atkinson, W. Eggington, W. Grabe, & V. Ramanathan (Eds.), Directions in applied linguistics: Essays in honor of Robert B.  Kaplan (pp.  153–164). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Cotterell, P., & Turner, M. (1989). Linguistics and biblical interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Crystal, D. (2018). Whatever happened to theolinguistics? In P.  Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp. 5–18). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oso/9780190636647.001.0001 Crystal, D., & Davy, D. (1969). Investigating English style. London: Longman.

112 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Dafouz-Milne, E. (2008). The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A cross-­ linguistic study of newspaper discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 40, 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2007.10.003 Dillard, J. P., & Peck, E. (2000). Affect and persuasion emotional responses to public service announcements. Communication Research, 27(4), 461–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F009365000027004003 Dillard, J. P., & Seo, K. (2013). Affect and persuasion. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The Sage book of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 150–166). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410.n10 Dobrin, S. I., Keller, C. J., & Weisser, C. R. (2014). Technical communication in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2009). Analysing genre: The colony text of UNESCO resolutions. Brno, Czech Republic: Masaryk University. https://doi. org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-8858-2017 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2011). Coherence in political speeches. Brno, Czech Republic: Masaryk University. https://doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI. M210-8859-2017 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2013). Authorial presence in academic discourse: Functions of author-reference pronouns. Linguistica Pragensia, 23(1), 9–30. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2015). Cross-cultural variation in citation practices: A comparative analysis of citations in Czech English-medium and international English-medium linguistics journals. In R.  Plo Alastrué & C. Pérez-Llantada (Eds.), English as a scientific and research language: Debates and discourses. English in Europe (Vol. 2, pp. 185–205). Mouton de Gruyter: Berlin, Germany/Boston. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516378-011 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). A contrastive (English, Czech English, Czech) study of rhetorical functions of citations in Linguistics research articles. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18.01don Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018b). Persuasion in academic discourse: Cross-­ cultural variation in Anglophone and Czech academic book reviews. In J. Pelclová & L. Wei-lun (Eds.), Persuasion in public discourse. Cognitive and functional perspectives (pp.  227–257). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79.11don Downes, W. (2018). Linguistics and the scientific study of religion: Prayer as a cognitive register. In P. Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language,

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

113

and the human mind (pp. 89–114). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0004 Fee, G. D., & Stuart, D. (2003). How to read the Bible for all its worth. New York: Zondervan. Fløttum, K., Dahl, T., & Kinn, T. (2006). Academic voices: Across languages and disciplines. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.148 Flowerdew, L. (2013). Grammar and the research article. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0473 Garlock, J. (2002). Keys to better preaching. Broken Arrow, OK: Faith Library Publications. Garzone, G. (2004). Annual company reports and CEO’s letters: Discoursal features and cultural markedness. In C.  N. Candlin & M.  Gotti (Eds.), Intercultural aspects of specialized communication. Linguistic insights: Studies in language and communication 14 (pp. 311–341). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Ghadessy, M. (1988). Registers of written English. Situational factors and linguistic features. London: Pinter Publishers. Gillaerts, P., & van de Velde, F. (2010). Interactional metadiscourse in research article abstracts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9, 128–139. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.004 Gil-Salom, L., & Soler-Monreal, C. (Eds.). (2014). Dialogicity in written specialized genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ resla.28.2.12san Gotti, M. (2008). Investigating specialized discourse (2nd ed.). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Gray, B. (2015). Linguistic variation in research articles. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674316000423 Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P.  Cole & J.  L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics, Volume 3: Speech acts (pp.  41–58). New  York: Academic Press. Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). The language of science. London: Continuum. Halmari, H., & Virtanen, T. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion across genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Harwood, N. (2005). ‘We do not seem to have a theory…The theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 26, 343–375. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/ami012

114 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Ho, V., & Li, C. (2018). The use of metadiscourse and persuasion: An analysis of first year university students’ timed argumentative essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 33, 53–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.02.001 Hoey, M. (2001). Textual interaction: An introduction to written discourse analysis. London/New York: Routledge. Holmes, J. (1995). Men, women and politeness. London: Longman. https://doi. org/10.1177/096394709800700307 Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2015). Disciplinary and paradigmatic influences on interactional metadiscourse in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 39, 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2015.03.002 Hůlková, I. (2017). Conjunctive adverbials viewed as pragmatic markers in the genre of research articles. Brno, Czech Republic: Masaryk University. https:// doi.org/10.5817/cz.muni.m210-8873-2017 Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. (Eds.). (1999). Evaluation in text: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (1998a). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text, 18(3), 349–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.3.349 Hyland, K. (1998b). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(98)00009-5 Hyland, K. (1998c). Exploring corporate rhetoric: Metadiscourse in the CEOʼs letter. Journal of Business Communication, 35(2), 224–244. https://doi. org/10.1177/002194369803500203 Hyland, K. (1999). Academic attribution: Citation and the construction of disciplinary knowledge. Applied Linguistics, 20(3), 341–367. https://doi. org/10.1093/applin/20.3.341 Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. London/New York: Pearson Education. Hyland, K. (2001a). Bringing in the reader: Addressee features in academic articles. Written Communication, 18(4), 549–574. https://doi. org/10.1177/0741088301018004005 Hyland, K. (2001b). Humble servants of the discipline? Self-mention in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 18, 207–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0889-4906(00)00012-0 Hyland, K. (2002a). Authority and invisibility: Authorial identity in academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 1091–1112. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(02)00035-8

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

115

Hyland, K. (2002b). Directives: Arguments and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2003). Self-citation and self-reference: Credibility and promotion in academic publication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54(3), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.10204 Hyland, K. (2005a). Metadiscourse. London/New York: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2005b). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K. (2008). Persuasion, interaction and the construction of knowledge: Representing self and others in research writing. International Journal of English Studies, 8(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes.8.2.49151 Hyland, K. (2011a). Disciplines and discourses: Social interaction in the construction of knowledge. In D.  Starke-Meyerring, A.  Paré, N.  Artemeva, M.  Horne, & L.  Yousoubova (Eds.), Writing in knowledge societies (pp.  193–214). Fort Collins, CO: The WAC Clearinghouse & Anderson/ Parlor Press. Hyland, K. (2011b). Academic discourse. In K. Hyland & B. Paltridge (Eds.), Continuum companion to discourse analysis (pp.  171–184). London/New York: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2014). Engagement and disciplinarity: The other side of evaluation. In G. Del Lungo Camiciotti & E. T. Bonelli (Eds.), Academic discourse – New insights into evaluation (pp. 13–30). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https:// doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0784-5 Hyland, K. (2015). Genre, discipline and identity. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 19, 32–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2015.02.005 Hyland, K., & Guinda, C. S. (2012). Stance and voice in written academic genres. Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi. org/10.1057/9781137030825 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2018). “In this paper we suggest”: Changing patterns of disciplinary metadiscourse. English for Specific Purposes, 51, 18–30. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2018.02.001 Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Johnson-Sheehan, R. (2015). Technical communication today (5th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson.

116 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Kuhn, T. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lafuente-Millán, E. (2010). ‘Extending this claim, we propose …’ The writer’s presence in research articles from different disciplines. Iberica, 20, 35–56. Lafuente-Millán, E. (2014). Reader engagement across cultures, languages and contexts of publication in business research articles. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 201–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12019 Leech, G. (2003). Modality on the move: The English modal auxiliaries. In R. Facchinetti, M. Krug, & F. Palmer (Eds.), Modality in contemporary English (pp. 223–240). Berlin, Germany/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Livnat, Z. (2012). Dialogue, science and academic writing. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.13 Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. Martín-Martín, P. (2008). The mitigation of scientific claims in research papers: A comparative study. IJES, 8(2), 133–152. Mautner, G., & Rainer, F. (2017). Editorʼs introduction. In G.  Mautner & F. Rainer (Eds.), Handbook of business communication: Linguistic approaches (pp.  3–14). Boston/Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9781614514862-001 McLaren-Hankin, Y. (2019). Rebuilding trust in the banking sector: Engaging with readers in corporate press releases. In C.  Sancho-Guinda (Ed.), Engagement in professional genres (pp.  87–100). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.301.05mcl Mohammed, M. A. H., & Swales, J. M. (1984). Factors affecting the successful reading of technical instructions. Reading in a Foreign Language, 2, 206–217. Mur-Dueñas, P. (2007). ‘I/we focus on…’: A cross-cultural analysis of self-­ mentions in business management research articles.  Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2007.05.002 Mur-Dueñas, P. (2011). An intercultural analysis of metadiscourse features in research articles written in English and in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 3068–3079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.05.002 Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/10.1.1 Needles, B., Powers, M., Mills, S., & Anderson, H. (1999). Principles of accounting. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Overstreet, L. R. (2014). Persuasive preaching: A biblical and practical guide to the effective use of persuasion. Wooster, OH: Weaver Book Company.

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

117

Perloff, R. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion. Communication and attitudes in the 21st century (4th ed.). New  York/London: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315657714 Petrić, B. (2007). Rhetorical function of citations in high- and low-rated masterʼs theses. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6, 238–253. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2007.09.002 Povolná, R. (2016). A cross-cultural analysis of conjuncts as indicators of the interaction and negotiation of meaning in research articles. Topics in Linguistics, 17(1), 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1515/topling-2016-0004 Povolná, R. (2018). On some persuasive strategies in technical discourse: Cross-­ cultural analysis of directives in English and Czech technical manuals. Topics in Linguistics, 19(2), 72–85. https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2018-0011 Povolná, R. (2019). Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives. Discourse and Interaction, 12(1), 47–74. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47 Robinson, H.  W. (2014). Biblical preaching: The development and delivery of expository messages. New York: Baker Academic. Rus, D. (2014). Technical communication as strategic communication. Characteristics of the English technical discourse. Procedia Technology, 12, 654–658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.545 Salager-Meyer, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 3, 49–170. https:// doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90013-2 Schnitzer, J. (2017). The annual report. In G.  Mautner & F.  Rainer (Eds.), Handbook of business communication: Linguistic approaches (pp.  197–218). Boston/Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9781614514862-010 Searle, J.  R. (1976). A classification of illocutionary acts. Language in Society, 5, 1–23. Sharpe, M. (2014). Language forms and rhetorical function in technical instructions. English for Specific Purposes World, 43(15). http://www.esp-world.info/ Articles_43/Sharpe.pdf. Accessed 6 June 2019. Sperber, D., Clément, F., Heintz, C., Mascaro, O., Mercier, H., Origgi, G., et al. (2010). Epistemic vigilance. Mind and Language, 25, 359–393. https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2010.01394.x Sudková, M. (2012). Vyjadřování interpersonální funkce v českých a anglických odborných textech. Kontrastivní studie. [Expressing the interpersonal func-

118 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

tion in Czech and English academic texts. A contrastive study]. Časopis pro moderní filologii, 94(1), 31–42. Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J. M. (2004). Research genres. Exploration and applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Tang, R., & John, S. (1999). The ‘I’ in identity: Exploring writer identity in student academic writing through the first person pronoun. English for Specific Purposes, 18, 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(99)00009-5 Thomas, J. (1997). Discourse in the marketplace: The making of meaning in annual reports. The Journal of Business Communication, 34(1), 47–66. https:// doi.org/10.1177/002194369703400103 Thompson, G. (2001). Interaction in academic writing: Learning to argue with the reader. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/22.1.58 Trimble, L. (1985). English for science and technology: A discourse approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10. 1016/0889-4906(86)90011-6 Tse, P., & Hyland, K. (2006). ‘So what is the problem this book addresses?’ Interactions in book reviews. Text and Talk, 27, 767–790. https://doi. org/10.1515/TEXT.2006.031 Unger, C. (2018). Cognitive pragmatics and multi-layered communication: Allegory in Christian religious discourse. In P. Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp.  333–352). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oso/9780190636647.003.0013 van de Mieroop, D. (2007). The complementarity of two identities and two approaches: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of institutional and professional identity. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 1120–1142. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.01.009 van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Ideology. A multidisciplinary approach. London: Sage. van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C.-R. Caldas-­ Coulthard & M.  Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp.  32–70). London: Routledge. https://doi. org/10.1075/z.184.55lee Vassileva, I. (2001). Commitment and detachment in English and Bulgarian academic writing. English for Specific Purposes, 20, 83–102. https://doi. org/10.1016/S0889-4906(99)00029-0

2  Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business, Religious… 

119

Vázquez, I., & Giner, D. (2008). Beyond mood and modality: Epistemic modality markers as hedges in research articles. A cross-disciplinary study. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 21, 171–190. https://doi.org/10.14198/ raei.2008.21.10 Vázquez, I., & Giner, D. (2009). Writing with conviction: The use of boosters in modelling persuasion in academic discourses. A cross-disciplinary study. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 22, 219–237. https://doi.org/10.14198/ raei.2009.22.14 Virtanen, T., & Halmari, H. (2005). Persuasion across genres. Emerging perspectives. In H.  Halmari & T.  Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across genres (pp.  3–24). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.130.03vir Vogel, R. (2018). Persuasion in business documents: Strategies for reporting positively on negative phenomena. Ostrava Journal of English Philology, 10(1), 55–70. White, P. R. R. (2004). Subjectivity, evaluation and point of view in media discourse. In C. Coffin, A. Hewings, & K. OʼHalloran (Eds.), Applying English grammar (pp. 229–246). London: Hodder Arnold. Winsor, D. (1993). Owning corporate texts. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 7(2), 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/105065199 3007002001 Wodak, R. (2007). Discourses in European Union organizations: Aspects of access, participation and exclusion. Text and Talk, 27(5/6), 655–680. https:// doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2007.030 Yang, Y. (2013). Exploring linguistic and cultural variations in the use of hedges in English and Chinese scientific discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 50, 23–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.01.008

3 Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means of Persuasion in Anglophone and Czech Linguistics and Economics Research Articles

3.1 Introduction In an academic context, persuasion presupposes the use of dialogic features partaking in building writer credibility, reader engagement and logical argumentation, and the employment of rhetorical devices and language resources established in the discursive practice of a discourse community sharing a specific disciplinary and linguacultural background (Hyland, 1998b, 2008; Swales, 1990). This chapter explores persuasive strategies and persuasive language in research articles, typically regarded as the most prominent genre of scientific knowledge production and dissemination. The interpersonal model of metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005b; Hyland & Jiang, 2018; Hyland & Tse, 2004) outlined in Chap. 1 is adopted as an analytical tool for the investigation of linguistic manifestations of academic persuasion. Despite the numerous generalisations made about academic writing, academic discourse is not homogenous (cf. Gray, 2015). This holds not only about differences between the hard and soft sciences, which seem not to be as clear-cut as it was originally believed; there is also significant variation between the disciplines within these two broad scientific © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_3

121

122 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

domains, and this is worth exploring to deepen our understanding of the persuasive process. For this reason, two disciplines representing different areas of the soft sciences spectrum (i.e. social sciences and humanities) have been selected for scrutiny—linguistics and economics. Given the differences in the patterns of social construction of knowledge and methodologies that these two disciplines use, it seems likely that they would display variation in the choice of persuasive strategies and language resources used to manage writer-reader interaction. Thus this chapter approaches the study of persuasion from a doubly contrastive perspective by exploring cross-cultural and disciplinary variation in persuasive strategies and their linguistic manifestations in Anglophone and Czech linguistics and economics research articles.

3.2 P  ersuasive Strategies in Linguistics and Economics Research Articles The build-up of academic persuasion involves the interplay of all three persuasive appeals. As the analysis of persuasive strategies in the ACAD sub-corpus presented in Chap. 2 has indicated, the key persuasive principle in soft sciences research articles is the ethical appeal, which aims to enhance the credibility of the writers by providing credentials of their professionalism and expertise, backing up their opinions and views with reference to authorities and creating a bond of collegiality and solidarity between the writer and the reader. A qualitative analysis of rhetorical strategies expressing the ethical appeal in linguistics and economics research articles suggests that while both disciplines rely on the same array of strategies, their relative weight is somewhat different. Originally defined as the “scientific study of language” (Crystal, 2008, p.  283), linguistics has since been redefined to acknowledge that language is not an objective matter, as it involves the subjective preconceptions of the people using it. As Davis (2003, p. 14) points out, rethinking linguistics involves expanding the scope of the study of language to encompass the exploration of how we construct and interpret communicational acts from the perspective of our views of

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

123

human behaviour, emotions, attitudes and social practices. Thus, similarly to most disciplines in the humanities, linguistics is not purely objective and is characterised by a highly argumentative and interpretative character of knowledge-making. As a result, when writing their research articles, linguists not only strive to build a professional identity for themselves as credible and knowledgeable experts; they also engage intensively with readers to create communality, shared understandings and a sense of in-group membership, while trying to anticipate criticism and acknowledge alternative views. This complex writer-reader interaction is shown in Example 1, where the claim that there are similarities in the development of research into social and linguistics processes is put forward tentatively as a personal view of the author (I am suggesting), thus acknowledging the possible existence of alternative views. Subsequently, the author seeks the agreement of the reader by assuming shared knowledge and understanding (of course) by pointing out limitations of cross-disciplinarity (not to be blind to the dangers). This cautious approach is enhanced by the booster indeed introducing a self-citation (as I have noted elsewhere), which serves as a credential for the author’s expertise stemming from his/her continuous interest in the issue and the assumption that his/her published previous research forms part of the shared disciplinary knowledge. Finally, the reader’s attention is attracted again to the importance of being aware (it is important to be mindful) of differences between language and society when speculating about similarities in developments in research in these two areas. Thus in this persuasive attempt the writer employs primarily the ethical appeal to enhance his/her credibility by carefully modulating commitment to claims and assuming that readers share his/her understanding and knowledge of the field; in addition, credibility is fostered by self-promotion, which is instrumental in stressing the author’s expertise and professionalism. 1. I am suggesting, then, that there are some parallels to be drawn between developments in researching social and linguistic processes […]. This is, of course, not to be blind to the dangers of ‘illegitimate crossdisciplinarity’, and indeed, as I have noted elsewhere (Sealey 2007), since different kinds of things have different properties and propensities, it is important to be mindful of those characteristics of language that are

124 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

distinctive from those of social actors and of social structures. (ACAD-ENG-LING-01) The combination of the ethical with the pathetic and logical appeals in linguistics research articles is illustrated by Example 2. When interpreting his/her findings, the writer indicates involvement with the audience by positioning the reader as a co-researcher (we can see, we can observe), claims shared knowledge and understanding (of course), provides examples to illustrate his/her point (example below) and focuses the attention of readers on important points in the argument (it is also worth noting), while tentatively putting forward his/her interpretation (may be, may indicate). By doing so, the author uses a combination of positive and negative politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Myers, 1989) to activate not only the ethical, but also the pathetic appeal (by addressing the emotional need of the reader to be seen as in-group members and knowledgeable colleagues) as well as the logical appeal (by highlighting important points in the argument), thus employing ethos-pathos and ethos-logos interfaces. 2. Pursuing a laugh response through constituting a prior serious claim as jocular pretence may, of course, be unsuccessful in some instances, as we can see in example (11) below, which constitutes a candidate instance of “failed humour” (Bell, 2015). […] It is also worth noting that a subsequent claim to non-serious intent may also indicate a bid to return to serious talk following the interactional accomplishment of an ostensibly serious proposal as an instance of jocular pretence, as we can observe in the example below. (ACAD-ENG-LING-13) Knowledge-making in the social sciences is typically based on the observation of real-world processes. In economics, the focus is on the way individuals and society use productive resources to produce various commodities and distribute them for consumption (Samuelson, 2006). Economics research is typically based on application of statistical methods of inquiry and mathematical models of economic action and the common aim of interpretation of data is to verify a hypothesis or model (cf. Bondi, 1999, 2006). Reliance on rigorous mathematical and

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

125

statistical tools may create a perception of objectivity; however, the interpretations of social processes provided by economists are essentially subjective and therefore often “not as straightforward as it may appear at first sight” (Bloor & Bloor, 1993, p. 157). Still, as Example 3 shows, in order to enhance the perception of objectivity, economists tend to highlight the empirical basis of their investigations (empirical exercise) and provide detailed results of statistical tests on quantitative data, visualised in tables and graphs (these results are shown in Tables 3 and 4). Apart from drawing on the logical persuasive appeal by referring to facts and reporting statistical tests, the writer highlights his/her own role as the agent of the research process (I analyse) to claim credibility and professional expertise, thus activating the ethical persuasive appeal. 3. Overall, there are a number of interesting results found from the empirical exercise. First, I analyze to what extent the method of selecting both Supreme Court justices and intermediate appellate judges has an effect on entrepreneurial activity from Eq. (1). These results are shown in Tables 3 and 4 for the random effects and pooled OLS results respectively. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-04) The importance of the logical appeal in economics is also evidenced by Example 4, where it is combined with the pathetic and the ethical appeals. First drawing on the ethical appeal, the writer positions readers in his/her deictic centre (Now consider) as co-researchers (we choose) to constitute them as in-group members sharing disciplinary knowledge and common understandings, while also appealing to their emotive needs by creating a sense of collegiality (pertaining to the pathetic principle). Then readers are urged to follow the steps of a logical argument (suppose, consider) laying down conditions for a specific case of application of the model that leads to a categorically stated conclusion (neither the world production nor consumption of X and Y will change under these assumptions). 4. Now consider a clear, though special case. Suppose that we choose factor endowments so that each country is just specialized, country h in X and country f in Y, and both countries have the same total income miLi. Consider a compensated experiment in which there is a Hicks-neutral

126 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

productivity increase in one country, but the number of households L falls such that total income miLi remains constant […]. At initial prices, neither the world production nor consumption of X and Y will change under these assumptions. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-11) It seems obvious that the difference between the persuasive strategies employed in linguistics and economics research articles stems from the discipline-specific type of knowledge-making. The orientation towards objectivity and factuality in economics motivates the predominance of a combination of logical and ethical persuasive appeals associated with highlighting the role of the writer as researcher, construing the writer as a credible professional, positioning the readers as in-group members and providing evidence and proofs by problem-solving, cause-effect reasoning and reference to facts and statistics. On the other hand, in linguistics articles, the ethical persuasive appeal is typically combined with the pathetic appeal, as the focus is on reference to expert opinion, claiming common ground, legitimisation of values and beliefs, and more urgent direct appeal to the audience assuming communality and shared understandings. These cross-disciplinary divergences in the build-up of persuasion between linguistics and economics research articles are present in both the Anglophone and the Czech academic sub-corpora. Variation across the two linguacultural backgrounds will become visible when we compare the linguistic resources realising the persuasive attempts of the scholars. This is addressed in the following sections.

3.3 Metadiscourse and Academic Persuasion The potential of metadiscourse markers to express all three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos and pathos—has established the interpersonal model of metadiscourse as a genuinely powerful framework for the analysis of dialogic negotiation of meaning between the writer and the reader in academic discourse (cf. Ho & Li, 2018; Hyland, 2005a, 2008). Previous research has clearly indicated that the choice of interactional metadiscourse in research articles is affected by discipline and the writer’s

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

127

linguacultural background. Several studies exploring metadiscourse across a wide range of disciplines in the soft and hard sciences (e.g. Fløttum, Dahl, & Kinn, 2006; Gillaerts & van de Velde, 2010; Hu & Cao, 2015; Hyland, 1998b, 2001, 2005a, 2005b; Hyland & Tse, 2004; McGrath & Kuteeva, 2012) have evidenced that the build-up of persuasive attempts is affected by the specific kind of knowledge transmitted, the related meaning-making conventions and the shared repertoire of rhetorical strategies and language resources that the disciplinary discourse community finds convincing; in addition, as recent research has shown, disciplinary patterns of metadiscourse may change over time (Hyland & Jiang, 2016a, 2016b, 2018, 2019). The study of metadiscourse from an intercultural perspective has also identified several factors conditioning variation: the epistemological tradition, the established politeness and stylistic conventions, the level of homogeneity of the national culture and the character of the language itself. Most previous studies have evidenced cross-cultural divergences in the use of self-mention (e.g. Fløttum et al., 2006; Molino, 2010; Shaw & Vassileva, 2009; Sheldon, 2009; Vassileva, 1998), attitude markers (Mur-Dueñas, 2010) evaluation (Shaw, 2003) and the whole spectrum of metadiscourse (Hu & Cao, 2015; Mu, Zhang, Ehrich, & Hong, 2015; Mur-Dueñas, 2011). Although these studies have delivered important insights on cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary variation in metadiscourse, they have not approached the problem through the lens of persuasion. This is the gap that this chapter undertakes to fill in focusing on the differences between Anglophone and Czech economics and linguistics specialised discourses. The analysis of cross-cultural variation in persuasive resources in Anglophone and Czech economics and linguistics research articles draws on the interactional dimension of metadiscourse related to the evaluation of disciplinary knowledge, enhancing the credibility of the writer and his/her research and creating solidarity with the reader. As mentioned in Chap. 1, interactional metadiscourse markers may be further subdivided into two categories (Hyland, 2005b): stance, pertaining primarily to the ethical persuasive appeal, but also involving some aspects of the pathetic appeal, and engagement, associated mainly with the pathetic appeal, which is sometimes combined with the ethical and logical appeals. Stance, that is attitudinal language resources via which writers cast their voice

128 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

into the text to convey their judgements, opinions and views, is expressed by self-mention, hedges, boosters and attitude markers. Engagement, that is alignment resources via which writers acknowledge presence of their readers, try to involve them in their argument by focusing their attention and guiding them to intended interpretations, is expressed by reader reference, questions, directives, appeals to shared knowledge and personal asides. In the following sections, qualitative and quantitative analyses are combined to explore how interactional metadiscourse resources contribute to the enhancement of various ethos-, logos- and pathos-related strategies in the ACAD sub-corpus.

3.4 Intercultural Variation in Interactional Metadiscourse in Linguistics and Economics Research Articles The results of the comparative analysis show that Anglophone and Czech linguists and economists alike employ the whole spectrum of interactional metadiscourse resources; however, the prominence of individual metadiscourse markers and the language resources used for their realisation vary. The results of the quantitative investigation summarised in Table 3.1 show that there is variation in the rate of metadiscourse devices both across the two disciplines and the two linguacultural contexts. However, while cross-disciplinary differences are generally prominent, divergences across the two linguacultural backgrounds that are particularly striking in linguistics research articles. Overall, stance markers associated primarily with the ethical persuasive appeal are significantly more prominent (over 80% in all sub-corpora) than engagement markers related to the expression of the pathetic and logical appeals (ranging from 10% to 20% in the individual sub-corpora) (Fig. 3.1). This confirms the role of the ethical appeal as a key persuasive principle on the interpersonal plane of specialised discourse. It should be mentioned, however, that the persuasive force of the logical appeal expressed by various rhetorical strategies and related language resources, such as reference to facts, statistics and experimental

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

129

Table 3.1  Stance and engagement categories across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Metadiscourse markers Stance Self-mention Attitude markers Hedges Boosters Total Engagement Reader reference Asides Shared knowledge Questions Directives Total Grand total

ENG-ECON

CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

CZ-LING

782.5 732.5 1,217.5 402.5 3,135.0

246.0 772.0 1,458.0 586.0 3,062.0

237.0 410.6 1,109.5 258.5 2,015.6

761.7 405.0 1,981.7 485.0 3,633.4

95.0 15.0 65.0 10.0 179.2 364.2 3,499.2

146.0 41.7 104.0 44.0 216.0 551.7 3,613.7

181.9 22.3 148.8 24.4 128.6 506.0 2,521.6

253.3 46.6 216.7 35.0 230.0 781.6 4,415.0

100%

Questions

90%

Shared knowledge

80% 70%

Asides

60%

Directives

50%

Reader reference

40%

Attitude markers

30%

Self-mention

20%

Boosters

10% 0%

Hedges ENG-ECON CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

CZ-LING

Fig. 3.1  Proportional weights of metadiscourse categories across the ACAD sub-corpora

130 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

proof, is to a large extent left outside the scope of this analysis, which focuses on metadiscourse conveying writer-reader interaction. The prevalence of stance in the ACAD sub-corpus is not surprising as it concurs with previous research findings (e.g. Hu & Cao, 2015; Hyland, 2005b; Hyland & Jiang, 2018; Mur-Dueñas, 2011); moreover, the relative weight of the individual metadiscourse devices reported by most researchers is similar—hedges are clearly the most frequent stance marker, followed by attitude markers, self-mention and boosters, while reader reference and directives feature as the most prominent engagement markers. However, the specific frequencies of metadiscourse resources across these studies vary considerably, which apart from disciplinary and cross-­ cultural variation reflects differences in corpora composition and possible diachronic changes related to a general decline in the use of metadiscourse in the soft sciences (Hyland & Jiang, 2018). The following sections will discuss the contribution of individual metadiscourse resources to academic persuasion in the ACAD sub-corpus.

3.4.1 S  elf-Mention for Enhancing Credibility and Personal Involvement Self-mention is one of the most visible ways of allowing writers to cast their voice into the text to show personal involvement, emphasise their agentive role in the research and back up their opinions and claims. Typically realised by exclusive personal pronouns and possessives, self-­ mention is probably the most frequently studied metadiscourse resource, as it tends to show considerable variation across cultures and disciplines. As Table 3.2 shows, variation in the overall frequencies of self-mention is not substantial: the frequency of self-mention in the economics sub-­ corpus is slightly lower than in the linguistics sub-corpus (627.7 vs 638.9), and it is somewhat higher in Anglophone than in Czech research articles (549.5 vs 527.3). However, there are more prominent differences in the specific forms of realisation of self-mention across the individual disciplinary and linguacultural sub-corpora. Within the economics sub-corpus, self-mention occurs considerably more frequently in Anglophone articles (728.5  in ECON-ENG vs

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

131

Table 3.2  Self-mention markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Self-mention markers

ECON-ENG

ECON-CZ

LING-ENG

LING-CZ

I 1st p. sg. CZ verb me my we 1st p. pl. CZ verb us our Total

558.3 0 5.0 90.0 90.9 0 0 38.3 782.5

6.0 74.0 0 4.0 22.0 112.0 0 28.0 246.0

200.0 0 1.0 30.8 0 0 0 5.2 237.0

5.0 185.0 0 25.0 30.0 386.7 0 130.0 761.7

246.0 in ECON-CZ), where it is typically realised by the personal pronoun I (Example 5), although the exclusive we is also used. The use of self-mention forms I and exclusive we, as well as a preference for the singular form, in Anglophone economics research articles is also reported by Shaw (2003) and Fløttum et al. (2006). In the ECON-CZ sub-­corpus, self-mention is commonly manifested by verbal endings and not by personal pronouns (see Chap. 1), and it is the plural exclusive form that Czech writers commonly use to step into their texts (Example 6). 5. Table 9 presents the results from my propensity score analysis. In Panel A, I show the estimated coefficients from the logit model used to construct the propensity scores. (ACAD- ENG-ECON-07) 6. Vedle tradičního modelu EGLS použijeme i dvoustupňovou metodu EGLS s instrumentálními proměnnými (ACAD-ECON-CZ-12) [In addition to the traditional EGLS model, we will also use a two-stage EGLS method with instrumental variables.] The occurrence of author-reference we in ECON-ENG may be motivated by the performance of large-scale economics surveys and statistical tests by teams of researchers, often resulting in multi-authored publications; thus author-reference we may be regarded as one of the possible self-mention forms available within the disciplinary conventions. Yet it is also likely that some scholars prefer the plural pronoun for politeness reasons, as the first-person pronoun implies a stronger face-threatening act (Brown and Levinson, 1987; Mur-Dueñas, 2007; Myers, 1989). In

132 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Czech academic discourse, first-person plural forms are part of the general academic writing conventions; therefore, the occasional occurrences of singular forms in CZ-ECON may be seen as a sign of transference from the more self-promotional tone of Anglophone economics discourse. While in the ACAD-ECON sub-corpus Anglophone authors employ considerably more self-mention devices than their Czech counterparts, in the ACAD-LING sub-corpus the situation is reversed; here, Czech authors use substantially more self-mention markers than Anglophone linguists (237.0 in ENG-LING vs 761.7 in CZ-LING). Another cross-­ disciplinary difference is given by the fact that in contrast to Anglophone economists, who employ both the exclusive I and we, Anglophone linguists use only first-person singular forms (Example 7). The lower rate of self-mention in Anglophone linguistics articles may be associated with the tendency in the soft sciences at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century to mimic hard sciences and adopt a more “author-evacuated” style (Hyland & Jiang, 2016a, 2016b, p.  8), which seems to have left Czech academic discourse unaffected. Similarly to economists, Czech linguists typically opt for the exclusive plural first-­ person verbal ending (Example 8), which outnumbers by far the occurrence of first-person singular forms (Example 9). The frequent use of plural forms of self-mention in research articles by non-Anglophone scholars is also reported by earlier research (e.g. Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997; Molino, 2010; Mur-Dueñas, 2007; Shaw & Vassileva, 2009; Sheldon, 2009; Šinkūnienė, 2018; Vassileva, 1998), which seems to indicate that in most European academic literacies the exclusive we is conventionally employed to express some level of distancing, as the plural form does not promote the writer so obviously as the singular form. 7. I am suggesting, then, that there are some parallels to be drawn between developments in researching social and linguistic processes, respectively, with reference to realist social theory and methodologies that are consistent with it. (ACAD-LING-ENG-01) 8. Domníváme se, že tento rozdíl byl způsobený typem vyhledávaných výrazů a převládající formou vyjadřování hedges. (ACAD-CZLING-01)

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

133

[We believe that this difference was due to the type of search terms and the predominant form of hedges.] 9. V této studii se zaměřím na problematiku používání mateřského a cizího jazyka ve výuce z pohledu výzkumu střídání kódů. (ACAD-CZ-LING-15) [In this study I will focus on the issue of the use of mother tongue and foreign language in teaching from the perspective of code-switching.] There seems to be, however, a slight difference in the rhetorical functions performed by the singular and plural forms in Czech linguistics articles. The singular form tends to express statements of purpose and to indicate discourse organisation (e.g. zaměřím se, Example 8), while the plural form is most commonly employed for describing procedures and interpreting results (e.g. domníváme se, Example 7). The pronominal realisations of self-mention typically function as clausal subjects, as this thematic position enhances the credibility of the writer, who is positioned as the agent of the research process and the source of knowledge and attitudes expressed, thus enabling him/her to control the social interaction with the readers (cf. Gosden, 1993). A particularly prominent authorial role in Anglophone economics articles is that of researcher (Example 5), which is expressed by clusters comprising the singular personal pronoun I and research verbs (cf. Fløttum et  al., 2006), such as use (44 occurrences), find (42), estimate (28), examine (24), include (18), measure (14), provide (11) and test (8). In the ECON-CZ sub-corpus the researcher role is less prominent than in ECON-ENG. By drawing the reader’s attention to the role of the author as researcher who has collected evidence, carried our statistical tests and provided factual and experimental evidence, the writer employs simultaneously the ethical and logical appeals to convince the audience of his/ her trustworthiness and reliability. Apart from first-person pronouns, self-mention in economics and linguistics articles is realised by the possessives my and our (Table 3.1). The possessive forms which “promote the writer’s contribution by associating them closely with their work” (Hyland, 2001, p. 223) and thus enhance their visibility are also more frequent in the economics than in the linguistics sub-corpus (100.0 vs 82.5). From a cross-cultural perspective, the

134 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

same tendency as in the case of personal pronouns can be observed— Anglophone authors tend to use my, while Czech authors opt more frequently for our.

3.4.2 Attitude Markers for Sharing Personal Views The ethical appeal is frequently enhanced by conveying the writer’s subjective attitudes towards propositions via evaluative lexis. Although the emphatic expression of affect has been found to be not very frequent in academic discourse (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Hyland, 2004; Hyland & Jiang, 2016a), writers may explicitly convey their feelings and evaluations via lexical items functioning as attitude markers, which indicate the value they assign to actors, processes and events on the good-bad axis, which also subsumes evaluations related to certainty, relevance and importance (cf. Chap. 1). Attitude markers create a more immediate connection between the writer and the audience, as they indicate the willingness of the writer to adopt a more subjective stance and to share personal judgements and evaluations with the reader, thus contributing to the ethical and pathetic persuasive appeals. Attitude markers display clear cross-disciplinary variation in the ACAD sub-corpus (Table 3.3, Fig. 3.1), as they appear more prominently in economics than in linguistics research articles (20.9% in ECON-ENG and 21.5% in ECON-CZ vs 16.2% in LING-ENG and 9.2% in CZ-LING-CZ). Cross-cultural variation seems insignificant, as the normalised rate of attitude markers in the ECON (732.5 in ENG vs 772.0 in CZ) and the LING (410.0 in ENG vs 405.0 in CZ) sub-corpora is similar (cf. Mur-Dueñas, 2010, 2011); however, there is some difference in the relative weight of attitude markers within the spectrum of metadiscourse resources in the linguistics sub-corpus, as they make up 16% of metadiscourse markers in ENG-LING as compared to only 9.2% in CZ-LING. This divergence in relative weight of attitude markers correlates with the difference in the proportion of self-mentions used in ENG-­ LING and CZ-LING (9.8% vs 17.3% respectively). Obviously, when making a persuasive attempt, Czech linguists rely more heavily on

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

135

self-­mention devices, while Anglophone linguists appear to show a preference for the expression of affect. A comparison of the top ten most frequent attitude markers reveals further variation across the two disciplines and linguacultural backgrounds (Table 3.3). Cross-disciplinary divergences concern the high prominence of the adjectives significant/významný and expected/očekávaný in the economics sub-corpus, where they refer to statistical values (e.g. significant valuation effect, statisticky významné proměnné [statistically significant variables]; expected excess returns, očekávaný výnos [expected yield]) and the occurrence of the adjective robust in the ECON-ENG used to refer to methods and results reliability. By relating the attitudinal stance of the writer to statistical results and reliable research procedures, economists manage to merge the ethical, pathetic and logical appeals, thus enhancing the force of their persuasive attempts. Another difference, albeit a less marked one concerns reference to the value of originality by the items new/nový and insight, intended to highlight the writer’s or other authors’ contribution to the field, which occurs more frequently in the economics sub-corpus, thus supporting the view that economics discourse tends to be more self-­ promotional. In the linguistics sub-corpora, it is the importance and interest that the writer assigns to results, methods and claims that is valued most highly (e.g. important/důležitý, major/hlavní, interesting/zajímavý). In Example 10, the writer employs the attitudinal markers important and significant in a cleft-sentence structure to emphasise the positive value assigned to the contribution of the suggested model to disciplinary knowledge. 10. What is important about this model, and a significant way in which it differs from previous descriptions of mock politeness, is that it accounts for both internal and external mismatch (discussed as co-textual and contextual mismatch in Taylor, 2011). (ACAD-ENG-LING-12) From a cross-cultural perspective, the most interesting difference is the occurrence of ‘negativeness’ in the top ten attitudinal markers in the Czech sub-corpora, a feature not present in the lists for the Anglophone sub-corpora.

ECON-CZ významný [significant] hlavní [major] důležitý [important] potvrdit [support] omezení [limitation] nový [new] zajímavý [interesting] nutný [necessary] zásadní [fundamental] relevantní [relevant]

154.1

79.2

35.0

26.6

25.8

25.0

24.2

22.5

17.5

16.6

ECON-ENG

significant

important

expected

major

new

even

robust

key

relevant

insight

20.0

24.0

24.0

28.0

30.0

34.0

40.0

74.0

98.0

130.0

appropriate

importantly

relevant

interesting

central

insight

key

significant

even

important

LING-ENG

10.6

11.7

12.7

14.9

14.9

17.0

18.1

26.9

39.4

46.8

zajímavý [interesting] významný [significant] důležitý [important] dokonce [even] nutný] [necessary] hlavní [major] obtížný [difficult] (ne)překvapivý [(not) surprising] nový [new] očekávaný [expected]

LING-CZ

Table 3.3  Top ten most frequent attitude markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words)

16.6

16.6

18.3

18.3

18.3

23.3

31.7

46.7

48.3

70.0

136  O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

137

11. Pro studie zabývající se metadiskurzem také chybí obecně přijímaná metodologie. Existuje tedy mnoho různých přístupů k tomuto jevu a je pak obtížné porovnávat výsledky z metodologicky odlišných studií. (ACAD-CZ-LING-01) [There is also a lack of a generally accepted methodology for studies of metadiscourse. Thus, there are many different approaches to this phenomenon and it is difficult to compare results from methodologically diverse studies.] In Example 11, the writer refers to limitations (omezení, chybí) and difficulties (obtížné) in order to indicate a gap in previous research and create a research space for his/her own study. The absence of these items in the top ten lists of attitude markers in the Anglophone sub-corpora does not mean that they do not occur; rather, their frequency is lower than that of the wider range of high-frequency positive attitude markers used in ACAD-ENG.

3.4.3 H  edges and Boosters for Modulating Commitment to Claims The epistemic marking of stance has been shown to be the prevalent metadiscourse resource for expressing commitment and detachment in academic discourse, as it allows writers to assess the reliability of the evidence they have for their statements (e.g. Gray &  Biber, 2012; Hyland & Jiang, 2016a; Pérez-Llantada, 2010; Vassileva, 2001). As pointed out in Chap. 2, hedges and boosters are key metadiscourse markers that writers of research articles have at their disposal to convey the ethical persuasive appeal, as they help them negotiate their credibility, modify the truth-­value of the knowledge conveyed and show different degrees of commitment to opinions and claims (Hyland, 2005a, 2005b; Salager-Meyer, 1994). As shown in Table 3.1, hedges are clearly the most frequent metadiscourse marker across all sub-corpora of the ACAD sub-corpus. Their persuasive force stems from their basic function to “make things fuzzier or less fuzzy” (Lakoff, 1973, p. 195), which allows writers to reduce commitment to claims, acknowledge alternative viewpoints (Hyland, 2005a,

138 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

2005b), mitigate the force of utterances and thus abide by negative politeness considerations (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Myers, 1989). A cross-disciplinary comparison of the relative weight of hedges (Fig. 3.1) shows that they are more prominent in the linguistics than in the economics sub-corpus (43.8% in ENG-LING and 44.9% in CZ-LING vs 34.8% in ENG-ECON and 40.9% in CZ-ECON), which appears to reflect the more argumentative character of knowledge-making in linguistics, where it promotes the coexistence of various interpretations and approaches. When considered from a cross-cultural perspective, the divergences between the sub-corpora are more substantial (Table 3.1), as Czech authors clearly use a higher rate of hedges both in linguistics and economics research articles (1,109.5  in ENG-LING and 1,217.5  in ENG-ECON vs 1,458.0 in CZ-LING and 1,981.7 in CZ-ECON). This is in consonance with the view that Czech academic discourse shows a lesser degree of assertiveness, associated with the use of face-saving devices and qualified language (Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997). Table 3.4 compares the top ten most common hedges in the four sub-­ corpora, listed in order of decreasing frequency. While the items mostly overlap, their ranking often differs, and there are some divergences in the selection of lexical items realising hedging. Modal and epistemic lexical verbs (may/might/could/moct, would/by/ bych, indicate/ukazovat, suggest, předpokládat) are the most frequently used hedges in both disciplines (Example 12); however, in the Czech sub-­ corpora the reliance on modal verbs is particularly striking, as they make up more than 35% of all hedges, while in Anglophone articles they account for less than 30% of instances of hedging. 12. More provocatively, it has also been suggested that the success or otherwise of such approaches may depend on developing sensitivity to the dynamics of legitimate talk. (ACAD-ENG-LING-04) Epistemic lexical verbs are often used to attribute views and claims to inanimate subjects, that is abstract rhetors typically realised by discourse (e.g. article, conclusion) and research nouns (e.g. analysis, comparison) (Hyland, 1998a). In ECON-CZ (Example 13), modal verbs tend to occur in passive structures (e.g. závěr však může být ovlivněn [this

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

139

Table 3.4  Top ten most frequent hedges across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) ENG-ECON

CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

suggest

125.0 by/bych [would]

may

272.0 seem 101.6 moct [may/might/ could] 86.6 lze 218.0 suggest [(it is) possible]

indicate

likely relatively would (not)

appear

could (not) might tend

92.5 možný [possible] 91.6 předpokládat [assume] 86.6 ukazovat [indicate]

80.0 z tohoto hlediska [from this perspective] 77.5 téměř [almost] 57.5 často [frequently] 51.6 poměrně [relatively]

288.0 may

116.0 often 82.0 might 70.0 could (not)

54.0 would (not)

42.0 appear 40.0 argue 38.0 indicate

CZ-LING 186.2 moct [may/might/ could] 78.7 by/bych [would]

433.3

263.3

70.2 lze 225.0 [(it is) possible] 70.2 často [frequently] 65.9 možný [possible] 56.4 z tohoto hlediska [from this perspective] 52.1 ukazovat [indicate]

50.0 předpokládat [assume] 42.5 poměrně [relatively] 36.2 téměř [almost]

191.6 116.6 110.0

83.3

81.6 55.0 50.0

conclusion may be influenced]), thus achieving distancing by mitigating authorial visibility and commitment (cf. Hu & Cao, 2015). 13. Tento závěr však může být ovlivněn poměrně krátkým obdobím. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-19) [However, this conclusion may be affected by a relatively short period.] Economists tend to prefer forms related to modulating the reliability of data-supported interpretations and claims, such as tend, indicate/

140 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

ukazovat, appear, relatively/poměrně, téměř (Example 14), while linguists opt for the expression of possibility, approximation and speculative judgements, for example, may, might/moct, seem, suggest, often/často and typický (Example 15). 14. This appears to be so in the case of net exports. All the slope coefficients are positive and statistically significant across the three horizons. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-15) 15. Tato složka asociativní je totiž často vázána na složku evaluativní. (ACAD-CZ-LING-04) [This associative component is often linked to an evaluative component.] This once again indicates that persuasion in economics is more closely related to factual evidence while in linguistics persuasive attempts are supported by speculative judgements and evaluative statements. Boosters enhance the illocutionary force of speech acts (Holmes, 1984), emphasise certainty and strengthen commitment to claims and views (Gillaerts & van de Velde, 2010; Hyland, 1998a). In contrast to hedges, boosters are more extensively used in the economics sub-corpus (402.5  in ECON-ENG and 586.0  in ECON-CZ vs 258.5  in LING-­ ENG and 485.0 in LING-CZ), where writers seem to be more frequently inclined to close down alternatives and rely on the persuasive force of confidence and certainty (Table 3.1 and Fig. 3.1). However, in terms of cross-cultural variation, boosters show the same tendency as hedges— they occur more frequently in Czech research articles, indicating that Czech authors seem to juxtapose the high level of self-effacement and tentativeness expressed by hedges with a considerable level of involvement and display of confidence. The list of the top ten boosters in the individual sub-corpora presented in Table  3.5 indicates further cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural differences. The modal will/bude/budou is among the highest frequency boosters in all sub-corpora. One of the cross-disciplinary differences in the use of boosters is the clear preference for deductive (indicate, demonstrate, prokázat, potvrdit), evidential (show) and research (find) verbs in ACAD-­ ECON, which confirms the preference for more objective choices in

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

141

Table 3.5  Top ten most frequent boosters across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) ENG-ECON

CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

find that

89.2 bude/budou 132.0 indeed [will] show that 61.6 zjistit 82.0 will [find that] will 47.5 prokázat 76.0 in fact [show that] indeed 25.8 zřejmě/é 42.0 the fact that [evidently] the fact that 22.5 muset 38.0 demonstrate [must] demonstrate 20.0 potvrdit 36.0 evident(ly) [confirm]

must clearly

(it is) clear that actually

20.0 ukázat [show that] 21.6 skutečně/ý [really]

30.0 of course

15.8 fakt, že [the fact that] 11.6 vždy [always]

22.0 certainly

26.0 actually

18.0 show that

CZ-LING 35.1 zřejmě/é [evidently] 34.1 bude/budou [will] 22.3 vždy [always] 22.3 ukázat [show] 19.1 muset [must] 14.9 skutečnost, že [the fact that] 13.8 skutečně/ý [really] 10.6 fakt, že [the fact that] 9.6 potvrdit [confirm] 9.6 samozřejmě [of course]

63.3 53.3 48.3 43.3 38.3 33.3

28.3 23.3

21.6

21.6

economics. The highly frequent verb find/zjistit (89.2  in ENG-ECON and 82.0  in CZ-ECON) tends to collocate with a different subject in Anglophone and Czech articles. In ECON-ENG it most typically forms clusters with self-reference pronouns (I/we find/have found) and with impersonal subjects mitigating authorial presence (the author, this article), thus abiding by the tendency to highlight the agentive role of the writer in the reported research (Example 16). In ECON-CZ, however, zjistit tends to occur in passive structures which help the writer background human agency (Example 17). 16. We have found that countries that have increasingly specialized in exporting goods with high technological content, such as aircraft, phar-

142 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

maceuticals and electronics, have typically experienced more rapid growth. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-01) 1 7. Pomocí korelační analýzy bylo zjištěno, že existuje pozitivní i negativní vztah mezi likviditou a rentabilitou aktiv a rentabilitou vlastního kapitálu. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-05) [Using correlation analysis, it was found that there is both positive and negative relationship between liquidity and return on assets and return on equity.] By contrast show, demonstrate, ukázat and prokázat tend to cluster most frequently with research and discourse nouns (the results show, the table shows, výsledky ukazují, výsledky prokázaly) in both languages, thus indicating that the high level of certainty and commitment stems from the data-supported character of views and claims (Example 18). 18. Prostřednictvím výsledků bylo prokázáno, že vztah mezi nepřímými daněmi a úrovní spotřeby je negativní. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-15) [The results have shown that the relationship between indirect taxes and the level of consumption is negative.] Boosters in linguistics research articles are often realised by adverbials (e.g. indeed, actually, zřejmě, vždy), by which writers show assertiveness and try to manipulate readers into accepting their interpretations and claims as shared knowledge, as in: 19. Indeed, when investigating structural change, this method was standard practice in empirical research until recently. (ACAD-ENG-LING-06) Hedges and boosters, together with the other stance devices, help writers express the ethical appeal and thus convince readers of their credibility and the reliability of their research. Apart from drawing on the ethical persuasive appeal, economists use stance markers to point to the more objective character of their arguments, which are frequently based on statistical evidence and mathematical methods, while in linguistics it is primarily the interplay of involvement and detachment that helps writers convince readers to accept the suggested interpretations and claims.

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

143

The second category of interactional metadiscourse markers is alignment resources of engagement, which are considerably less frequent than stance markers, as they account for only 10–20% of metadiscourse used across the sub-corpora (Fig. 3.1). Yet their role in mediating writer-reader interaction is not negligible, as they contribute to the build-up of the proximity dimension in academic discourse (cf. Hyland & Jiang, 2016b). The persuasive force of engagement markers stems from their potential to acknowledge the “reader-in-the text” (Thompson & Thetela, 1995) and involve readers in the argument, thus inviting them to accept the writer’s interpretations and claims. Apart from contributing to the pathetic appeal, engagement markers may express the logical principle by assisting readers in following the logical reasoning chain in the text.

3.4.4 R  eader Reference and Asides for Creating Communality and Emotive Involvement Pertaining primarily to the pathetic appeal, reader reference clearly represents the most direct way in which the writer can appeal to readers in an attempt to convince them to accept views, positions and interpretations as valid and reliable. Not surprisingly, the linguistics sub-corpora show a considerably higher rate of reader reference than the economics sub-­ corpora (Table 3.6). This highlights the urgency of creating a feeling of communality in linguistics, as persuasion in the humanities is generally Table 3.6  Reader-reference markers across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Reader reference we 1st p. pl. CZ verb our us you 2nd p. pl. CZ verb your one the reader Total

ENG-ECON 60.8 0 10.0 10.8 0 0 0 9.2 4.2 95.0

CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

CZ-LING

8.0 134.0 4.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 146.0

112.7 0 9.6 12.7 7.4 0 2.1 36.2 1.1 181.8

0 236.7 16.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 253.3

144 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

based on the assumption that the writer and the reader share similar values, understandings and goals in interpreting claims, and this sharedness emerges in discussion and argument rather than in establishing facts (cf. Hyland, 2008). The lower level of reader reference in the economics sub-­ corpora suggests that economists tend to solicit solidarity not only through the use of reader reference but also by assuming familiarity with established models, procedures and statistical methods. In all sub-corpora, inclusive first-person plural forms are the most frequent realisation of reader reference, more specifically we in the Anglophone texts and verbal endings in the Czech sub-corpora, while the possessive forms (our/náš) are rather rare. By binding the writer and the reader as members of the same disciplinary community, these reader-­ reference markers act as positive politeness devices (Harwood, 2005; Myers, 1989) helping writers to create a feeling of agreement, collegiality and solidarity and to satisfy the readers’ emotional need of being recognised as in-group member. For instance, in Example 20, the reader is presented as an interested peer for whom the writer previews the findings imparted in the subsequent discourse, while in Example 21 the writer constructs positive politeness by positioning the reader as a colleague competent to follow the flow of argumentation. 20. As we shall see, interviewers use address terms disproportionately in these environments, and they appear to be implicated in the manner in which discursive actions are inflected and aligned with – or against – prior actions. (ACAD-LING-ENG-06) 21. Podíváme-li se na tuto distribuci blíže, vidíme, že všech 14 případů užití proteze je spojeno s užitím předložky o (vo víkendech, vo vaření). (ACAD-LING-CZ-11) [If we take a closer look at this distribution, we can see that all 14 cases of prosthesis use are associated with the use of prepositions at (on weekends, in cooking).] Indefinite reference shows some occurrences only in ACAD-ENG. The most typical realisation of indefinite reference is one, usually representing the reader as a disciplinary member or a scholar, thus seeking to create a sense of communality. Since half of the occurrences of one are in clusters

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

145

with modal verbs functioning as hedges (may, might, could) it may be argued that the choice of the indefinite form correlates with a higher degree of tentativeness (Example 22). 22. One may assume that the additional features are a result of the larger size of the RMT corpus than the RCC corpus; however, another explanation is possible. (ACAD-CZ-LING-10) The second-person form you appears rarely and only in ENG-­ LING. This might be tentatively interpreted as sign of a slow shift towards informality in linguistics discourse (cf. Hyland & Jiang, 2017), which typically correlates with a more prominent personal stance, as in: 23. In my experience in commercial gyms you certainly cannot incite strangers, just as you cannot stare at them, but if you know someone, you may incite their more ‘important lifts’. (ACAD-LING-ENG-01) Another metadiscourse marker appealing directly to the reader and evoking the pathetic appeal by creating the impression of giving access to personal or insider information is the personal aside, typically taking the form of parenthetical interruptions of the flow of the argument by an additional comment: 24. The interviews were transcribed as part of the original project, in which I was not directly involved, but (with the support of a small grant) I oversaw the post-editing of the texts to make them suitable for corpus analysis. (ACAD-ENG-LING-01) Personal asides are clearly the least frequent engagement feature in the academic sub-corpus (Table 3.1). This agrees with the findings of previous research (Hyland & Jiang, 2016b; Lafuente-Millán, 2014) indicating that asides are generally rare and show a clear declining tendency over the last 50 years.

146 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

3.4.5 A  ppeals to Shared Knowledge for Creating Communality Appeals to shared knowledge endeavour to create a feeling of collegiality and sharedness by positioning “readers within the apparently naturalised and unproblematic boundaries of disciplinary understandings” (Hyland, 2001, p.  566). As Table  3.1 indicates, shared knowledge appeals show considerable frequency variation across both the two disciplines and the two linguacultural contexts. Similarly to reader-reference markers, their rate of occurrence is higher in the linguistics research articles and they are used more frequently by Czech authors in both disciplinary sub-corpora. This is in conformity with the more interpretative character of the humanities, where having the reader on your side is crucial to successful persuasion. It also gives further confirmation of the importance of asserting in-group membership and shared values and understanding in small Czech disciplinary discourse communities characterised by collectivism and avoidance of ambiguity (Table 3.7). Table 3.7  Top ten appeals to shared knowledge across the ACAD sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) ENG-ECON clearly

CZ-ECON

13.3 zřejmé/ě [obvious(ly)] typical 13.3 zpravidla [as a rule] of course 7.5 typický [typical] common 5.0 standardní [standard] traditional(ly) 4.1 jasně/é [clearly] obvious(ly) 7.5 samozřejmě [of course] conventional 3.3 obvyklý [usual] usual 3.3 běžný [common] well-known 2.5 přirozeně [naturally] certainly 1.6 evidentně [evidently]

ENG-LING 28.0 common

CZ-LING

23.4 zřejmé/ě [obvious(ly)] 20.0 routinely 14.8 běžný [common] 12.0 of course 13.8 typický [typical] 12.0 clear/ly 13.8 zpravidla [as a rule] 8.0 obvious(ly) 10.6 samozřejmě [of course] 6.0 typical 10.6 typický [typical] 4.0 certainly 9.5 jasně/é [clearly] 2.0 conventional 9.5 obvyklý [usual] 2.0 apparent 9.5 standardní [standard] 2.0 evidently 5.3 zjevný [apparent]

56.6 31.6 26.6 25.0 18.3 18.3 8.3 8.3 8.3 5.0

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

147

The top ten markers of appeal to shared knowledge do not differ considerably across the four sub-corpora, and there are only a few items that show a higher frequency (obviously/zřejmě, common/běžný, clearly/jasně, typical/typický). According to Hyland and Jiang (2016b), shared knowledge appeals may be grouped into three categories: logical reasoning, routine conditions and familiarity with tradition. The most frequent shared knowledge indicators in the sub-corpora are logical reasoning markers (obviously/zřejmě, clearly/jasně, of course/samozřejmě), which not only assert the epistemic stance of certainty on the part of the writer but also assume shared values, beliefs and experience of disciplinary practices on the part of the reader; thus the writer’s arguments and claims are presented as self-evident and difficult to challenge (Example 25). 25. Je zřejmé, že řada z nich má velmi výrazný redistribuční efekt. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-10) [It is clear that many of them have a very significant redistribution effect.] Appeals to typicality (typical/typický, common/běžný, standard/standardní), which presuppose shared knowledge of research methods and procedures, as well as familiarity with general social practices, are also relatively frequent (Example 26). 26. First, at the HS-6 level of aggregation, the typical practice of using source and destination fixed effects to control for endogenous country-­ specific variables becomes infeasible. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-13) One cross-disciplinary difference in knowledge appeals seems to be that in agreement with the more prominent role of the logical appeal in economics, logical reasoning markers show a slightly higher rate in the economics sub-corpus. Linguistics articles tend to build collegiality on the basis of shared knowledge of social practices and research approaches, indicated by typicality markers. From a cross-cultural perspective, it is worth mentioning that there seems to be less disciplinary variation in the choice of shared knowledge appeals in Czech research articles, as the markers zřejmě, typický and zpravidla are among the most frequent items in both disciplinary sub-corpora.

148 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

3.4.6 Q  uestions and Directives for Creating Collegiality and Guiding the Reader Through the Argument The role of questions as a positive politeness device indicating the writer’s willingness to share information and create a rapport with their readers associates them with the pathetic persuasive appeal (Hyland, 2002b; Lafuente-Millán, 2014; Thompson, 2001). However, as the results of the quantitative analysis show, questions are generally not a prominent metadiscourse marker (Fig. 3.1, Table 3.1) in the academic sub-corpus. Their persuasive potential is exploited somewhat more systematically in the linguistics sub-corpus, whereby pretending to assign the question to the reader, the writer positions the audience as colleagues sharing the writer’s curiosity to find the answer, and creating a feeling of sharedness and preparing the reader to accept the suggested interpretations and views (Example 27). 27. Why is argument done in this way? Though indirectness is often a way of politely disagreeing, talking around the issue does not seem to be particularly ‘polite’ in this circumstance. I offer an alternative interpretation that this interaction has more ‘ordinary’ conversational elements than one might expect in a highly formal institutional situation. (ACAD-ENG-LING-08) From a cross-cultural perspective, Czech authors use questions more frequently. This results from the occurrence of clusters of research questions in several linguistics and economics research articles in the Czech sub-corpus. Directives have a more multifaceted persuasive potential than questions, as they may express both the ethical and logical persuasive appeals and can be realised by various linguistic structures, that is imperatives, modals of obligation and it-clauses with predicative adjectives expressing judgements of importance or necessity. Despite the obvious elements of imposition and threat imposed on the reader that they imply (Myers, 1989), directives are the second most frequent engagement resource that the authors in the ACAD sub-corpus employ, as politeness considerations

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

149

seem to be overridden by the urge for clear and efficient conveyance of the message (cf. Hyland, 2002a, 2005a, 2005b; Hyland & Jiang, 2016a, 2016b; Lafuente-Millán, 2014; Swales et al., 1998). In agreement with Giltrow (2005) and Lafuente-Millán (2014), the scope of directives is extended here to encompass not only obligations that the writer imposes on readers but also those targeting other actors, such as professionals expected to carry out actions in the real world related to the issues explored in the research. Directives are more prominent in the economics than in the linguistics sub-corpus (Fig. 3.1), showing a normalised frequency of 190.0 occurrences in the ECON sub-corpus and 168.2  in the LING sub-corpus. Czech authors use more directives than Anglophone writers in both disciplinary sub-corpora (Table 3.1). In order to explain this variation, it is necessary to consider both the linguistic structures realising directives and the types of acts they express. As Table 3.8 shows, the most frequent realisation of directives across all sub-corpora is clearly the imperative (e.g. see, consider, calculate). Anglophone authors use fewer imperatives than Czech authors in both disciplinary sub-corpora, which reflects the high prominence of textual act directives in Czech academic discourse. Within the Anglophone sub-­ corpus, more imperatives occur in economics than in linguistics articles, while in the Czech sub-corpus the situation is reversed: Czech authors use more imperatives (and textual acts) in linguistics than in economics research articles. Imperatives may express all types of acts—textual, cognitive and physical—while the other two structural forms of directives, modals of obligation and predicative adjectives, are restricted to the Table 3.8  Directives across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) Directives Realisation Imperatives Obligation modals Predicative adjectives Type of act Cognitive acts Textual acts Physical acts

ENG-ECON

CZ-ECON

ENG-LING

CZ-LING

103.3 67.5 8.3

126.0 2.0 88.0

62.7 60.6 5.3

168.3 5.0 56.6

106.6 29.1 43.3

112.0 104.0 0

62.7 42.5 24.4

75.0 155.0 0

150 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

expression of cognitive and physical act directives. Modals of obligation (it should be stressed, this equation must hold) and structures with predicative adjectives (it is important to, it is necessary to) are slightly more prominent in the economics sub-corpus. What is more important, however, is that they show striking cross-cultural variation, as obligation modals are considerably more frequent in the Anglophone sub-corpus as are structures with modal predicatives in the Czech sub-corpus; this structural difference between the two languages will be addressed in Chap. 7. Textual act directives are associated with the ethical and logical persuasive appeals, as they may express intertextual connections by reference to authorities and display the expertise of the author, that is they refer to cited previous research, or indicate intratextual reference by pointing to tables, figures, examples and other textual sections. This means that apart from performing a directive speech act, they function as endophoric markers (an interactive metadiscourse category realised by imperatives, clausal structures and prepositional phrases), thus providing evidence for the fuzziness of the metadiscourse framework. Textual directives establishing intratextual connections are more prominent in the linguistics sub-corpora (Example 28) due to frequent referencing to examples, tables and explanations provided in the preceding or subsequent text, while in the economics sub-corpora textual directives are approximately evenly split between the two sub-categories. It is noteworthy that in the Anglophone sub-corpora, citations often occur in clusters, thus displaying knowledge of the field and expertise on the part of the author, while in the Czech sub-corpora citation clusters are not very frequent (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018). 28. Další kategorie obsahovaly jen málo případů (viz tabulka 2). (ACAD-CZ-LING-08) [The rest of the categories provided only a few occurrences (see Table 2).] Directives may also express cognitive and physical acts, which, as Table  3.7 indicates, are clearly more common in the economics sub-­ corpus. Cognitive directives expressed by imperatives and modals of obligation are particularly frequent in the ECON-ENG sub-corpus, where

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

151

their function is to guide readers along the chain of argumentation and represent the writer’s interpretation and claims as logical and convincing (Example 29). The occurrence of modal predicatives expressing cognitive directives is most frequent in the ECON-CZ; they are used to focus the attention of the reader on important points in the argument (Example 30). 29. Suppose that the current tariff and binding are changed by dlnτ and dlnB, respectively. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-12) 30. Je zde však třeba uvědomit si relativně velkou směrodatnou odchylku u všech měřítek, která naznačuje, že v datovém souboru existuje výrazná variabilita. (ACAD-CZ-LING-13) [However, it is important to stress that there is a relatively large standard deviation for all measures, which indicates that there is significant variability in the data set.] Physical act directives are not very frequent and appear only in the Anglophone sub-corpora, perhaps indicating a concern to provide clear instructions and evidence of the replicability of the research procedures (Example 31). 31. Pick parameters such that Eqs. (39) to (41) all equal zero, so that all three firm types can just break even. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-11) Despite the fact that their rate of occurrence is considerably lower than that of stance markers in all sub-corpora, directives and questions help writers to enhance all the three persuasive principles by appealing directly to readers and engaging them in a dialogue in the assumption that they are experienced colleagues following and responding to the writer’s arguments.

3.5 Concluding Remarks It seems obvious that the construal of academic persuasion is a multifaceted process which is profoundly affected by numerous contextual constraints. While this study has shown that all three Aristotelian appeals

152 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

partake in the build-up of persuasion in the genre of research articles, it has also indicated that the relative importance of the persuasive appeals varies across different disciplines and linguacultural contexts. In the soft sciences, it is the ethical appeal that comes to the fore, as persuasiveness is inherently related to writer credibility, rooted in professional expertise, trustworthiness and the goodwill to create a bond of collegiality and solidarity with readers. Still, the way ethos interacts with logos and pathos is affected by the discipline-specific type of knowledge-­ making, which results in variation in persuasive strategies and language resources employed in linguistics and economics research articles. When making persuasive attempts, economists tend to combine the ethical with the logical appeal, as their results are typically based on statistical evidence and methods of mathematics, which creates a sense of objectivity. Thus apart from positioning the writer as a credible researcher stepping into the text to share common understandings and experiences with readers, economists support their claims by reference to facts and statistics, and they provide evidence and proofs by problem-solving and cause-­ effect reasoning. This seems to explain the prominent role of attitude markers and cognitive directives in economics research articles. On the other hand, the interpretative character of linguistics knowledge-making motivates the more immediate association of the ethical with the pathetic appeal, since the legitimisation of values, beliefs and claims is commonly grounded in an assumption of communality and shared understandings, which requires a more urgent appeal to the emotional needs of the audience to be positioned as in-group members. Consequently, linguists rely on reader reference, appeals to shared knowledge and hedging to create a delicate balance between tentativeness and certainly which is intended to enhance the persuasiveness of their discourse. The second dimension of variation studied in this chapter—variation across the Anglophone and Czech linguacultural contexts—has also indicated considerable divergences, pertaining primarily to the language resources used to realise persuasive intents. While Anglophone and Czech authors make persuasive attempts using the same range of interactional metadiscourse resources, the prominence of the different types of metadiscourse markers varies under the influence of culture-specific academic writing conventions, the size and patterns of interaction in the two

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

153

academic communities and specific features of English and Czech. Not surprisingly, in both linguacultural contexts stance markers are the prevailing type of metadiscourse resources used to express persuasion, while engagement markers are less frequent. However, divergences are notable in the conveyance of authorial visibility expressed by self-mention, the interplay of hedges and boosters indicating certainty and withdrawing full commitment to claims, and the function of directives used to create intertextual connections and assist the reader in following the writer’s argument. Anglophone authors generally tend to use fewer stance and engagement markers than Czech writers. This finding may seem somewhat surprising when one considers that Anglophone discourse is commonly regarded as more interactive than Czech academic discourse (cf. Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997; Duszak, 1997); however, it may reflect a difference in the scope of devices under scrutiny, as well as a decline in the use of metadiscourse in Anglophone soft sciences discourse (Hyland & Jiang, 2017, 2019). The use of hedges, boosters, appeals to shared knowledge, reader reference and textual act directives is more prominent in articles by Czech scholars, which seems to correlate with an orientation towards establishing communality and shared values and understandings with the reader. Self-­mention forms seem to be governed by diverging disciplinary and cultural considerations, as their persuasive potential is exploited more intensively by Anglophone economists, who tend to stress their role as active agents in the research process, and Czech linguists, who strive to engage with the reader by using the plural exclusive form marked by verbal endings. The use of the plural form combined with non-realisation of the pronominal subject may account for the belief that authorial presence in Czech academic discourse is suppressed. In conclusion, it can be argued that linguacultural background and discipline tend to govern different rhetorical and language choices that academic writers have at their disposal when striving to persuade their readers to accept their views and claims. The results of this study have also shown that metadiscourse is a key rhetorical device conveying the dialogical dimension of academic discourse and thus instrumental in the build-up of ethos-, logos- and pathos-related persuasive strategies.

154 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

References Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson. Bloor, M., & Bloor, T. (1993). How economists modify propositions. In W. Henderson, T. Dudley-Evans, & R. Backhouse (Eds.), Economics and language (pp. 153–169). London: Routledge. Bondi, M. (1999). English across genres: Language variation in the discourse of economics. Modena, Italy: Edizioni il Fiorino. Bondi, M. (2006). ‘A case in point’: Signals of narrative in business and economics. In K.  Hyland & M.  Bondi (Eds.), Academic discourse across disciplines (pp.  49–75). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https://doi. org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0446-2 Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Čmejrková, S., & Daneš, F. (1997). Academic writing and cultural identity: The case of Czech academic writing. In A. Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp. 40–62). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https:// doi.org/10.1515/9783110821048.41 Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics (6th ed.). Maldon/ Oxford/ Carlton, UK: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.2307/330198 Davis, T. (2003). Introduction: Why rethink linguistics? In T. Davis & T. Taylor (Eds.), Rethinking linguistics (pp.  1–16). London/New York: Routledge Curzon. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203220535-5 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). A contrastive (English, Czech English, Czech) study of rhetorical functions of citations in linguistics research articles. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18.01don Duszak, A. (1997). Cross-cultural academic communication: A discourse community view. In A.  Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp.  11–39). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110821048.11 Fløttum, K., Dahl, T., & Kinn, T. (2006). Academic voices: Across languages and disciplines. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.148

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

155

Gillaerts, P., & van de Velde, F. (2010). Interactional metadiscourse in research article abstracts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9, 128–139. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.004 Giltrow, J. (2005). Modern conscience: Modalities of obligation in research genres. Text, 25(2), 171–199. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2005.25.2.171 Gosden, H. (1993). Discourse functions of subject in scientific research articles. Applied Linguistics, 14, 56–75. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/14.1.56 Gray, B. (2015). Linguistic variation in research articles. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.71 Gray, B., & Douglas, B. (2012). Current conceptions of stance. In K. Hyland & C.  Sancho Guinda (Eds.), Stance and voice in written academic genres (pp.  15–33). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi. org/10.1057/9781137030825 Harwood, N. (2005). ‘We do not seem to have a theory… the theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 26, 343–375. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/ami012 Ho, V., & Li, C. (2018). The use of metadiscourse and persuasion: An analysis of first year university students’ timed argumentative essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 33, 53–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.02.001 Holmes, J. (1984). Modifying illocutionary force. Journal of Pragmatics, 8, 345–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(84)90028-6 Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2015). Disciplinary and paradigmatic influences on interactional metadiscourse in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 39, 12–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2015.03.002 Hyland, K. (1998a). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text, 18(3), 349–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.3.349 Hyland, K. (1998b). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(98)00009-5 Hyland, K. (2001). Bringing in the reader: Addressee features in academic articles. Written Communication, 18(4), 549–574. https://doi. org/10.1177/0741088301018004005 Hyland, K. (2002a). Directives: Arguments and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2002b). What do they mean? Questions in academic writing. Text, 32(4), 529–557. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2002.021

156 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Hyland, K. (2004). Disciplinary discourses. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. Hyland, K. (2005a). Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. London: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2005b). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K. (2008). Persuasion, interaction and the construction of knowledge: Representing self and others in research writing. International Journal of English Studies, 8(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes.8.2.49151 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2016a). Change of attitude? A diachronic study of stance. Written Communication, 33(3), 251–274. https://doi. org/10.1177/0741088316650399 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2016b). “We must conclude that …”: A diachronic study of academic engagement. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 24, 29–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2016.09.003 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2017). Is academic writing becoming more informal? English for Specific Purposes, 45, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. esp.2016.09.001 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2018). “In this paper we suggest”: Changing patterns of disciplinary metadiscourse. English for Specific Purposes, 51, 18–30. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2018.02.001 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2019). Academic discourse and global publishing. In Disciplinary persuasion in changing times. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429433962 Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Lafuente-Millán, E. (2014). Reader engagement across cultures, languages and contexts of publication in business research articles. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 201–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12019 Lakoff, G. (1973). Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 2, 458–508. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF00262952 McGrath, L., & Kuteeva, M. (2012). Stance and engagement in pure mathematics research articles: Linking discourse features to disciplinary practices. English for Specific Purposes, 31(3), 161–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. esp.2011.11.002

3  Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a Means… 

157

Molino, A. (2010). Personal and impersonal authorial references: A contrastive study of English and Italian linguistics research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(2), 86–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2010.02.007 Mu, C., Zhang, L., Ehrich, J., & Hong, H. (2015). The use of metadiscourse for knowledge construction in Chinese and English research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 20, 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeap.2015.09.003 Mur-Dueñas, P. (2007). I/we focus on…: A cross-cultural analysis of self-­ mentions in business management research articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2007.05.002 Mur-Dueñas, P. (2010). Attitude markers in business management research articles: A cross-cultural corpus-driven approach. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 50–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14734192.2009.00228.x Mur-Dueñas, P. (2011). An intercultural analysis of metadiscourse features in research articles written in English and in Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 3068–3079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.05.002 Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/10.1.1 Pérez-Llantada, C. (2010). The ‘dialectics of change’ as facet of globalisation: Epistemic modality in academic writing. In M.  Ruiz-Garrido, J.  Palmer-­ Silveira, & I.  Fortanet-Gómez (Eds.), English for professional and academic purposes (pp.  26–41). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. https://doi. org/10.1163/9789042029569_004 Salager-Meyer, F. (1994). Hedges and textual communicative function in medical English written discourse. English for Specific Purposes, 3, 49–170. https:// doi.org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90013-2 Samuelson, P. (2006). Economics (16th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Shaw, P. (2003). Evaluation and promotion across languages. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2, 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S1475-1585(03)00050-X Shaw, P., & Vassileva, I. (2009). Co-evolving academic rhetoric across culture; Britain, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany in the 20th century. Journal of Pragmatics Journal of Pragmatics, 41, 290–305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. pragma.2008.07.009 Sheldon, E. (2009). From one I to another: Discursive construction of self-­ representation in English and Castilian Spanish research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 28(4), 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2009.05.001

158 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Šinkūnienė, J. (2018). The power of English: I and we in Lithuanian, Lithuanian English and British English research writing. In P.  Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp. 15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18 Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0272263100011773 Swales, J., Ahmad, U. K., Chang, Y.-Y., Chavez, D., Dressen, D., & Seymour, R. (1998). Consider this: The role of imperatives in scholarly writing. Applied Linguistics, 19(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.1.97 Thompson, G. (2001). Interaction in academic writing: Learning to argue with the reader. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/22.1.58 Thompson, G., & Thetela, P. (1995). The sound of one hand clapping: The management of interaction in written discourse. Text  – Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 15(1), 103–128. https://doi.org/10.1515/ text.1.1995.15.1.103 Vassileva, I. (1998). Who am I/who are we in academic writing? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 163–192. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.1998.tb00128.x Vassileva, I. (2001). Commitment and detachment in English and Bulgarian academic writing. English for Specific Purposes, 20, 83–102. https://doi. org/10.1016/S0889-4906(99)00029-0

4 Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative Lexical Means in Corporate Annual Reports

4.1 C  ommunicative Functions and Persuasive Potential of Corporate Annual Reports Communication is essential to business, as “business activity is (…) constituted through language” (Janich, 2017, p. 41). As business activities are diverse, so, too, are diverse business communication and business discourse, depending on the purpose of communication, its participants, its medium, whether the communication is internal, external, formal or informal, whether it is technical, specialist, organisational or social, and other factors (Brünner, 2000, pp. 7–20). Persuasion is an indispensable part of successful business communication: a company needs to attract attention and interest and gain the trust of its customers and partners in order to realise desirable transactions. Various persuasive genres have evolved in business discourse (cf. Hundt, 2000), and a well-defined and highly representative one, the annual report, has been chosen to represent the discourse in this volume. Corporate annual reports are a business genre prepared by any larger organisation, whose existence depends on, involves cooperation of or affects significantly a number of other entities, that is its stakeholders. As © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_4

159

160 

R. Vogel

in similar colony texts, the language is controlled, the author is normally collective or disclosed and the reports contain various text types (Hoey, 2001, adapted by Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2009, p. 11). Annual reports are a multimedial genre. They are usually printed as representative booklets but are increasingly available on the Internet. They have an informational function: they are intended to give a true picture of the company’s performance, but they also perform a promotional function (Bhatia, 2005, p. 220; Malavasi, 2006, p. 111); they are written to represent the company, its activities and goals. These purposes, supported by an attractive graphic layout, visual style and quality paper in the case of a print edition, should create a positive image of the company in the eyes of its target audience. Of the individual component texts which share the goals and the target audience, letters to shareholders (also CEOʼs statements) possess the most obvious persuasive potential, mainly because they identify their readers explicitly, and their authors are undersigned and speak (partly) for themselves. Such inherently persuasive texts employ the Aristotelian rhetorical appeals of ethos and logos. Pathos is realised mainly by emotions evoked by evaluative lexis and emphasis on community, responsibility and caring. Letters to shareholders contain explicit credibility-boosting strategies, namely engagement of readers, self-mention (and explicit authorship), reference to personal competence and experience, and evidentiality (supported by reference to the company’s results and achievements) (see Chap. 2). Reviews included in the Strategic report complement the sub-genre of letters as another typical component of annual reports, which seems to persuade less overtly, focusing on a different mix of strategies and means. Reviews or accounting narratives (Rutherford, 2005, pp. 349–350) also employ evidence (appealing to logos) and examples, which enhance competence and credibility (appealing to ethos), but they are not personal and, compared to letters to shareholders, rarely contain direct appeal to readers. The direct appeal to readers makes annual reports part of rhetorical discourse. Herrick (2018) sees a direct link between professional discourse and use of persuasion, which “can even be understood as an important part of the world of work” (p. 4). Seeking persuasion is seen as

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

161

one of the main properties of rhetorical discourse, along with being “planned, adapted to an audience, shaped by human motives, responsive to a situation […] and concerned with contingent issues” (Herrick, 2018, p. 9). Burke (1969) asserts that “[w]herever there is persuasion there is rhetoric. And wherever there is ʻmeaningʼ, there is ʻpersuasionʼ” (p. 172). The facts presented in annual reports must be true and verifiable because the company would otherwise lose its precious good reputation (Marconi, 2004, p.  81). However, overall effect and interpretation of facts are negotiable. Annual reports, along with other professional discourses, have been colonised by advertising genres and become a hybrid promotional genre (Fairclough, 1993, p. 141). Bhatia (2005, pp. 224–225) sees reasons for promotionalisation and hybridisation of such discourses in the increasing competitiveness of the corporate world, which makes persuasiveness essential for survival. The attitude elicited from persuadees can be influenced by selection and organisation of facts, and also linguistically (Yeung, 2007), since lexical means can convey positive and negative feelings. Corporate narratives are characterised by distinctive “word choice and frequency of use”, along with syntactic complexity as strategic means of managing stakeholder communication (Rutherford, 2005, p. 350). Evaluative lexis appears to be the most obvious device of evaluative acts, in which the perceived qualities of an evaluated entity or proposition are verbalised. A preference for positively connoted evaluative lexis has been indicated by the study of positive evaluative adjectives and verbs in corporate reports by Malavasi (2006), evaluative adjectives in letters to shareholders by Poole (2017) and negatively connoted words in a presidentʼs letters by Abrahamson and Amir (1996). Frequencies of general and ʻchargedʼ words in relation to the size and profitability of companies have been examined by Rutherford (2005), who confirms the Pollyanna hypothesis about a general preference for positive lexis in communication, and Thomas (1997), who has proven how persuaders choose verbs of being rather than doing and different thematic structures (including passivisation) when they communicate bad news. Example 1 shows some lexical means with a possible persuasive intent. These include personal pronouns marking author’s involvement (we), evaluative adjectives (profound, strong, sturdy, brighter), stance adverbs

162 

R. Vogel

(even), and contextually positive nouns (mission, energies, passion) and verbs (empower, cultivate, connect, achieve). The implied positiveness can be confirmed by contrast with their opposites. Persuasion is also enhanced by repeating the syntactic structure with an identical exclusive pronominal subject, followed by different active verbs pointing to the companyʼs performance. 1. We’ve advanced our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We’ve continued to cultivate a Microsoft culture in which people connect their individual energies and passions for technology to this mission. We’re leading profound digital transformation both for people and institutions. We’ve achieved strong financial results. And we’re building a sturdy foundation for an even brighter future. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) As Hunston and Thompson (1999, pp. 22–25) assert, evaluation comprises several parameters, namely desirability/goodness (or good vs bad axis), certainty/likelihood, obviousness/expectedness and importance/ relevance. Pho (2013) considers certainty and desirability as the most important evaluation types. Evaluative lexis is an explicit persuasive device largely independent of the context, but implicit persuasion by indirectly evaluative lexis is also observed. Further, this study uses Hylandʼs (2002) classification of components of stance, expanded into so-called interactional resources (Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 169). As Example 2 illustrates, apart from evaluative adjectives (incredible, hard, great), the text uses boosters (clearly, none, must), attitude markers (simply) and self-mentions (I, my, our). 2. Clearly, none of our achievements would have been possible without the incredible dedication and hard work of thousands of employees worldwide. My final thanks must therefore go to our people, many of whom I have met on my many visits to offices and operating sites. Without them Rio Tinto would simply not be the great company that it is. (BUS-ENG-LET-11)

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

163

Stance (i.e. expression of the author’s viewpoint) in business discourse is to a very great extent realised by self-mention, which makes the author visible and shows his involvement, lexis that hedges or boosts propositions, and attitude markers, which convey the authorʼs attitude or evaluate the content. Since the focus of this chapter is on evaluative lexis, self-mention and engagement of readers (Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 168) will be dealt with in Chap. 7, along with non-assertion speech acts such as directives and questions.

4.2 E  valuative Lexis as a Principal Tool of Persuasiveness Evaluation is commonly expressed via language, apart from other, non-­ linguistic modes, such as paralinguistic aspects and body language. Martin and White (2005) refer to evaluation as attitude, “a framework for mapping feelings… construed in English texts” (p. 42). They divide attitude into three semantic regions: (a) affect, expressing positive and negative feelings, (b) judgement, concerned with attitudes towards behaviour and (c) appreciation, which means “evaluations of semiotic and natural phenomena” in a certain context. These three areas, related to emotions, ethics and aesthetics (Martin & White, 2005, pp. 42–44), correspond generally to the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos. The third appeal, logos, does not have an evaluative nature. The analysis of evaluative lexis draws on a linguistically oriented framework for signalling evaluation suggested by Hunston and Thompson (1999), in which linguistic features of evaluation are characterised by comparison, realised by “comparators”, subjectivity, which is identified by “markers of subjectivity”, and involvement of values (“the markers of value”). Comparators may include comparative forms of adjectives and adverbs, adverbs of degree, focus and emphasis, negative adverbs and affixes, and semantically negative words (lack, fail, etc.). Subjectivity is marked by modals expressing certainty and possibility, lexical words with a similar function, or sentence adverbs and constructions with a general subject (it, there) followed by a copula and an evaluative complement.

164 

R. Vogel

Lastly, “value-laden evaluation” is expressed by lexis characteristic of “an evaluative environment” and by “indications of the existence of goals and their (non-)achievement” (Hunston & Thompson, 1999, p. 21). The analysis of persuasive force of lexis in this study is based on three criteria, two of which are quantifiable. The semantics of a lexical item is a purely qualitative criterion, since it determines its persuasive potential. Potentially evaluative lexis was sought by generating wordlists from the whole BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ and their respective sub-corpora consisting of letters to shareholders and reviews, identifying lexical words and deciding whether they are connotatively neutral or terminological, or whether they have an evaluative function. It was expected that the polarity of potentially persuasive words would determine preference or dispreference of such lexis, with positively connoted words being preferred, and vice versa. This agrees with the so-called Pollyanna principle, which postulates prevalence of positive words over negative ones in communication genres (Matlin & Stang, 1978). The quantitative criteria are the rate of occurrence of evaluative lexical items in the BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ sub-corpora on the one hand and the difference between these and their supposedly differently persuasive sub-­ corpora of letters to shareholders and reviews on the other. The analysis of evaluative lexis is based on the assumption that persuasive force of words in a persuasively oriented discourse correlates with their frequency in such texts, since the use of lexical items is determined by authorsʼ purposeful and intentional choices. Persuasive force of lexical items can be established by comparing their frequency in sub-corpora with assumedly different degrees of persuasiveness. A higher frequency of potentially persuasive words was expected in the sub-corpora of letters to shareholders (BUS-ENG-LET and BUS-CZ-LET) than in the complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ sub-corpora and their sub-corpora of reviews BUS-ENG-REV and BUS-CZ-REV. This assumption has proved to be correct; the strikingly high occurrence of connotatively positive lexis in BUS-ENG-LET and BUS-CZ-LET when compared with the other two sub-corpora is interpreted as a proof of persuasive force. For the analysis to be reliable and relevant, the evaluative and potentially persuasive lexical items obtained by wordlist analysis were assigned an appropriate type of polarity, that is positive or negative connotation in

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

165

the business context (cf. Rutherford, 2005; Poole, 2017). Particularly convincing in terms of results is the difference in frequency between semantically opposite and thus connotatively contrastive lexical items, which enables ascription of qualities along the good-bad axis. The BUS-ENG sub-corpus contains 11 lexical words (bold in Table 4.1) among the first 50 most frequent lexical items; BUS-ENG-­ LET has 13 and BUS-ENG-REV 12 such words. The repertoire of lexical words, including company/Company (the wordlist is case-sensitive, the two forms are ranked separately), year, product, financial, services, Group, sales, new, is very poor among the top 50 items; only new and growth may possess some persuasive potential. However, rank 31 for new in the most overtly persuasive BUS-ENG-LET, lagging behind ranks 24 in complete BUS-ENG and 25 in BUS-ENG-REV, hints at its non-persuasive, neutral meaning. On the other hand, positively connoted growth occurs only in BUS-ENG-LET (rank 41). Evaluative words (such as successful, outstanding) and words with an obvious persuasive function (opportunity, vision, strengthen, achieve) occur outside the first 50 items. Different perspectives of reporting are apparent here: the first content word in the BUS-ENG-LET wordlist is Board, followed by Management (rank 39) and Committee (rank 44), since letters to shareholders speak directly on behalf of these executive bodies. The combined lemma company/Company occupies rank 27, after management/Management (rank 22). The high occurrence of these items is a sort of self-mention and shows the persuaderʼs involvement (Example 3). Neither Committee nor Management occur among the top 50 items in BUS-ENG and BUS-­ ENG-­REV; the whole organisation (company/Company and Group) is referred to here, with Board ranked at 34 in the complete BUS-ENG. In the Czech sub-corpora BUS-CZ-LET and BUS-CZ-REV společnost [company] is always the most frequent (ranks 7 and 11 respectively) (Example 4), followed by skupina [group], although představenstvo [board] is highly placed in letters to shareholders (rank 33). The persuasive agent is thus more collective and personal in letters and, conversely, more institutional and non-personal in reviews, and the distinction is more obvious in the Anglophone documents.

166 

R. Vogel

Table 4.1  Wordlists with some of the first 50 items in BUS-ENG and its sub-­corpora BUS-ENG-LET and BUS-ENG-REV BUS-ENG

BUS-ENG-LET

BUS-ENG-REV

Total items: 2,951 Total frequency: 103,609

Total items: 1,196 Total frequency: 31,224

Total items: 2,253 Total frequency: 67,519

Rank (BUS-ENG)

Word

Freq. Word

Freq. Word

Freq.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 14 16 17 19 21 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 34 36 38 39 40 41 43 44 45 46 47 48

the and of to in a for The with by are we Company from new also which business year Company’s We Board financial will products services Group this sales other BMW their billion

6,848 4,896 4,232 3,227 2,798 1,655 1,221 1,217 960 696 624 588 530 477 410 395 372 371 365 364 363 342 320 309 288 282 281 272 250 246 235 230 224

2,398 1,471 1,435 1,152 938 645 589 426 319 276 258 212 175 158 152 148 148 147 143 142 137 119 113 106 104 98 94 86 84 78 77 77 76

4,333 3,464 2,722 2,087 1,878 1,100 931 804 501 464 414 412 372 348 310 282 258 257 237 230 226 222 217 209 208 204 174 168 167 156 149 148 147

the of and To In our a we Board as The year are business more Supervisory In will its has new billion an Group Management be growth financial Committee over years company works

the and of to in a The for our Company are its or Company’s be new products which an was services financial business sales we We Group Yyear BMW their may customers all

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

167

3. After a careful review, the Supervisory Board concluded that the level of compensation of board members, including pension entitlements, is appropriate and that the compensation system has proved its worth. (BUS-ENG-LET-23) 4. Společnost zvládla překonat potíže způsobené neplánovanými odstávkami výrobních jednotek. [The company managed to overcome difficulties caused by shutdowns of production units.] (BUS-CZ-LET-10) Occurrence of personal pronouns as devices of involvement and engagement, as well as strategies appealing to ethos by highlighting credibility and trust, can be detected more prominently in this frequency analysis. Only first-person pronouns have made it into the top 50 wordlists, dominated by the plural (see Table 4.1). The BUS-ENG-LET shows the highest rankings, with BUS-ENG-REV second. Only in BUS-ENG-LET does the first-person pronoun I appear among the top 50 words (rank 42); in contrast, it is very marginal in ENG-REV (rank 249). As Example 5 illustrates, the author uses first person (as well as an address, which equals second person) to create the pathetic appeal of community and closeness, and evokes positive emotions by using positive (dear, proud, excited, progress, achieve), evaluative (more) and unrestricted (every…on the planet) lexis. 5. Dear shareholders, customers, partners, and employees: I’m proud of the progress we’ve made as a company this past year and excited about the opportunity for even more progress in the year ahead.We’ve advanced our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) Direct reference to readers is relevant only in BUS-ENG-LET (rank 128), as second-person pronouns do not appear among the first 200 items in BUS-ENG and BUS-ENG-REV.  When used in combination with the ethical persuasive strategies of involvement and sharing personal views realised by self-mention, direct address to the reader creates an ethos-pathos interface. This stems from the special function of letters to shareholders: they need to establish contact, evoke trust and put a specified manager in the position of credible and familiar persuader. By

168 

R. Vogel

contrast, reviews rely more heavily on logical and ethical appeals, as they are characterised by informational rather than opinionated persuasion (cf. Biber & Zhang, 2018).

4.3 Evaluative and Potentially Persuasive Lexis Evaluative lexis (mostly adjectives, adverbs and deadjectival nouns) is understood here as a narrower concept than lexis with a persuasive potential or force. Evaluative lexis (overlapping with Hunston and Thompsonʼs (1999) comparators and markers of value) expresses appreciation, desirability or lack of it as a prime component of its denotation, whereas many non-evaluative words carry persuasive force thanks to connotations they arouse, not their denotation. Pho (2013) asserts that the evaluative function of desirability/goodness is primarily conveyed by attitudinal adjectives, being positioned at some point on a good versus bad axis. Evaluative adjectives such as excellent and poor thus differ from non-evaluative words such as power, grow, reduce, freedom, fast and slow, which can be associated with positive or negative phenomena in a specific context.

4.3.1 Categorisation of Lexis with a Persuasive Potential The comparative analysis of the frequency lists in the BUS sub-corpus started by eliminating grammatical words. Lexical items with a persuasive potential were then identified among lexical words. These lexical items must be contextualised, however, since many seemingly evaluative or persuasive words can also be used neutrally and non-persuasively as terms of the occupational area. In practice, it is better to make this decision en grosse in the context of the whole genre. For example, in general language profit and loss clearly arouse a positive and a negative connotation respectively, but their role in the language of annual reports tends to be neutral and terminological (Example 6). Their use is not conditioned by an

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

169

author’s intentional choice for persuasive purposes, unlike the choices of truly evaluative lexis. 6. We assent to the proposal for the use of the distributable profit, which provides for payment of a dividend of €2.70 per share. (BUS-ENG-LET-22) Some frequent items are semantically (liability, effective, power) or connotatively ambiguous (grow, increase, reduce, new, change). This can be seen in automatically positive connotations of collocations such as increase productivity, reduce losses and a new technology, and negative ones using the same key lexis, such as increase tension, reduce the staff and a new crisis. The polarity of this type of ambiguous lexis can only be correctly identified in the exact context, and it changes easily with collocated words. Given the high frequency of such lexical words, they have been included in the present analysis, but the above objection was borne in mind and their persuasiveness was interpreted with caution. While the sub-corpora BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ can be regarded as representations of the discourse of narrative sections of corporate annual reports, comparison with the British National Corpus as a control sample representative of general language usage yields a certain confirmation of the discourse-specific and terminological status of some items and the potentially persuasive function of others. Once the potentially persuasive lexis was identified, the interpretation assumed that an increased frequency manifests relevance of the selected lexical items to the specialised discourse, depending also on the persuasiveness of its component text types. Being at the ʻgoodʼ end of the polarity axis, as well as being important and expected (Hunston & Thompson, 1999, pp. 22–25), makes for positive evaluation, which implies higher persuasive force. In our understanding, the interpretation of persuasive force distinguishes three characteristic situations. First, if a lexical item occurs relatively frequently in a text with a persuasive function, it may have a persuasive potential. Many items (such as new, development, increase, opportunity, achieve, thank, stable, successful, innovative, threat—see Table 4.2) also have a general meaning with no intended persuasive function, but here it is practically impossible to

72.7 67.5 60.0 48.0 44.7 43.5

38.2 29.2 29.2 27.7 23.2 21.0 14.2 13.5

opportunity grow profit commitment achieve progress

quality rise effective successful innovative strengthen stable vision

20.8 37.0 18.5 53.1 11.6 43.9 6.9 30.0

129.4 94.7 50.8 80.9 76.2 106.3

147.8

future

125.2

325.7 140.9 145.5

new 329.8 increase 188.9 development 149.1

Word

ENG-­ LET

BUS-­ ENG

54.4% 126.5% 63.2% 191.6% 49.7% 209.2% 48.7% 222.6%

178.0% 140.4% 84.8% 168.6% 170.7% 244.5%

118.1%

98.8% 74.6% 97.6%

Ratio ENG-­ LET/BUS-ENG (%)

Words with positive connotations (English)

nový zvýšit (se) vývoj rozvoj budoucí budoucnost příležitost růst zisk závazek dosáhnout pokrok pokročit postup průběh kvalita stoupnout efektivní úspěšný inovativní posílit stabilní vize

Word

Words with positive connotations (Czech)

246.6 58.9 146.1 63.1 38.2 18.3 18.3 91.3 98.8 141.1 91.3 2.5 3.3 44.0 71.4 83.9 7.5 29.1 45.7 7.5 11.6 25.7 7.5 45.6% 391.2% 100.6% 60.7% 310.9% 180.5% 55.3% 180.5%

398.0% 73.9% 60.7% 34.0% 48.9% 35.9%

220.2%

133.7% 320.4% 71.3%

Ratio BUS-ENG/ BUS-CZ BUS-CZa (%)

G/T G T/E E T/E G T/E G

G/T G T T (prev. in CZ) G G (many CZ equiv.)

G/T

G G G

English-Czech comparison

Table 4.2  Words with positive connotations and potential persuasive use in the BUS-ENG-LET sub-corpus compared with the complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ

170  R. Vogel

outstanding approve updated promptly succeed

11.6 13.9 9.2 2.3 13.9

ENG-­ LET 102.7% 154.1% 112.1% 51.4% 308.2%

Ratio ENG-­ LET/BUS-ENG (%)

Note: T mostly term, G general, E evaluative

11.2 9.0 8.2 4.5 4.5

Word

a

BUS-­ ENG

Words with positive connotations (English)

vynikající schválit modernizovaný rychle uspět

Word

Words with positive connotations (Czech)

5.8 9.1 0.8 8.3 3.3

193.5% 98.5% 993.3% 54.2% 135.4%

Ratio BUS-ENG/ BUS-CZ BUS-CZa (%) E G G/T G G

English-Czech comparison

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

171

172 

R. Vogel

determine the degree of intended persuasive force (unless the authors are asked about it). This study claims that it is not accidental that some words (such as new, achieve and opportunity) are used considerably more frequently than their opposites (old, fail, threat); the surplus of positively connoted words must result from the author’s intention, which is probably a persuasive one. Other studies, such as Rutherford (2005, pp.  366–368), prove several times as great a frequency of reference to assets than to liabilities and to profit than to loss(es) and a greater use of ‘up’ words as opposed to ‘down’ words. The second group of frequent lexical items have primarily a terminological function (e.g. profit, quality, commitment, liability, loss, growth, effective). It is difficult to draw a strict line between the first and the second group; however, such terms have a prevailing economic meaning and their distribution is strongly confined to economic (e.g. financial, managerial) and business discourse. These typically nominal items are crucial to the business context, irrespective of whether their connotation is positive (e.g. profit, growth, effective) or negative (e.g. loss, decrease, decline). Thirdly, lexical items which are very rare in or even absent from business texts have obviously low relevance to such texts, and in the case of items marked by negative evaluative polarity such rare items have a low or no persuasive potential (e.g. poor, old, unsuccessful, ineffective, miss, reject, slowly, fail, weaken, negligence). Connotatively positive and negative items with high occurrence and their possible opposites were subjected to frequency analysis, first in the complete BUS-ENG.  To identify persuasive force and distinguish persuasive from general or terminological use, increase or decrease in the frequency between the sub-corpus of letters to shareholders (BUS-ENG-­ LET), the sub-corpus of reviews (BUS-ENG-REV) and the complete BUS-ENG were observed. An analogous procedure was then applied to the Czech sub-corpora. Assuming that persuasive force correlates with positive or negative connotations carried by lexical items, the differences in frequency have been interpreted as follows: (1) A small or negligible BUS-ENG-LET to BUS-ENG ratio means that the potentially evaluative lexical item is probably not used persuasively: it can function as a term or have a general, non-persuasive meaning in the given context. The item may also be used persuasively, but its

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

173

persuasive force is homogenous across the whole corpus, showing no increase in frequency in BUS-ENG-LET. Such lexis can be illustrated by the evaluative adjectives new (BUS-ENG-LET/BUS-ENG ratio 98.8%), outstanding (102.7%) and updated (112.1%), and probably by the nouns profit (84.8%), development (97.6%) and future (118.1%). The normalised frequency of new is very high (329.8 in BUS-ENG and 325.7 in BUS-ENG-LET) and that of profit is high (60  in BUS-ENG, 50.8  in BUS-ENG-LET, see Table  4.2), as they are central lexical units of the given discourse. Their homogeneity across the sub-corpora suggests that they might be employed persuasively (since their connotations are undoubtedly positive), but also as general, difficult-to-replace content words (new) or terms of the discipline (profit). The adjective updated is similar to new in this respect, but outstanding is overtly evaluative, and neither neutral nor a term. Admittedly, it is a persuasively used item, but its distribution in the sub-genre of letters does not reveal its preference or its selection for increasing persuasive effect. (2) If a lexical item with a positive connotation is frequent and its relative frequency in BUS-ENG-LET considerably exceeds that in the complete BUS-ENG, the use of the item is regarded as mainly persuasive. Examples of such words with a persuasive force are successful (a true evaluative adjective, ratio 191.6%), succeed (308.2%, but with low occurrence in BUS-ENG), progress (244.5%), vision (222.6%), strengthen (209.2%) and opportunity (178%). Example 7 shows how successful is repeated in the text after having been highlighted in the heading. Persuasive strategies of logical reasoning (achieving all-time high performance implies success) and reference to facts employ positive lexis, combined in collocations (successful development continued, achieved new all-time highs). 7. Successful development continued in the financial year 2015. The financial year 2015 was a successful year for the BMW Group. We achieved new all-time highs for performance indicators such as (…) (BUS-ENG-LET-24) (3) The contrary case to (2) in one respect is when a connotatively negative lexical item is used with a relatively high frequency, but it is substantially less frequent in BUS-ENG-LET than in BUS-ENG. This

174 

R. Vogel

underrepresentation is interpreted as dispreference (cf. the Pollyanna hypothesis), since such items do not fit in the strategies aimed at persuasion. Lexical items with such a negative persuasive force are the noun loss (74.9 in BUS-ENG; frequency in BUS-ENG-LET 21.6% compared to BUS-ENG), and the adjectives old (22%) and unchanged (28%). The negative connotation in the business context does not automatically mean a negative persuasive effect, however. A proposition in which they are negated (eliminate losses), used in a positive sense (solve a problem) or used in a sense that is favourable to successful business (keep the old, traditional recipe) can be positively persuasive (Examples 8 and 9). Example 8 even hedges problems by the adjective nepředvídatelné [unforeseeable], not only by counterfactiveness: 8. (…) a pokud se nevyskytnou nepředvídatelné problémy, dojde k podepsání smlouvy v průběhu druhého čtvrtletí. [(…) and if unforeseeable problems do not arise, the contract will be signed in the second quarter.] (BUS-ENG-LET-15) 9. With growing momentum across ABB’s four streamlined entrepreneurial businesses the company will address customer needs (…) in a focused and agile way, with digital solutions, services and products that truly solve customer problems. (BUS-ENG-LET-04) (4) A number of lexical items are almost completely or completely avoided, that is their occurrence is near zero in BUS-ENG and its sub-­ corpora. Such words, virtually absent in annual reports in BUS-ENG (e.g. miss, reject, careless, weaken, ignore, ineffective, bad), differ from words in group (3) in that the former cannot be avoided completely (such as loss and old) because their meanings are central, general and in some respect connotatively neutral, or, as it was noted above, they appear in positive propositions. An analogous procedure and interpretation of persuasive force has been applied to the Czech language sub-corpus BUS-CZ. Some interlanguage differences not indicative of different persuasive force are described in Chap. 7. Table 4.2 contains several synonymous Czech equivalents to English words (such as progress and development) and morphologically distinct words for different word classes in Czech where the English word

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

175

has one form only (such as future as a noun or adjective vs adjective budoucí and noun budoucnost).

4.3.2 P  ersuasive Force of Positively Versus Negatively Connoted Lexis It is assumed that the occurrence of evaluative lexis correlates with the persuasiveness of a text and that the polarity of such lexis is determined by the type of message. It appears that a positive message requires selection of positively and elimination of negatively connoted lexis and that logically this also works the other way round. It is obvious that some words with negative connotations are avoided completely (e.g. bad, miss, weaken, ineffective, reject, misery, negligence in the BUS-ENG and/or in BUS-ENG-LET). Similarly, Czech counterparts neúspěšný [unsuccessful], pomalu [slowly], nedbalost [negligence], chybět [miss/lack] and neuspět [fail] show zero occurrence in the BUS-CZ sub-corpus (Table 4.3). When some connotatively negative words are, contrary to expectations, relatively frequent and their frequency in BUS-ENG-LET exceeds that in the whole BUS-ENG, two principal reasons may explain this affective polarity paradox. Firstly, the deviation may result from the general and neutral, prevailingly non-persuasive status of such items (e.g. threat is used more than three times and volatile almost twice as frequently in BUS-ENG-LET than in BUS-ENG—see Table 4.3). Secondly, negatively connoted words can indeed be employed in the persuasive function: not straightforwardly as ʻdiscouragersʼ, but for positive persuasion, thanks to their negation or restriction by the lexical environment. Negative words are thus negated by semantically negative or reversive words, such as avoid, reduce, prevent, eliminate and overcome (Example 10), or they are contrasted with positive concepts, often their direct opposites. The whole proposition thus obtains a positive meaning (Example 11) and/or is loaded with a positive connotation (cf. high proportion of crisis, threat and difficult in BUS-ENG-LET). This appeals mainly to ethos, manifesting the corporationʼs competence, resourcefulness, expertise and good management.

BUS-­ ENG

74.9 23.2 20.2 11.2 10.5 9.0 9.0 8.2 8.2 7.5 6.0 4.5 4.5 3.0 3.0 2.2 1.5 1.5 0.7 0.7

Word

loss decline decrease complex old fall crisis difficult unchanged volatile problem fail defect threat conservative weaken poor slowly reject ineffective

16.2 4.6 4.6 11.6 2.3 2.3 20.8 13.9 2.3 13.9 6.9 0 0 9.2 4.6 0 0 0 0 0

59.9 46.1 6.9 4.6 6.9 4.6 2.3 4.6 13.8 6.9 4.6 11.5 13.8 0 2.3 6.9 4.6 2.3 0 2.3

21.6% 19.9% 22.8% 102.7% 22.0% 25.7% 231.2% 168.1% 28.0% 184.9% 115.6% 0 0 308.2% 154.1% 0 0 0 0 0

ztráta zmenšit (se) snížit (se) složitý starý klesnout krize obtížný nezměněný nestálý problém neuspět porucha hrozba konzervativní oslabit špatný pomalu zamítnout neefektivní

51.5 0.8 31.5 5.8 19.9 20.8 23.2 3.3 0 0 13.3 0 0.8 0 0.8 1.7 0.8 0 0.8 1.7

44.8 0 0 19.2 12.8 32.0 19.2 6.4 0 0 6.4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

BUS-CZ-­ BUS-CZ LET

87.0% 0 0 331.0% 64.3% 153.8% 82.8% 193.9% – – 48.1% – 0 – 0 0 0 – 0 0

Ratio CZ-LET/ BUS-CZ (%)

Words with negative connotations (Czech)

BUS-ENG-­ BUS-ENG-­ Ratio ENG-LET/BUS-­ LET REV ENG (%) Word

Words with negative connotations (English)

Table 4.3  Words with negative connotations in the BUS-ENG-LET sub-corpus in comparison with the complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ

176  R. Vogel

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

177

10. The UK government made good use of the positive economic environment to reduce the budget deficit to its lowest level since 2007. (BUS-ENG-REV-25) 11. A decade after the financial crisis, I’m happy to report to you that we are now in a position to scale new heights. (BUS-ENG-LET-02) A lower frequency of potentially persuasive lexis in BUS-ENG-LET than in BUS-ENG or BUS-ENG-REV might indicate low persuasive force or its absence. This was established in items with a general meaning or which function as terms of the discipline (significant, competitive; profit, effective, loss—see Tables 4.2 and 4.3), even though many may be perceived as positively connoted. Surprisingly, some apparently positive words display a very low frequency in all three English-medium sub-corpora, without significant differences between them. Such words (e.g. optimistic, efficient, competent, reliable, responsible, semantically superlative evaluative adjectives such as superb, fantastic, excellent, magnificent, glamorous, fabulous, optimistic, and trendy) do not seem to function conventionally as persuasive devices in the discourse under examination. Some positive evaluative adjectives do occur in BUS-ENG-LET, but very rarely (e.g. excellent, fantastic, beneficial, useful, modern). The authors of annual reports avoid them probably because of their explicit evaluativeness and excessive positiveness. Analogous results were obtained by studying the Czech equivalents, namely výborný [excellent/exquisite] (4.2), vynikající [outstanding/excellent] (5.8), perfektní [perfect] (3.3) and skvělý [magnificent/splendid] (1.7) are found rarely in the BUS-CZ. Strong evaluative adjectives, such as úžasný [amazing], fantastický [fantastic], báječný [wonderful] and jedinečný [unique], are probably considered too expressive for the genre and thus avoided. A comparison between two differently persuasive sub-corpora, BUS-­ ENG-­LET and BUS-ENG-REV (see Fig.  4.1) indicates that the frequency in BUS-ENG-LET is regularly higher than that in BUS-ENG-REV if a lexical item has a persuasive potential (such as opportunity, successful, strong, achieve). The higher frequency of new in BUS-ENG-REV, which is an exception, can be explained by its mostly general and non-­persuasive use. Example 12 shows that persuasion is realised rather by focus on a

178 

R. Vogel

hard old loss responsible challenge strengthen profit successful achieve commitment opportunity strong new

BUS-ENG-LET BUS-ENG-REV

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Fig. 4.1  Frequency of positive and negative lexical items in the sub-corpora BUS-­ ENG-­REV and BUS-ENG-LET—comparison

high amount of transactions and use of a comparator (more options), not so much by new with an informational function. 12. The OLI portal, which processes over $50 billion in client transactions each month, has been upgraded with new features that provide clients with more options in managing their liquidity. (BUS-ENG-REV-13) The noun loss and adjective old (very rare) manifest much higher frequencies (59.9 and 6.9 respectively) in the less explicitly persuasive BUS-­ ENG-­REV and virtual avoidance in BUS-ENG-LET (1.6 for loss, 2.3 for old). The purely neutral function of loss (as well as of gain) is evident from Example 13. The adjective hard, despite its denotation, is quite common in BUS-ENG-LET and considered evaluatively positive as it typically collocates with work (Example 14). Apart from evoking positive emotions by evaluative lexis, the persuader here also stresses personal qualities and employs the strategy of creating an atmosphere of responsibility and caring.

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

179

13. Realized gains and losses on the sale of securities are determined by specific identification of each security’s cost basis. (BUS-ENG-REV-12) 14. ABB would not exist without its dedicated and tireless employees, and their commitment and hard work remain instrumental to its success. (BUS-ENG-LET-04) Figure 4.1 demonstrates graphically that a high ratio of the frequency of an item in BUS-ENG-REV to BUS-ENG-LET correlates with its non-­ persuasive, terminological use. Conversely, frequency in BUS-ENG-LET considerably above that in BUS-ENG-REV indicates preference for such positive items in letters of shareholders, and hence their invoked persuasiveness. Terminological and persuasive functions are balanced in the cases of profit, responsible and new. Like BUS-ENG-LET, the sub-corpus BUS-ENG-REV is characterised by avoidance (e.g. threaten) or dispreference of words with negative connotations. Words such as crisis (three occurrences, always as part of crisis management) and worry (one occurrence) are thus rare. As discussed above, excessively positive adjectives are avoided across the corpora, so they occur sparsely in BUS-ENG-REV (excellent—two occurrences, competent, trendy—one occurrence each) or not at all (fantastic, magnificent, glamorous, superb, exquisite, splendid).

4.4 P  ersuasive Means in a Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Cultural Perspective The positively connoted lexical items extracted from wordlists (e.g. new, strong, opportunity, profit, achieve, effective, innovative) were matched with their approximate semantic opposites (old, weak, threat, loss, miss, ineffective, conservative) to identify the difference in frequency (Vogel, 2018). Concordances were thus run for such translation equivalents in order to compare English and Czech texts of the same genre. A problem occurs in English due to its largely polysemous lexis. Particularly the vocabulary of business and economics is highly heterogeneous, with many expressions coined by semantic shift, that is existing originally in a general,

180 

R. Vogel

non-­specialised sense, and later adopted as terms of the discipline (e.g. business, loss, wage, board, sale). Other terms are international borrowings (often originally with a non-economic meaning, such as return, account, manager, office, credit), derivations from domestic or foreign sources, or descriptive compounds. Despite the difficult choice of exact opposites, the number of options was restricted thanks to the specialised context. Many lexical items have several senses, general and specific, neutral and (potentially) persuasive. One such polysemous word, commitment (frequency 48), can mean a moral category describing a relationship between two parties, a legal obligation, or an economic and financial concept synonymous to liability and debt. It was included here among positively connoted words in line with the first two mentioned non-­ economic senses, which are often used in a business context. The third, purely economic sense, has a rather negative connotation, as it means an obligation to repay money, and at the same time it is an economic term, connotatively neutral and without a persuasive force. The Czech equivalent, závazek, was found to be used three times as frequently (141.1), which certainly does not mean that závazek is more positively connoted than English commitment. A close look at the Czech sub-corpus shows that závazek is mostly used purely as an economic term. The most frequent words with a persuasive potential in the BUS-ENG sub-corpus are new (329.8), increase (188.9), opportunity (72.7) and grow (67.5) (Table 4.2), if we disregard development (149.1) and future (125.2) with prevailingly general or economic senses (Example 15). The general words do not normally have a persuasive potential, but future in Example 16 does, as the future time also evokes a mystery which is attractive to imagine. The first four potentially persuasive items, however, also have a dominant general sense, making them indispensable in a business context. Since the nouns opportunity and commitment, the verbs strengthen, achieve and grow, and the evaluative adjective successful are considerably more frequent in BUS-ENG-LET than in complete BUS-ENG, they can be regarded as persuasive since they are overrepresented in a more explicitly persuasive sub-genre. 15. (…) strategy and business planning, application development, and infrastructure services (…) (BUS-ENG-REV-03)

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

181

16. (…) we deliberately chose to look forward to the future: how will people move about 30 years from now? (BUS-ENG-LET-24) The context plays an essential role in conveying persuasion, which is not achieved only by application of certain lexis. Example 17 illustrates that the noun future can be seen as contributing to persuasion, since its attribute is the evaluative adjective exciting, accompanied by the comparator more, stance adverb even and involvement of the author (we). Similarly, opportunity in Example 18 contributes to persuasion in combination with the verb take (in contrast to dispreferred miss an opportunity), implying how instrumental and correct the step was, which is a strategy creating the logical appeal. 17. And we’re investing in a future that is even more exciting. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) 18. ČEPRO took the opportunity to fulfil its strategic role and substantially contributed to the emergency supply of fuel to the market. (BUS-ENG-LET-20) A look at approximate negative opposites supports the assumption that positive connotation is the dominant property of evaluative lexis in the business discourse. The mostly general and neutral words old (10.5  in BUS-ENG), threat (3) and fall (9) are used much less frequently than new, opportunity and increase or rise. Their frequency in BUS-ENG-LET is even smaller than that in BUS-ENG. The verbs of change decline (23.2) and decrease (20.2) do not seem to fit in this paradigm due to their prevailingly general and non-persuasive use in this discourse. Reference to changes in economic variables in either direction cannot be avoided, but a preference for upward movement is indisputable. Decline and decrease show a much lower frequency in BUS-ENG-LET (19.9% and 22.8% compared with BUS-ENG respectively). The Czech sub-corpus BUS-CZ shows a very low frequency of the positive noun příležitost [opportunity] (18.3), whose English equivalent ranks among the most frequent items (72.7  in BUS-ENG, 129.4  in BUS-ENG-LET). On the other hand, the nouns zisk [profit], kvalita [quality] and the verb dosáhnout [achieve] occur much more frequently in

182 

R. Vogel

the Czech sub-corpus. This imbalance can be explained by cross-­linguistic differences (the words in question have few or no competitors in their lexical fields, whereas in the English sub-corpus several synonyms occur: gain/net income; reach/attain) or cross-cultural differences (quality occurs five times more frequently in BUS-CZ-LET than in BUS-ENG-LET). Also the combined frequencies of rozvoj and vývoj, which correspond to development, exceed the English frequency of this (not utterly persuasive) term. The negatively connoted items ztráta [loss] (51.5) and loss (74.9) contradict the tendency that such words are dispreferred. Besides its negative connotation, the word is mainly a key economic term and thus is indispensable. Paradoxically, loss has greater frequency in BUS-ENG than its positive opposite profit. This relation is the exact reverse of BUS-CZ; however, the ratio of frequency of English loss to Czech ztráta is 145.6% and of profit to zisk only 60.9%. This is caused not by Czech persuaders being more overtly positive than English persuaders, but by different compositions of lexical fields in the two languages (see Chap. 7). Methodologically, such examples of imperfect equivalents in the other language lead to deviations from expected results, and they would corrupt the findings if taken literally. Unavoidably, choices from synonymic groups must sometimes be made arbitrarily if we wish to obtain one-to-­ one pairs for simplified comparison. The differences described are then interlinguistic; however, most equivalents manifest a greater degree of semantic and distributional correspondence, and can thus be trusted as markers of the writerʼs choices of concepts, not of individual forms (words), and they inform us adequately about the invoked persuasiveness.

4.5 E  valuation by Lexical Items Expressing Stance Representation of the authorʼs self in the text, namely expression of the persuaderʼs opinions, judgements and commitments to propositions, subsumed under the category of stance (Hyland, 1998, 2005), is an

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

183

important complement to evaluative lexis. Author’s stance is expressed by attitude markers, self-mentions, hedges and boosters. In business discourse, particularly adjectives are employed to express stance. In genres such as research articles, author’s attitude towards or assessment of a proposition tends to be expressed by stance adverbs (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999; Biber, 2006), but these are rare in annual reports. Explicit markers of stance might be expected in business letters, economic analyses, analytic market reports and reviews, and especially in letters to shareholders, which to some extent share the form and use rhetorical devices of epistolary genres. Table 4.4 compares the relative frequencies of attitude markers in the BUS-ENG sub-corpus and their equivalents in BUS-CZ and both pairs of specialised sub-corpora. Higher frequency of attitude markers which evaluate positive, desirable value and importance (cf. Hunston & Thompson, 1999) in the sub-corpus of letters, both in English and in Czech (key/klíčový, important/důležitý, even/dokonce, necessary/nutný, hard/těžký), confirms the hypothesis that they are implicitly preferred by persuaders. However, significant, major and substantial show an opposite trend in the BUS-ENG-LET Table 4.4  Attitude markers: comparison of equivalents in BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ and their sub-corpora Attitude markers (English)

BUS-­ ENG

BUS-­ ENG-­ LET

BUS-­ ENG-­ REV

Attitude markers (Czech)

BUS-­ BUS-CZ CZ-­LET

BUS-CZ-­ REV

significant key important expected major even necessary substantial principal essential importance simple difficult hard

102.7 69.7 51.0 51.0 42.0 27.0 23.2 21.7 15.7 15.0 10.5 9.7 8.2 7.5

90.1 78.5 76.2 25.4 43.9 41.6 37.0 9.2 4.6 13.9 18.5 9.2 14.0 25.4

111.7 69.6 39.8 55.3 40.9 19.9 16.6 25.4 18.8 17.7 6.6 9.9 6.6 1.1

významný klíčový důležitý očekávaný hlavní dokonce nutný podstatný zásadní nezbytný význam jednoduchý složitý těžký

120.4 40.7 30.7 14.1 92.2 3.3 10.0 16.6 38.2 8.3 28.2 10.0 5.8 7.5

108.7 34.3 25.7 15.3 85.8 1.9 8.6 16.2 36.2 7.6 30.5 11.4 3.8 6.7

198.2 83.1 63.9 6.4 134.3 12.8 19.2 19.2 51.1 12.8 12.8 0 19.2 12.8

184 

R. Vogel

sub-­corpus as compared with BUS-CZ-LET, probably because of availability of competitive evaluators. The attitudinal adjective significant (102.7) and its Czech equivalents důležitý (30.7) and významný (120.4, almost 200  in BUS-CZ-LET) demonstrate that importance and relevance prevail over goodness (Example 19). Of the adverbs, only even (27) is frequent, while simply (6.7) occurs with non-negligible frequency (Example 20). 19. (…) nejsme jen významným výrobním centrem, ale jsme také významným centrem pro high-tech investice a vývojové aktivity. (BUS-CZ-LET-01) [(…) we are not only an important production centre, but also an important centre of high-tech investment and development.] (BUS-CZ-LET-01) 20. Without them Rio Tinto would simply not be the great company that it is. (BUS-ENG-LET-11) Hedges and boosters are both more frequent in the Anglophone sub-­ corpus, and hedging and boosting by epistemic modals prevail in both languages (Table  4.5). Frequency of boosters in Anglophone letters to shareholders (BUS-ENG-LET) is invariably higher than in reviews (BUS-ENG-REV), and hedging by modals seems to be typical of English reviews. Use of hedges and boosters in the sub-corpus BUS-CZ-LET is almost entirely dominant, except for the functionally ambiguous future forms of být [will]. The hedge generally (30) is particularly frequent (Example 21). Together with approximately, this hedging adverb is more frequent in reviews than in letters to shareholders (generally 43.1  in BUS-ENG-REV, but only 4.6  in BUS-ENG-LET). This shows that generally is often used non-­ persuasively when the author simply goes on to report on the whole. Similarly, approximately can only introduce rounded quantities. 21. While the company has generally been able to obtain such licenses (…) (BUS-ENG-REV-04)

Hedges may 133.4 could 91.4 would 53.2 generally 30.0 approximately 23.2 likely 8.2 indicate 7.5 might 6.7 Boosters will 231,6 show 32.2 demonstrate 11.2 confirm 10.5 prove 8.2 clearly 5.2

BUS-­ ENG 181.3 126.0 34.3 43.1 31.0 8.8 6.6 5.5 186.8 27.6 7.7 6.6 4.4 2.2

339.5 43.9 18.5 18.5 16.2 13.9

BUS-ENG-­ REV

34.6 18.5 97.0 4.6 6.9 6.9 9.2 9.2

BUS-ENG-­ LET

bude/budeme/budou [will] dokázat [prove] potvrdit [confirm] prokázat [prove] zřejmý [obvious] jednoznačně [unambiguously/ clearly]

moci [may/can] téměř [almost] zhruba [roughly] předpokládat [suppose] přibližně [approximately] možná [possibly] ukazovat [show] pravděpodobně [probably/likely]

Table 4.5  Hedges and boosters in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic comparison

311.3 11.6 8.3 6.6 5.8 4.2

78.9 22.4 13.3 10.8 10.8 5.8 5.0 3.3

223.8 32.0 6.4 12.8 19.2 12.8

70.3 44.8 6.4 12.8 12.8 12.8 12.8 12.8

BUS-CZ-­ BUS-CZ LET

324.1 8.6 8.6 5.7 3.8 2.9

80.1 19.1 14.3 10.5 10.5 4.8 3.8 1.9

BUS-CZ-­ REV

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

185

186 

R. Vogel

Boosters are commonly verbal, expressing certainty (will), communication (show, demonstrate) and mental processes (confirm). Both in the English and Czech sub-corpora boosters appear more frequently in letters to shareholders, illustrating confidence in and intent to support  the company’s authority and credibility. Self-mentions (discussed in Chap. 7), interactional means of stance, naturally collocate with verbs when self-mentions are used as subjects. Modals which hedge and boost to express commitment can thus be combined with the explicit interactional device of involvement. A small number of such possible collocations enables observation of which types of modal meanings prevail while expressing stance. This can be linked to the role of modals as status markers, based on the parameter of certainty (Hunston, 1999). As Table 4.6 shows, the booster will dominates slightly over the hedge would and more significantly over can, particularly in BUS-ENG-LET. The exclusive pronoun we followed by the modal will is frequent (46.2 in BUS-ENG-LET); it lacks persuasive function when it expresses mere futurity and is used epistemically for prediction (Example 22), but it persuades when the author commits to a certain proposition, perceived Table 4.6  First- and second-person pronouns with their verbal collocates conveying modality BUS-ENG

BUS-ENG-LET

BUS-ENG-REV

Personal pronoun + right extension (modal verb)

Raw occur.

Normalised frequency

Raw occur.

Normalised frequency

Raw occur.

I will I would / I’d I can I could we will we would we can we may we might we must

1 20 1 1 22 5 14 3 1 3

0.7 15.0 0.7 0.7 16.5 4.7 10.5 2.2 7.5 2.2

1 21 2 1 20 5 12 1 1 6

2.3 48.5 4.6 2.3 46.2 11.6 27.7 2.3 2.3 13.9

1 5 – – 11 1 3 1 1 –

Normalised frequency 2.3 11.5 – – 25.4 2.3 6.9 2.3 2.3 –

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

187

in about a third of the cases (Example 23). A similar frequency can be found in the conditional construction I would (48.5 in BUS-ENG-LET), which often expresses the authorʼs tentative and complimentary addressing of the reader (I would like to…). 22. Rok 2016 bude pravděpodobně bohužel ještě těžší než rok 2015. [The year 2016 will unfortunately be even harder than year 2015.] (BUS-CZ-LET-07) 23. Looking ahead, we will continue to lead all creative aspects of Beauty, while benefiting from Coty’s first-class industry expertise and distribution. (BUS-ENG-LET-06) Of the central modals, the modal of possibility can is often used (we can with 27.7 in BUS-ENG-LET) (Example 24). Other verbs of possibility (may, could, might) are rare. It is worth noting that modals of obligation and necessity (must, need, shall, should) are practically absent, as these types of modality are dispreferred (particularly if they have been used in reader reference); internal obligation conveying a strong commitment, expressed by we must, is a certain exception (13.9 in BUS-ENG-LET). 24. (…) mining and metals company in the industry and I can assure you of our ambition in 2018(…) (BUS-ENG-LET-12) While modals of obligation and necessity are scarce, verbs of volition and prediction (Biber et al., 1999) appear to be the most frequent in the business discourse, followed by modals of ability and possibility. Volition and prediction perform a persuasive function, as they can usually be linked to the ethical persuasive appeal, since they help to modulate commitments to claims, evaluate likelihood, show involvement and share the persuaderʼs view. Their persuasiveness is enhanced if the reader can identify with the propositions. Modals of prediction also promote the logical appeal, since they play a crucial role in logical inference and reasoning.

188 

R. Vogel

4.6 Figurative Lexical Means Rhetorical figures, metaphors and other figurative lexis are powerful persuasive means. Parallelism is a rhetorical device that emphasises certain key concepts and allows variation or gradation of a proposition while a grammatical structure is repeated. Example 25 shows structural repetition containing a series of personal pronominal subjects with contracted auxiliary verbs: 25. We’ve advanced our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. We’ve continued to cultivate (…). We’re leading profound digital transformation both for people and institutions. We’ve achieved strong financial results. And we’re building a sturdy foundation for an even brighter future. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) Extensive enumerations (Example 26) enhance competence because the company presents a variety of its achievements, skills and products. Enumerations also appeal to logos, by providing a (nearly) complete picture of reality, exemplifying and being factual. 26. What it means for people is that Microsoft helps them get more out of every moment – creating, collaborating, learning, gaming, being mobile, and staying secure. (BUS-ENG-LET-03) Pathos is achieved by ‘identification’ or ‘sociality’ (Higgins & Walker, 2012, p. 198), that is identifying the values, goals and needs of the company with those of its stakeholders (i.e. the audience of the reports). Corporate persuaders make an effort to assure their readers that well-­ being and satisfaction of their customers and/or employees are at the centre of corporate policies. It is natural, as corporations assert, that investment in employees and their development will be repaid by the employees’ greater contribution to the activities of the company (Example 27), which will ultimately benefit all parties.

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

189

27. Employee engagement has also risen steadily (…) and Unilever is now regularly recognised as one of the world’s most admired and sought-after employers. (BUS-ENG-LET-09) It seems to be good manners to thank employees in executive statements (Example 28). The gratitude expressed by a company to its workers is a direct appeal to emotions, that is pathos. Note that the emotional appeal to staff using the first-person perspective is linked with an invitation to the reader to perform a textual action, in the form of the second person. 28. On behalf of the Boards I would like to thank all of Unilever’s 169,000 employees for their efforts, energy and the successes that you will read about in this Strategic Report. (BUS-ENG-LET-09) Along with honouring employees, the company’s top executive appreciates explicitly the work and efforts of the management and board (Example 29), stressing their skills, expertise, determination and resourcefulness, thus appealing to character, that is ethos. 29. Our accelerating transformation through 2016 and into the new year makes us confident that ABB has the portfolio of businesses and the leadership team to create superior value for our customers, shareholders and employees. (BUS-ENG-LET-04) Although customers, investors and business partners are normally not addressed explicitly, in some annual reports their contribution and support are appreciated explicitly, thus creating engagement and enhancing pathos (Example 30). They are also persuaded about the company’s good management and inner harmony. 30. Similarly, the ongoing support of ABB’s customers and partners makes all the company’s achievements possible. Finally, the continued trust that you, ABB’s shareholders, have bestowed on the company is the foundation upon which this enterprise has been built. (BUS-ENG-LET-04)

190 

R. Vogel

Appeal to the emotions of the target audience is aroused by quoting the companyʼs care for women, talented young people, minorities and people with disabilities, generally under the umbrella of an equal opportunities policy (Example 31). 31. A similar emphasis has been given to the diversity of talent – and in particular to gender balance – again, with great results. The proportion of women occupying management grades now stands at 45% of the total, the largest figure in Unilever’s history and up from 38% just five years ago. (BUS-ENG-LET-09) Mention of the companyʼs engagement with the community (an expression of social or corporate responsibility) has become an indispensable part of annual reports, especially those of big corporations. Help, solidarity and caring make an appeal to pathos. Images of closeness and good neighbourhood are on the ethos-pathos interface. Of Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) classic conceptual metaphors, we can identify “Life is a journey”, “Social organisations are plants” and a paraphrase of “Love is war”, namely “Business is war”. The first of these often gets paraphrased as “doing business is a journey” (Example 32). The metaphor of ‘a journey’ contains “images of learning, progression and adaptation” (Higgins & Walker, 2012, p. 200), together with planned direction and a goal (Example 33). 32. (…) and hope that you will continue to accompany us on our journey (…) (BUS-ENG-LET-24) 33. (…) nesmíme odbočit z vytyčené cesty či ubrat plyn. [(…) we mustn’t digress from the chosen path nor throttle back.] (BUS-CZ-LET-01) The metaphor of war is weakened to reference to struggle and coping with challenges, and companies stress their determination and resilience, thus strengthening the ethical appeal (Example 34). 34. Nepochybně budeme opět čelit výzvám. Mohu Vás ujistit, že bez ohledu na náročnost úkolů se jako obvykle poučíme a z procesu jejich řešení vyjdeme ještě silnější a zkušenější.

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

191

[Undoubtedly, we will face challenges again. I can assure you that regardless of how demanding the tasks are we will learn from them as usual and the process of their solution will make us even stronger and more experienced.] (BUS-ENG-LET-11) Higgins and Walker (2012, p.  196) consider metaphors of journey, balance and “triple bottom line” related to economic, social and environmental development as tools for blending ecological and economic discourses into a new discourse of “business and sustainability” (Milne, Tregidga, & Walton, 2009). These metaphors help to bridge the gap between a company and the people and institutions outside of it, humanise the company’s endeavour and make its drive for profit generally acceptable, as it is claimed that everybody benefits.

4.7 Conclusion Overt evaluation in corporate annual reports contributes both to lexically realised persuasion, placing it in the informational persuasion register (Biber & Zhang, 2018), and opinionated persuasion, characterised by explicit lexico-grammatical devices supporting stance (modal verbs, stance or evaluative adverbials; Biber et al., 1999). However, this study has found clear preference for positive evaluative lexis as well as self-­ mentions and engagement markers in the sub-corpus of letters to shareholders, whereas the positive lexis and other interactional resources are not so prominent in reviews. This suggests that ethos and pathos are preferred as persuasive appeals in more personally oriented sub-genres. The analysis of the business sub-corpora suggests that persuasion to a great extent involves choices of evaluative adjectives and adverbs, semantically vivid, dynamic and appealing words, and generally lexical items which possess positive connotations. The study confirms the findings of previous research into evaluative lexis by Abrahamson and Amir (1996), Rutherford (2005), Malavasi (2006), Poole (2017) and others who claim that corporate persuaders employ lexical choices for ‘impression management’. The frequency analysis has confirmed that positive and negative

192 

R. Vogel

evaluative acts, showing approval versus disapproval, favourable versus unfavourable stance, are largely realised by corresponding choices of lexis. English-language annual reports rely on hedges and boosters more than Czech ones; modal verbs in particular are frequent interactional devices which characteristically hedge English-language reviews. Boosting is prominent in letters to shareholders both in English and in Czech. The frequency of interactional devices exceeds that of interactive ones, and Anglophone writers favour them more prominently (cf. Huang & Rose, 2018). The discourse of annual reports employs all three classical persuasive appeals. Logos is conveyed by strategies consisting in provision of evidence, reference to facts, exemplification, explanation, clarity, logical reasoning and visual style. There is a logos-ethos interface, namely when the authors of reports strive to provide relevant, logical and accurate information in an appropriate, understandable and trustworthy manner. Credibility and trust are enhanced by quoting the writer’s experience and competence, and the organisation’s achievements. An ethical appeal is seen in authorial involvement realised by the first-person reference, which is dominantly plural and exclusive, and reader engagement, using the second person to address stakeholders. The plural corporate voice is a manifestation of community, corporate responsibility and a certain equality of management and staff. It may imply involvement of some intended readers, namely shareholders, customers and clients, as members of an extended community. Observations made in this chapter are similar to those made by Higgins and Walker (2012, pp. 197–198), who specifically include “similitude, deference, expertise, self-criticism and the appeal to the inclination to succeed” among strategies appealing to ethos. These credibility-boosting devices are combined with appeals to expertise, stressing the institution’s qualifications, competence, experience and knowledgeability, which “contribute to both ethos (credibility) and logos (reason)”. The ethical strategies of expressing attitude and sharing personal views (mostly using stance adverbs) border on the pathetic and are realised by evaluative lexis with positive connotations. The implied positiveness, avoidance of negative connotations, emphasis on social and environmental responsibility, and the creating of a sense of community and an

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

193

atmosphere of caring build the pathetic appeal. Politeness, cooperativeness and sharing represent an effective ethos-pathos interface.

References Abrahamson, E., & Amir, E. (1996). The information content of the presidentʼs letter to shareholders. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 23(8), 1157–1183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5957.1996.tb01163.x Bhatia, V. K. (2005). Generic patterns in promotional discourse. In H. Halmari & T.  Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across genres: A linguistic approach (pp.  213–225). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.130.13bha Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/scl.23 Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, S. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson. Biber, D., & Zhang, M. (2018). Expressing evaluation without grammatical stance: Informational persuasion on the web. Corpora, 13(1), 97–123. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2018.0137 Brünner, G. (2000). Wirtschaftskommunikation: Linguistische Analyse ihrer mündlichen Formen. Tübingen, Germany: Max Niemeyer. Burke, K. (1969). A rhetoric of motives. Berkley, CA: University of California Press. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2009). Analysing genre: The colony text of UNESCO resolutions. Brno, Czechia: Masaryk University. https://doi.org/10.5817/ CZ.MUNI.M210-8858-2017 Fairclough, N. (1993). Critical discourse analysis and the marketization of public discourse: The universities. Discourse and Society, 4(2), 133–168. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0957926593004002002 Herrick, J. (2018). The history and theory of rhetoric: An introduction (6th ed.). New York/London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315404141 Higgins, C., & Walker, R. (2012). Ethos, logos, pathos: Strategies of persuasion in social/environmental reports. Accounting Forum, 36, 194–208. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.accfor.2012.02.003 Hoey, M. (2001). Textual interaction: An introduction to written discourse analysis. London/New York: Routledge.

194 

R. Vogel

Huang, Y., & Rose, K. (2018). You, our shareholders: Metadiscourse in CEO letters from Chinese and Western banks. Text & Talk, 38(2), 167–190. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2017-0041 Hundt, M. (2000). Textsorten des Bereichs Wirtschaft und Handel. In K. Brinker, G. Antos, W. Heinemann, & S. S. Sager (Eds.), Linguistics of text and conversation: An international handbook of contemporary research (pp. 642–658). Berlin, Germany/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. (Eds.). (1999). Evaluation in text: Authorial stance and the construction of discourse. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (1998). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(98)00009-5 Hyland, K. (2002). Directives: Argument and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Janich, N. (2017). Genres in the business context: An introduction. In G.  Mautner & F.  Rainer (Eds.), Handbook of business communication: Linguistic approaches (pp.  41–61). Boston/Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614514862-003 Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Malavasi, D. (2006). Evaluation in banks’ annual reports: A comparison of EL1 and EIL.  In M.  Gotti & D.  S. Giannoni (Eds.), New trends in specialized discourse analysis (pp. 109–128). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Marconi, J. (2004). Public relations: The complete guide (n.p.). Mason, OH: Thomson Learning. Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. Matlin, M., & Stang, D. (1978). The Pollyanna principle. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman. Milne, M., Tregidga, H., & Walton, S. (2009). Words not actions! The ideological role of sustainable development reporting. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 22, 1211–1257. https://doi.org/10.1108/0951357 0910999292

4  Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of Evaluative… 

195

Pho, P.  D. (2013). Authorial stance in research articles: Examples from applied linguistics and educational technologies. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137032782 Poole, R. (2017). “New opportunities” and “strong performance”: Evaluative adjectives in letters to shareholders and potential for pedagogically-­downsized specialized corpora. English for Specific Purposes, 47, 40–51. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.esp.2017.03.003 Rutherford, B. A. (2005). Genre analysis of corporate annual report narratives: A corpus linguistics-based approach. Journal of Business Communication, 42(4), 349–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943605279244 Thomas, J. (1997). Discourse in the marketplace: The making of meaning in annual reports. The Journal of Business Communication, 34(1), 47–66. https:// doi.org/10.1177/002194369703400103 Vogel, R. (2018). Persuasion in business documents: Strategies for reporting positively on negative phenomena. Ostrava Journal of English Philology, 10(1), 55–70. Yeung, L. (2007). In search of commonalities: Some linguistic and rhetorical features of business reports as a genre. English for Specific Purposes, 26(2), 156–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2006.06.004

5 Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour to Enhance Persuasive Effect in Sermons

5.1 Opening Remarks Paradoxical though it may seem, humour and religion are not mutually exclusive. Not only do they coexist, they can complement each other to fruitful effect. Over the millennia, both humour and religion have been part of human nature, thinking and communication; they seem to constitute an integral segment of human essence. Furthermore, even though the two areas seem to be so different in their contents, they manifest some features that make them related, be it their intangible, ethereal substance, social sensitivity, dynamic or apparent analytical delicacy (e.g. Crystal, 2018; Geybels & van Herck, 2011; Overstreet, 2014). There is one more key element that they have in common: persuasion. In many senses, persuasion is a common denominator that truly represents the intrinsic link between religions on the one hand and humour on the other. Genuinely associated with people’s beliefs and convictions, persuasion is generally held to be virtually omnipresent across discourses, genres, contexts, times and cultures (Dillard & Pfau, 2002; Halmari & Virtanen, 2005, p.  3; Perloff, 2010; cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018; Povolná, 2019). Persuasive strategies are “adopted by users to highlight crucial © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_5

197

198 

M. Adam

points, to present ideas as well as to procure one’s arguments with the intention to convince others” (Adam, 2019a, p. 15). In recent decades the need for tactical employment of persuasion seems to be accelerating, particularly in connection with the world of the media, advertising, business and politics (Cotterell & Turner, 1989; Dynel, 2011; Perloff, 2010; cf. Vogel, 2018). Owing to its long-time, traditional role in society, religion appears to see persuasion as one of the ultimate goals historically interwoven in its genetic code (Adam, 2019a; Geybels & van Herck, 2011). Chapter 5 aims to explore protestant sermons in terms of the employment of humour as a persuasive tool; humour is seen here as a genuine component of the whole array of persuasive strategies and language means adopted in homiletic texts. There exist, of course, a number of other, perhaps more obvious and predictable persuasive traits of sermons, such as the use of self-mentions, reader pronouns, directives, questions, boosters or hedges; these persuasive means operating in sermons are explored in detail in Chaps. 2 and 7 of the present volume. The study of humour as a persuasive strategy has been motivated by the fact that sermons appear to purposefully utilise the tension between the serious and the non-serious: research has suggested that in religious discourse the desired persuasive effect is effectively reinforced by the intentional juxtaposition of the factual (notably serious theological content and references to credible sources) on the one hand and the affective (both positive and negative emotions) on the other (Adam, 2017; Dvořák, 2013; Halmari & Virtanen, 2005; Kater, 2019; Overstreet, 2014, pp. 119–122). Chapter 5 examines how humour employed deliberately by the preacher may foster persuasive force in sermons. Moreover, it strives to shed light on what sorts of humour are adopted by those whose primary aim is to deliver a serious message to their congregation with the ultimate goal of reinforcing persuasion, that is preachers delivering their messages from the pulpit at church, and in what contexts.

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

199

5.2 Humour and Persuasion In the preface to his monograph, Nash (1985) aptly states the following: “[T]he fact is that, in humour, the diversities of our living and thinking tumble together in patterns adventitious and freakish and elegant, like the elaborate conformations of a kaleidoscope” (p. xi). The notion of humour stretches from simple short jokes used in everyday conversation to elaborate and sophisticated mental exercises. Furthermore, as an interdisciplinary subject, humour poses a true challenge to scholars, as it dates all the way back to Aristotle and Plato with their thoughts on poetics, rhetoric and philosophy (Attardo, 2017; Raskin, 1985). The theoretical framework of humour is multifarious (Attardo, Pickering, Lomotey, & Menjo, 2013), and at times it is viewed by authors as obfuscatory (Nash, 1985, p. xi; cf. Martin, 2007). Whatever the definition and the viewpoint, researchers usually understand humour as a creative act related to the following characteristic features: “a dual plan of meaning, semantic contradiction, and the bisociativity between the two frames of reference” (Gyuro, 2017, p. 48; cf. Krikman, 2009). Humour stems from a functional (deliberate) oscillation between two sorts of frame; the resulting tension then triggers the (intended) semantic ambiguity and potentially humorous reading and interpretation. As has been hinted above, to capture the multifaceted phenomenon of humour in its entirety, with all its nuances, is a complex task. Consequently, there are numerous theories that approach humour from all possible angles and within various disciplines (for a survey of theories of humour, see e.g. Attardo, 1994, 2017; Martin, 2007; Raskin, 1985, whose investigations draw above all on pragmatics and cognitive linguistics). Of the many theories of humour based principally on a psychological-­ anthropological approach, scholars of different backgrounds distinguish the following, for instance: the classic Superiority Theory attributed to Plato, Aristotle and Hobbes, in which humour is seen as an “expression of misfortunes”, and the aim of which is to humiliate the interlocutor through interaction (Hobbes, 1840, 1981); the Relief Theory, which argues that “laughter is a homeostatic mechanism by which psychological tension is reduced” (Berlyne, 1972, p.  47); and the Incongruous

200 

M. Adam

Juxtaposition Theory, according to which humour is produced when normally unrelated phenomena are unexpectedly matched, replacing familiarity and logic (Attardo, 1994; Hillson & Martin, 1994). In their Script-based Semantic Theory of Humor, which is cognition-­ based and language-oriented, Attardo and Raskin (1991) introduce the “knowledge resources” of the listener by which they can generate humour, for instance in the form of a joke (cf. Attardo, 1994; Dynel, 2011; Gyuro, 2017, pp. 48–49; Nash, 1985, pp. 2–12). The analysis is based on a set of parameters, such as their narrative strategy, identity of the target audience, logical mechanisms or the language used (Attardo, 1994, pp. 223–226, 2001; Nash, 1985, pp. 26–29). According to Attardo and Raskin (1991), a humorous piece of language typically begins with an ambiguous initial part, which has two possible interpretations (cf. Dynel, 2011; Raskin, 1985). As Gyuro (2017) neatly summarises, “One part is dominant while the other is less obvious for the audience. Following the processing of the joke, the secondary interpretation becomes obvious” (pp. 53–54). In connection with the genesis of a joke, Nash (1985) speaks pertinently of the phenomena of “witty compression and comic expansion” (pp.  13–25). In sermons, it is precisely this binary semantic-­ pragmatic character, along with the space left intentionally for the listener, that makes an utterance potentially humorous. Whereas scholars doubt the existence of an all-embracing typology of humour (see e.g. Attardo, 1994, p. 3), there exist a number of taxonomies of humorous sub-genres; most of them are directly related to text types as well as to a set of language features that are typical of the given text. In a paper in which they attempt to provide a universal set of content-­based criteria suitable for the characteristics of verbal humour, Mihalcea and Pulman (2007) arrive at several semantic classes of vocabulary that trigger humorous effect. They associate the following linguistic features with the occurrence of humour: human-centric vocabulary, negative polarity, relation to professional communities that are prototypically connected with amusing situations in popular culture, such as policemen, focus on human weaknesses.

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

201

5.3 U  sing Humour as a Persuasive Strategy in Sermons The purpose of the genre of sermons is naturally connected with ideology. According to Carter and Nash (1990), “ideology is encoded in the linguistic organisation of the text” (p. 59); its principal vehicle is therefore persuasion. Virtanen and Halmari (2005) define persuasion as a communicative purpose conveyed by various rhetorical strategies and related “linguistic choices that aim at changing or affecting the behaviour of others or strengthening the existing beliefs” (p. 5). It follows that such linguistic choices observed in sermons naturally fall into one of the three classical types of Aristotelian appeal to the audience (summarised e.g. in Hogan, 2013; Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, pp. 5–6; cf. the Preface and Chap. 1 of the present volume). Humour is present in all three components of the Aristotelian triad. Above all, it logically encompasses the pathetic appeal to the audience, since both the genesis and the desired effect of humour are inevitably associated with affect. Unlike the other three specialised discourses studied in this book, religious discourse systematically employs pathos within its persuasive strategies. The emotions stirred by humour in sermons enable the preacher to enhance the persuasive effect of the message by an intentional tension between light-hearted components on the one hand and serious, theological content on the other. Furthermore, the credibility of the sermon and the preacher is prototypically reinforced by the ethical appeal to the audience, communicated especially by the sharing of personal experience and the claiming of common ground. In this sort of persuasive strategy, humour is adopted as one of the key realisations; preachers make frequent use of humorous anecdotes and personal stories that co-create an ethical background for the doctrinal truths to be presented. Finally, the logical component of appeal may be purposefully used in connection with humour. Different sorts of persuasive exemplification, such as biblical quotes and other credible sources, may be enriched by humorous traits, thus resulting in a potentially surprising effect on the audience. Such strategies may include humorous updates and/or interpretations of biblical stories and characters, or lexical humour (such as puns and plays on words, including those

202 

M. Adam

altering biblical verses), which enhance the persuasive force of the argumentation and the rational appeal to the congregation. Although humour may play a role in all three sorts of appeal to the audience in an elaborate interplay, its primary domain within the persuasive process in sermons is that of pathos. The sermons under investigation feature a whole array of different humour items that fall into different categories of humorous elements. In terms of the procedure, individual categories of extracted humour items will be presented, classified and interpreted regarding their persuasive functions as well as their persuasive force. The REL sub-corpus of the CECSD corpus (for details, see Chap. 2) contains Protestant sermons covering the topics of Advent and Christmas. Due to the complex semantic and pragmatic nature of humour, traits of humour had to be searched for and excerpted manually from the sub-corpus. Admittedly, humour items are not distributed evenly over the research corpus. Whereas some sermons display several humorous passages, others do not contain a single humorous item. The degree to which preachers employ humour in their sermons will, of course, largely depend on their personal rhetoric style and momentous preferences, and on the given topic of the sermon. The corpus data reveal two broad categories of humour items used in sermons that create the following analytical framework: (i) figurative humour items, which deal with individual humorous words or phrases, often related to word formation processes, figures and tropes; (ii) narrative humour items, that is larger structures of narrative character, be they sentences, clusters of sentences or paragraphs.

5.3.1 Figurative Humour Items The most frequent category of figurative language in both Anglophone and Czech sermons seems to be creative wordplay, with humorous effect drawn from neologisms and puns (Examples 1, 2 and 3): 1. No a potom je velká skupina lidí, kterou jsem nazval postmoderní něco-­ teisté. (REL-CZ-21)

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

203

[And then there is a large group of people I have called postmodern something-theists.] 2. Jak moc je naše svědectví nebo spíše nesvědectví určováno strachem z reakce kolegů? (REL-CZ-09) [How much is our testimony, or rather non-testimony, determined by fear of our colleagues’ reaction?] 3. At this time of the year there is a high level of excitement that Christmas is coming. But the holiday, not the holy day. (…) (REL-ENG-14) In Example 3, a parallel is drawn between the times of John the Baptist and the present day; in both cases, people were/are looking forward to a great event (baptism at the Jordan River vs shopping at Christmas). In his illustration, the preacher aptly makes use of the morphological similarity and, at the same time, the semantic difference between the two phrases, implying that Christmas should be regarded as a holy day, not just a common holiday. Example 3 thus nicely illustrates the dual nature of humour mentioned in theoretical terms above (Attardo & Raskin, 1991; Raskin, 1985): through secondary interpretation, a first-plan notion is transformed into another plan, be it modernisation, topicalisation or simply some (unexpected) meaning added with a humorous effect; this “twist” feature is present in all humour items studied. Similarly, in Example 4, it is made clear that the inn in Bethlehem was a very simple, uncomfortable place, not a Holiday Inn hotel: 4. We are so immersed in American culture that we read the text this way: “There was no room for them at the Bethlehem Holiday Inn.” (REL-ENG-49) Later in the same sermon, the speaker refers to the nativity scene in the tabloid press manner, with humorous effect in mind. (The manger plays a double role, which derives from the dual principle of humour.) Incidentally, analogous mechanisms are often employed in sermon titles (cf. Adam, 2017); in Example 5, by means of allusion, the preacher mentions somebody else’s sermon topic:

204 

M. Adam

5. Someone preached on this text using the title, “Miracle on Manger Street”. That’s clever and catchy, and it’s also appropriate because there really was a miracle on “manger street” the night Jesus was born. (REL-ENG-49). In Example 6, the preacher takes advantage of two English homophones (boughs—bows), with the help of a Christmas carol referring to the necessity of a reverend and respectful celebration of Christmas. He purposefully misspells the word in the lyrics projected on the screen just before the sermon. Such an intentional play on words makes it possible for him to go on to talk about the matter at hand. 6. [preacher showing a video on the screen] Yes the video had it wrong! It is boughs as in branches, spelt ‘b-o-u-g-h-s’ not ‘b-o-w-s’!!! “Deck the halls with boughs of holly.” (REL-ENG-37) Another set of favourite humorous elements in sermons is related to what may be called creative labelling. In it, the preacher gives a humorous, light-hearted label to someone or something that is otherwise serious or even dignified. In the ironical note in Example 7, the preacher actually ridicules the stereotypical mundane idea of God the Father. An analogous strategy may be observed in Examples 8 and 9: 7. Superficial faith or feigned faith says: “I believe in God” but many times sees God as the “old man upstairs” with no influence or their lives. (REL-ENG-04) 8. (…) all these little stories belong within an overarching story: the Big story, the story about the meaning of everything, the story that begins with creation in the beginning and ends with new creation at the end. (REL-ENG-31) 9. Because Elizabeth, the daughter of the Old Economy, was the first singer of the New Economy. (REL-ENG-04) The label Big story (Example 8) is used as a metaphor for the whole ‘story of the Bible’, the history of mankind from the creation of the world to salvation through Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection. The

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

205

expressions Old/New Economy (Example 9) refer to the Old and New Testaments (or the old and new eras in a broader sense) in a similar manner: it seems that preachers employ such a strategy when they want to get closer to their audience, in the hope of looking more ‘human’ and down-to-earth. The last lexical means with humorous effect to be mentioned is associated with deliberate use of colloquialisms within a standard and rather formal English text; this approach is rather similar in effect to the previous category. Here, the preachers invest what they say with a more colloquial flavour, which facilitates persuasive force in the context of church worship (Examples 10 and 11): 10. Představte si, že (…) je noc, a na protějším kopci se rozsvítí mega reflektory… (REL-CZ-21) [Imagine that (…) it is night, and mega headlights are shining on the opposite hill…] 11. Went to the humblest of homes in that place and sought out the most submissive lass in the town and from that trinity of country, home, and lass brought forth the son of the living God! (REL-ENG-04) The Scottish-flavoured non-standard English expression lass is purposefully used here (repeatedly in the whole passage) to denote the Virgin Mary. Once again, the sacred is given a colloquial, slang touch, apparently with the intention of getting down to the style of ‘ordinary’ people. This choice of vocabulary is accompanied by corresponding grammatical structures, such as an unexpressed subject, overuse of demonstrative reference (in that place; from that trinity country) or a missing definite article (lass). An identical policy is adopted in Examples 12 and 13 (informality, colloquial way of address): 12. Do you get mad at the Road Runner (…)? Nope. (REL-ENG-07) 13. Listen, folks, we ought to take a long hard look at this little lass called Mary. (REL-ENG-04)

206 

M. Adam

In summary, it is possible to claim that apart from fulfilling the prototypical role of pathetic appeal to audience (through evoked emotions), humour employed at the lexical level is often rooted in a functional utilisation of rational appeal to the persuadees, especially by means of language creativity, such as wordplay, neologisms or style alterations, which all in effect represent a challenge to the audience’s mental perception.

5.3.2 Narrative Humour Items The highest number of humour items was identified in narrative, in-text chunks operating on the syntactic and textual level, typically in the preachers’ illustrations (cf. Nash, 1985, pp. 26–27). Below, selected individual subtypes of these narrative strategies will be explored in terms of their persuasive force, as well as in relation to their humorous character. One of the most popular humour items observed within the sermons under scrutiny is openers and icebreakers. By definition, such elements are determined by two aspects: first, their positioning at the very beginning of the sermon, that is in the opening passage, and, second, by their typical semantic contents; they prototypically represent a rather light-­ hearted illustration, such as a personal reminiscence, the principal aim of which is to ‘break the ice’ in the communication between the preacher and the audience as well as to prepare the ground for the main, more serious body of the homily (Examples 14 and 15). 14. Přiznám se, že nemám moc rád budíky, a když mi ráno zazvoní budík, nejraději bych ho zaklapnul a spal dál. (…) Ale budík je neúprosný! Ať se nám to líbí nebo ne, Boží slovo nás i dnes chce probudit. (REL-CZ-13) [I admit I don’t like alarm clocks very much, and if my alarm clock rings in the morning, I’d prefer to click it and keep sleeping. (…) But the alarm clock is relentless! Whether we like it or not, God’s Word wants to wake us today.] 15. Honestly, I did not know what “eliminated” meant, but I knew it was not good. As she passed by me she said I too was eliminated and to take a

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

207

seat. Whatever eliminated meant… I knew I was not chosen to be in the choir. (…) Are you chosen? (...) (REL-ENG-05) These personal reminiscences or confessions by preachers appear right at the beginning of their sermons. In the latter, through a humorous account, the preacher manages to attract attention to the words eliminate and chosen, thereby building a bridge to the principal topic of the message, that is what it means to be chosen in the Christian context. In Example 16, the preacher draws on a historical tradition, concluding his point with a lascivious, if not flippant, observation. Apart from making natural contact and reinforcing a relaxed atmosphere, he enhances interaction with the audience. Again, a humorous communication bridge is constructed, allowing the preacher to continue to address the topic of Christmas symbols and symptomatic artefacts (in a logical line with the mistletoe and holly mentioned previously). Somewhat atypically, the opener/icebreaker is clearly separated formally by the phrase So, joking aside, the role of which is to communicate that a serious matter is about to be presented. 16. There are indications that in ancient British village life there was a midwinter custom of holding singing-contests between men and women, where the men sang carols praising holly and disparaging ivy, while women sang songs praising ivy and disparaging holly. The resolution between the two was under the mistletoe! So, joking aside, (…) (REL-ENG-37) From time to time, preachers make use of unexpected, at times even strange, illustrations in opening passages of sermons. They may achieve this by use of functional contrast, where a jokey spirit as well as absurdity help to illustrate the principle described (Example 17): 17. Atheists know God is real. How do you know? Mention God and they get angry. How many of you believe that Mickey Mouse is a myth and does not exist? He is a fictional character. You know he is a myth, but if someone mentions Mickey Mouse, do you get angry? (REL-ENG-07)

208 

M. Adam

Various quotes from the Internet, newspapers, blogs, books and the like also represent a popular source of openers and icebreakers for preachers. In Example 18, the preacher talks about his personal experience of choosing the right Christmas presents: 18. My twin sons are 23 years old now and both have girlfriends, and they’ll all be with us for Christmas. So I’ve been trying to decide on suitable presents for the two girls figuring that they’ve already got a closet full of scarves from me for their previous birthdays and Christmases. (…) So then I tried googling gift ideas for women in their twenties. There’s a lot that comes up: Top 10 gift ideas for a female age 21–26 from painted belt to homemade lip balm to duct tape feather earrings to cement garden stones. (…) What do we do differently when we remember that Christmas is NOT our birthday? That Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. So the question for you to ponder today is What are you giving Jesus for his birthday? (REL-ENG-40) This witty account illustrated by numerous tips from the Internet moves the speaker nearer to the congregation, who are now more ready to identify with the story and the experience it tells of. This is especially needed for the key sections of the sermon, where such identification on the part of the audience is more than welcome; people’s comprehension of the doctrine will be easier and more accepting. Incidentally, this sermon is titled “Jesus’ Wish List”, and it discusses what Jesus might like believers to give Him; the motif of tips for funny Christmas presents is gradually transformed into the ‘greatest gift ever given to man’, namely Jesus’ sacrifice and salvation. An analogous strategy is used in many other Christmas sermons; Example 19, for instance, exploits the picture of an ‘ideal Christmas’. The speaker uses irony and humour to prepare the ground for his sermon on the main message of Christmas, juxtaposing the idyllic, yet clearly hyperbolic, opening idea with the good news as presented in the New Testament: 19. What does a perfect Christmas look like? A perfectly shaped and decorated Christmas tree with piles of presents exquisitely wrapped. Outdoor lights strung up. Relatives happily sat around conversing amicably. Great

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

209

food cooked to perfection. (…) Consumer-focused marketing and Victorian Christmas traditions have replaced the Biblical meaning of Emmanuel – God-with-us. (…) (REL-ENG-41) To sum up, including openers and icebreakers enables the preacher to prepare the persuadees for the more serious phases of the sermon, thus enhancing the ethical appeal, above all through sharing personal experience and claiming common ground with the congregation. The ethos of opening passages is logically accompanied by extensive use of self-mentions and reader pronouns, achieving a greater degree of interaction and a sense of community. The second category of humour items traced in the sermons may simply be labelled ‘anecdotes’. An anecdote is defined as “a short, often funny story, especially about something someone has done” (Anecdote, Cambridge Dictionary). In the sermons under analysis anecdotes take either the form of a joke as such, or, less frequently, an anecdotic (or even anecdotal) personal story experienced by someone, frequently the preacher him- or herself. Unlike openers and icebreakers, anecdotes, as a rule, do not refer to other sources; they present the joke directly (Example 20). 20. There’s an old joke that goes something like this: What would have happened if it had been three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men? Answer: They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts! (…) I was reading a blog entry where Carey Kinsolving asked some children If You Were One of the Wise Men, What Gift Would You Bring to Jesus? (…) Megan, aged 11, said, “If I were a wise man, I would first consult with God and ask Him what to give Him.” What a profound answer. Megan makes a good point. (REL-ENG-39) In fact, Example 20 displays a double use of anecdote: first, the preacher tells a joke, and, second, he hastens to mediate another topic-related anecdotic account extracted from a blog, which leads directly to the main subject matter of the sermon. Thus, through humour and a mediated

210 

M. Adam

appeal to the persuadees’ conscience, he succeeds in bridging the non-­ serious exposition with a serious climax, so reinforcing the ethical component of persuasion. As has been noted, sometimes anecdotes told by the preacher consist in sharing real-life stories experienced by the preacher him- or herself, or another person. A humorous motif with ethical accent serves to enhance the persuasive power of the sermon (Example 21): 21. Here’s what happened to a friend this week. Her Christmas cards that she had ordered with photos of her daughter were delivered and they had the wrong family name emblazoned across the front! She had forgotten to change the name in the template that she used! We run ourselves into the ground emotionally, physically, financially, and relationally all to create one perfect day in an imperfect year. (REL-ENG-41) The funny true story flows into a more general comment on Christmas time, and this more serious note leads into the central passage of a sermon devoted to ‘disillusionment at Christmas’, which is closely related to the title of the sermon, “Giving up on perfect”. The way out of that disillusionment is represented in Jesus Christ and what He has to offer: order and sense in our wretched, imperfect lives. Not in vain does the preacher repeat the following key sentence, which we might even call a slogan: Christmas is about God showing up in the mess. At other times, the anecdotes utilised in sermons take the concise form of a classic joke, such as in Example 22. Here, the occupation of priest and Christian practice are ridiculed by means of the thesis—antithesis structure: 22. Dva faráři diskutují, zda se i dnes dějí zázraky. První to popírá, druhý však naléhá: „O jednom mohu vydat svědectví. Šel jsem na procházku do lesa a najednou se přede mnou objevil velký medvěd. Já udělal kříž a hlasitě jsem říkal: Ve jménu Otce i Syna i Ducha svatého… a medvěd se dal ihned na útěk. „Druhý farář však zvolal: „To není žádný zázrak. Ten medvěd vzal nohy na ramena, protože si myslel, že chceš začít kázání!“ (REL-CZ-07)

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

211

[Two priests discuss whether miracles still happen today. The first denies this, but the second insists: “I can bear witness to one. I went for a walk in the woods and suddenly a big bear appeared in front of me. I made the sign of the cross and said loudly: In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost... and the bear fled immediately.” But the other priest exclaimed, “That is no miracle. The bear ran away because he thought you wanted to start a sermon!”] The section on anecdotes will be concluded by a lengthy sample (Example 23) that illustrates par excellence the subtle employment of humour as a means of mediating the serious: 23. His name was Bill. (…) Across from the campus was a traditional church. They wanted to develop a ministry to students, but weren’t sure how to go about it. One day Bill decided to go worship there. He walked in with his wild hair, T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and shoes with no socks. The service had started. Bill started down the aisle looking for a seat but the church was full. By now people were looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Bill got closer and closer to the front, when he realized there were no seats. He just sat down right on the floor. (…) A deacon slowly made his way toward Bill. This deacon was in his eighties, a distinguished man with silver-gray hair and a three-piece suit. He walked with a cane. Everyone thought, “You can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How could you expect a man of his age and background to understand some college kid, thinking he can worship sitting on the floor?” It took time for the man to reach the boy. The church became utterly silent, except for the clicking of the man’s cane on the tiled floor. All eyes focused on him. When the elderly deacon got next to the boy, he dropped his cane to the floor. With great difficulty he lowered himself and asked Bill, “May I sit with you?” The man sat down next to Bill and worshiped with him, so he wouldn’t be alone. That’s what the birth of Jesus means. Radical action. Radical behavior. Radical gospel. Radical Savior. Radical God. (REL-ENG-47) As clearly evidenced by the text, the preacher builds, step by step, a sophisticated narrative structure, leading the listener by the hand; though

212 

M. Adam

it is an anecdotic story and has humorous traits in it, it soon becomes obvious that its narrative culmination is not as light-hearted as one would expect at the beginning. The climax is unexpected and exploits the dual mechanism of humour: the audience’s expectation is abruptly confronted with a totally startling finale, which is realised as an appealing sequence of chant-like exhortations. The persuasive force (above all the ethical appeal) of the sermon is thus extraordinarily amplified. Owing to the underlying humorous flavour, along with other pathetic means (intense emotions such as sympathy, misgivings or empathy), the listeners— moved, touched and impressed—are gradually prepared for the key message of the illustration. Thereby, they are more ready to accept the doctrine and comprehend the application. Persuasion is revealed here at its full strength; in sermonical anecdotes, it is the ethical and pathetic motifs that appeal to the audience. The third category of humour items detected in the corpus is labelled ‘historical updates’. The items in this category are typically short illustrations that are somehow rooted in the past (e.g. biblical stories or theological principles) but are purposefully transferred to a modern context. Thus, one may observe a classical pattern from history functionally likened to now; in other words, an old principle is updated to bring it into today’s world. In Example 24, Mary is visited by an angel and told that she will conceive through the Holy Spirit and give birth to a son. Greatly perplexed, she tries to manage the new situation. To make this passage more appealing to the audience, the preacher uses a parabolic illustration with the intention of showing what Mary might have contemplated at that historic moment (not at the turn of the millennium 2000 years ago, but as an up-to-date young girl): 24. “Oh, Mr. Angel, I’m too young to understand what all this means! Maybe when I am older I will be able to grasp those truths better but you must understand that just now I cannot take it all in, after all I am but a young lass!” (…) Was that her response? No! No! No! A thousand times no! (…) (REL-ENG-04) This is an old story with a modern twist. The seemingly biblical direct speech features words such as lass, and Mary addresses the Angel of the

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

213

Lord quite ‘unbiblically’, as Mr Angel. This historical update is sealed emphatically by the suggestive question the preacher asks at the end of the passage, before readily providing a fierce answer. The humorous starting point transitions into a thorough account of what Mary did and what her answer really was. The audience is offered the appropriate interpretation: Mary is praised for her courage, loyalty and faith. The same story is presented with a modern flavour in the Czech sample below; here, the situation itself is updated: 25. „Shledalo se, že počala z Ducha svatého.“ (…) Dospívající dcera přijde za mámou. Mami, jsem těhotná! Máma asi spráskne ruce… (REL-CZ-21) [“It was found that she conceived of the Holy Spirit.” (…) The teenage daughter comes to her Mom. Mom, I’m pregnant! My mom will probably be shaken up…] Example 26 depicts another subtype of historical update. The preacher asks why the first Christians in the first century CE did not celebrate Christmas and why there is not a single account of a Christmas celebration in the New Testament. The answer is mediated through a humorous update based on a hyperbole, in which even modern technologies play a part: 26. Did they not care about the birthday of Jesus? Were they opposed to it, perhaps, like the early Pilgrim Fathers here on our own shores, who felt that it was a frivolous and worldly manifestation and forbade it by law? Or was it simply because credit cards had not yet been invented and they could not afford it? (REL-ENG-19) Such allegoric parallelism as described in cases of historical updates reminds one of the ancient literary genres of the parable, albeit in a contemporary or hypothetical framework (cf. Wierzbicka, 2001). Such a strategy is apparently comparable with what Jesus himself used as a central method of sharing His doctrine in the gospels. Parables and historical updates as observed in the sermons primarily appeal to the Christian

214 

M. Adam

ethos of the message (cf. Unger, 2018); the ethical purport is linguistically accentuated by the use of rhetorical questions (see Example 26) and exclamations. The parabolic shift, along with the pathetic (often humorous) mood created by it, seems to represent one of the most powerful tools of persuasive preaching. The next category of humour items traced in the sub-corpus is referred to as ‘ridiculing folk stereotypes’. Within this narrative strategy, preachers humorously recall some stereotypical perception or understanding of a theological notion, principle or character, or an event that is observed in the congregation and/or among believers in general. Such folk misinterpretations or misconceptions are ridiculed in the sermon, and proper space is usually given to an appropriate explanation of the matter. As a rule, this ridiculing sort of humour is affiliative or self-enhancing, and far from aggressive. The preacher’s motivation lies in finding a suitable springboard for a further explication, not in humiliating the audience. In Examples 27 and 28, the preacher talks about a stereotypical understanding of salvation and the character of God respectively: 27. Salvation is not merely a reserved seat in heaven, or an insurance policy against going to hell. Too frequently this is what we make it. (REL-ENG-19) 28. Pán Bůh není ten „kdosi “kdesi daleko od nás. Bůh není ten, kdo tady všechno předem rozhodl, co musíme a co nesmíme dělat, (…) (REL-CZ-43) [The Lord God is not the ‘someone’ somewhere far from us. God is not the one who has decided in advance what we must and must not do, (…).] In another illustration of folk misconceptions (Example 29), the speaker portrays the nativity scene in an idealised, lovable and traditionally idyllic manner. The exaggerated loveliness and romanticism of the picture presented is heavily ironic. Abruptly, the character of St Joseph comes to the fore; one never knows where to put him by the Christmas crib, his place usually being an inconspicuous and unimportant one. This sophisticated exposition, plus the humorous trouble that many contend with, is aptly transformed into the main topic of the sermon: Joseph is

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

215

not just a figure in the nativity scene, but a hero of the Christmas story, who deserves respect and credit. This persuasive accent is rhetorically corroborated by a set of non-assertion speech acts, namely a question— exclamation sequence: 29. There’s a story I read somewhere about how every year the manger scene comes out, and you have to arrange the various figures in it. Of course Baby Jesus is in the middle, and Mary is next to him with a halo, and there are cuddly animals over there. The shepherds have drawn near with beaming faces, having just seen a choir of angels whose song is still ringing in their ears. But where is Joseph? He’s at the back, behind a bale of hay. You never know where to put him. (…) --- I think he deserves to at least be out in front of the bale of hay! (REL-ENG-21) A classic misconception seemingly based on biblical stories is related to the physical appearance of angels. People often take the idea of an angel’s appearance from films and fairy-tales. The preacher takes advantage of this stereotypical concept, and through a humorous segue construed via allusions he prepares the way for a more serious discussion of the key theme of the sermon (and the sermon’s title), that is “With God nothing is impossible” (Example 30): 30. What do angels look like? In our world of Charlie’s Angels, (…) most of our images of angels come from Hollywood, beautiful with fluttering wings, mysterious words, or even looking like ordinary people. The Bible tells us that when angels show up they are dazzling, bright, and shining, and arrive with a specific message. (…) (REL-ENG-34) In summary, in this subtype of humour items in sermons, too, one may observe the bridging role of humour adopted with the intention of appealing to the persuadees, especially in the domains of ethos and pathos. Through ridiculing folk stereotypes (i.e. employment of humour), the preacher makes the doctrine presented later more comprehensible and acceptable to the audience, so preparing the ground for the serious matter.

216 

M. Adam

Out of all the subtypes of humour items discussed in Chap. 5, the following—the personal aside—is the one most directly related to the personality of the preacher. Though insignificant in terms of length, personal asides bring to the attention of the congregation one of the most powerful humorous items that can be traced in sermons. Technically, such side-­ comments are personal notes made ‘incidentally’ by the preacher, be it in impromptu communication from the pulpit or as a comment carefully prepared beforehand. Personal asides (often appearing as afterthoughts) are sometimes differentiated from the surrounding text by parentheses (Examples 31 and 32) and, moreover, graphically indicated by the preacher for his personal use at the pulpit and later in the published sermons by corresponding emoticons, as in Example 32: 31. When our children were little, we used to gather together with other families who had children roughly the same age as ours, and we’d put on skits re-enacting the Christmas story. (I was usually a camel.) (…) (REL-ENG-22) 32. Mnozí z vás máte šedivé vlasy, já také. (Někdo to umí zakrýt ☺) (REL-CZ-16) [Many of you have grey hair, and so do I. (Some people can hide it.☺)] The effect is evident and actually twofold: first, by means of humorous side-comments, the preacher is able to make direct contact with the audience; such jocular phrases can achieve this goal with casualness, swiftness and elegant immediateness (pathos being the main domain of persuasive appeal). Second, through his or her own side-comments the preacher is naturally drawn much nearer to the congregation; it is as if the otherwise reverend and respected pastor, through humorous comments and smiles, has stepped down from his or her pedestal and become one of the ordinary believers, and so more ‘human’ (enhancing credibility and ethos of the sermon). Thus, perhaps paradoxically, wit and cheerfulness bring about deference and credit, especially if the preacher is capable of looking at him- or herself through the prism of self-defeating humour and self-deprecation.

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

217

The ‘humanisation effect’ on the part of the preacher is also apparent in Example 33. Even though the afterthought that the preacher shares with the audience has most probably been thought-out and elaborated in advance, it makes the impression of an immediate, authentic and natural side-comment, especially if accompanied by an appropriate intonation, a waggish look and sincere eye-contact. The preacher’s personal note in the form of an emoticon at the end of the side-comment in Example 33 says it all: 33. During the Christmas season, every day, six times a day, from Black Friday until New Year’s Eve, Macy’s displays a holiday light show with over 100,000 LED lights. (…) I’ve seen the light show 722 times already this year (that’s an exaggeration for you mathematicians trying to calculate ☺) (REL-ENG-28) The side-comment enables the speaker to abandon the narrative line of the sermon for an instant and to address the congregation in the up-to-­ date and ‘unbiased’ manner of an independent observer. Such an interruption is, of course, just temporary, and the preacher returns to the expected role later (Example 34): 34. The people of that time were being heavily taxed, and faced every prospect of a sharp increase to cover expanding military expenses. (Does this sound familiar?) (REL-ENG-17) With the help of this ironic witty amendment, the preacher asks a rhetorical question, so enhancing the desired interaction with the audience. Interestingly, a couple of lines later, the same passage is accompanied by one more side-comment: (How contemporary!). In both the cases, this interactive commentary is signalled graphically by the use of brackets in the scripted sermon; probably, these serve not only for later reading in the online archive, but most probably also for the actual delivery of the sermon: through this metatext the preacher instructs him- or herself on how to read this section out loud at the church service. The final sample of personal asides will illustrate a hybrid use of humour, in which different strategies functionally blur: not only does this

218 

M. Adam

passage (Example 35) employ a witty comment accompanied by a suggestive question tag, but humorous effect is also achieved through a historical update. To be more specific, an analogy is drawn between people travelling to the Jordan River to be baptised by John the Baptist and people today travelling to malls and shopping centres to buy Christmas presents, thinking that they can ‘buy happiness’. The latter expectation is set in sharp contrast with what John the Baptist was offering at the Jordan: the gift of repentance. From today’s perspective, this sort of gift is hardly seen as a gift. By virtue of this ironic parallelism and employment of antithesis, the sermon clearly moves from the non-serious to the serious, thus reinforcing its ethical appeal to the audience: 35. So that mall parking lot full of cars with no more spaces to find – that’s what the Jordan was like in the days of John the Baptist. And the people who went out didn’t buy, but received a gift: the gift of repentance. Which doesn’t sound like much of a gift, right? But it is. Because with the gift of repentance comes the promise of forgiveness. (…) (REL-ENG-14) In summary to this category, it is possible to claim that personal asides represent perhaps the most effective vehicle for navigating the audience through the persuasive force of humour towards conviction (appealing to pathos). Not only do such comments provide a transition to more serious parts of the sermon, but they make the preacher him- or herself more human, and, as a result, more trustworthy (ethical appeal). The final category of humour item classification, aphorisms and humorous quotations, is infrequent, yet relevant. By definition, an aphorism is “a short clever saying that is intended to express a general truth, usually written or uttered by a classic” (Aphorism, Cambridge Dictionary). Such quotes represent a class per se: once again using a popular vehicle of persuasion, that is intertextuality, the preacher refers to an outside and reliable source to back his argumentation. Such aphorisms are often witty, humorous or ironic (Examples 36 and 37): 36. Dobře to vyjádřil jeden muž: „Smutný křesťan je podezřelý křesťan“. (REL-CZ-04)

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

219

[A man put it aptly this way: “A sad Christian is a suspicious Christian”.] 3 7. Friedrich Nietzsche, the atheistic German philosopher, made this surly remark to some Christians one day; “If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, then you’ve got to look a lot more redeemed.” That is true, isn’t it? (REL-ENG-18) In Example 37, the witty aphorism is further amended by the preacher’s own side-comment containing a question tag to facilitate genuine interaction. Incidentally, the quote itself represents a typical pattern of sermon argumentation: an outsourced ironic idea creates a well-turned segue to the main point of the passage. From the point of view of rhetoric, sermons included, a fitting quote may sometimes say more than a dozen eloquent lines. It may also allow speakers to say aloud what they would otherwise dare not share in public. Obviously, apart from the intricate utilisation of ethos and pathos, quotes and aphorisms specifically appeal to the rationality of the persuadees (logos).

5.3.3 Quantitative Analysis As with the sections above, the quantitative analysis looks at the sub-­ corpora (REL-ENG and REL-CZ) from the point of view of the basic distribution of humour items over the datasets. Within this classification, the categories of lexical and narrative humour items are further sorted according to the persuasive strategies they adopt in the sermons. Generally speaking, the distribution of humour items over the whole corpus (50+50 sermons) is relatively varied and uneven (see the final two columns of the chart); this diversity can be ascribed to differing personal preferences on the part of individual preachers and their authorial rhetoric style. Furthermore, one should bear in mind that humour represents just one of the persuasive strategies preachers adopt in sermons; it is not a distinctive feature of sermons, let alone religious discourse in general. Out of the total of 152 humour items, the most favoured figurative language item is evidently that of wordplay and puns, even more so in the

220 

M. Adam

case of Anglophone sermons (amounting to 27.9% of all humour items vs 12.1% in Czech sermons). The REL-ENG sub-corpus manifests an evident tendency towards lexical playfulness and creativity, whether in sermon titles or in the main body of the sermon. (Also, creative labelling seems to be relatively more distinct in the Anglophone sub-corpus, occupying 13.1% of humorous items.) Analysis indicates that such a preference may include employment of alliteration (more popular with Anglophone preachers owing to the different structural properties of English), metaphor or homophony with humorous purposes. As regards the narrative strategies using humour (in both the REL-­ ENG and REL-CZ sub-corpora), the most prominent are openers and icebreakers, and historical updates. This testifies to the overall tendency to share stories as illustrations in the first place, perhaps not primarily for the sake of humorous impact. Conversely, the least frequent humour items are aphorisms and humorous quotes, and colloquialisms; the first sort being probably too academic in a sense, the latter possibly making an undesirable impression of stylistic inappropriateness if overused. The data suggest that these two classes appear to create the two extremes of the whole scale of humour item stratification. As is obvious from Table 5.1, the distribution of humour items across the two language varieties (REL-ENG vs REL-CZ) is far from even; Table 5.1  Humour items classification Humour items Figurative humour items Narrative humour items

Total

Wordplay and puns Creative labelling Colloquialisms Openers and icebreakers Anecdotes Historical updates Ridiculing folk stereotypes Personal asides Aphorisms and humorous quotes

REL-ENG

REL-CZ

REL Total

Raw %

Raw %

Raw %

17 8 4 10

27.8 11 13.1 3 6.6 2 16.4 16

12.1 3.3 2.2 17.6

28 11 6 26

18.4 7.2 4.0 17.1

8 4 4

13.1 9 6.6 22 6.6 7

9.9 24.2 7.7

17 26 11

11.2 17.1 7.2

4 2

6.6 17 3.2 4

18.7 4.3

21 6

13.8 4.0

61

100.0 91

100.0 152

100.0

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

221

indeed, the two sub-corpora display significant differences. The first discrepancy resides in the overall number of humour items in the respective sub-corpora: the average count of Czech humour items is higher by one-­ third than its English counterpart (91 vs 61 humour items). This observation leads to the simplistic conclusion that Czech preachers use humour more often than their English-speaking colleagues; more thorough research would obviously be needed to corroborate this observation. Differences are evident also in the cross-cultural comparison of the individual types of humour items. Whereas the Czech sub-corpus generally tends to prefer figurative humour items, especially word plays and puns based on polysemy (27.8% in REL-ENG vs 12.1% in REL-CZ) and creative labelling (13.1% in REL-ENG vs 3.3% in REL-CZ), its Anglophone counterpart features more historical updates (24.2% in REL-CZ vs 6.6% in REL-ENG) and side-comments (18.7 in REL-CZ vs 6.6% REL-ENG). Based on this finding, the quantitative analysis suggests that Czech preachers generally appear to make a relatively frequent use of irony, sarcasm and self-defeating humour in general. Interestingly enough, the common assumption that, unlike Czech protestant preachers (who are at times stereotypically perceived as too sober and somewhat dry personalities), Anglophone preachers typically open their sermons with a joke or a funny story did not actually prove to be based on reality: the relative occurrence of openers and icebreakers is of comparable extent in the two sub-corpora: 16.4% in REL-ENG vs 17.6% in REL-CZ.

5.4 Conclusions The construal of persuasion in sermons is obviously a complex process. Persuasion must therefore be seen as a dynamic phenomenon with an evolution, a trajectory and a goal. The analysis of sermons has demonstrated that, apart from the classic set of persuasive strategies, humour has an inherent potential to enhance persuasion. Naturally rooted in the realm of pathos, humour in the service of persuasion works most potently in its interplay with the ethical and logical appeals (cf. Adam, 2019b). The findings concerning the persuasive power of humour under scrutiny

222 

M. Adam

will now be summarised by means of the following generalising observations. The first common denominator of the sermons under scrutiny resides in their largely narrative character. Story-telling with different phases and culminations seems to serve the needs of the church for teaching via preaching. The story as such carries the line of narration and helps point out ideas, illustrate the doctrine and draw conclusions. Moreover, the narrative line in sermons naturally includes all three Aristotelian persuasive appeals. The storyline of sermons may include biblical stories (Gospel as well as other stories, such as parables), a story from a different source (lyrics, a poem, a joke, media, fiction, etc.) or a personal story (reminiscences, experiences, and the like), that is a narrative in the broadest sense of the word (cf. Nash, 1985, 26ff; Wierzbicka, 2001). A story takes a believer by the hand and leads him or her to persuasion, conviction and belief. Incidentally, the narrative line in protestant sermons appears to be a constitutive feature. Not only does such a sermon attract the attention of listeners more easily, it enables the preacher to construe the intended structure of the message gradually and to conclude the sermon with a true (typically pathetic) punchline, that is a message that aims directly at the hearts and minds of the audience. Secondly, examples from the corpus demonstrate that humour in the widest sense of the word is capable of building bridges between the speaker and his or her audience, by making the message more down-to-­ earth and accessible (cf. Dillard & Seo, 2013). In this respect, like persuasion, humour may be understood as a dynamic phenomenon with an evolution, a trajectory and a goal. This bridging (if not ‘catalysing’) function of humour in sermons seems to lie at the root of the persuasive intent: humour is a sophisticated functional connector between the non-­ serious and the serious, which reflects the dual character of humour as discussed in the theoretical framework fundamentals above. As such, it enhances textual cohesion and consequently the intended coherence of the sermon. The positive emotive flavour in combination with the serious content of the message and the biblical support at hand may obviously result in a vigorous persuasive effect, especially in the domain of ethos. As mentioned in the introductory part of the chapter, persuasion generally seems to operate best against a background of tension between the serious

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

223

content and non-serious elements, humour being the effective catalyser. Such a strategy is capable of triggering more casual and easier communication; by lightening the atmosphere, the preacher both gets closer to his or her audience and makes the message more personal and human-like, which consequently facilitates persuasion. On a metaphorical note, humour serves as a gymnastic springboard enabling the preacher to take another step through the structure of the sermon and jump to relevant, serious conclusions. A person about to make a long jump usually crouches and bends his or her knees before jumping—the lowering seems to be crucial if the person wants to ensure a good distance. Analogously, to achieve a greater effect in sermons, and in order to be ready to ascend to the noble heights of the serious matter, the preacher may need to ‘lower’ him- or herself in content and style by subsuming (unexpectedly) a humorous item in the sermon. Axiomatically, a utility in the form of a springboard (i.e. humour) and its wise application will always be of great help in this persuasive effort. As manifested in many sermons above, humour has one more significant role; among other assets, it typically induces what is labelled ‘humanisation’ of the preacher. When being witty, funny or humorous, smiling sincerely at the congregation or making the congregation laugh, the preacher seems to lose his or her halo, becoming one of the worshippers (cf. Dvořák, 2013). This may encompass a specific choice of vocabulary (such as slang, colloquialisms, neologisms and alliteration), using informal style, telling a joke or simply making an unexpected side-comment. Research indicates that such an added value can substantially upgrade the sermon and its persuasive potential. In consequence, the message conveyed is more personal, more appealing and more readily accessible to the audience. After all, it is assuredly much easier for the audience to identify with a principle shared with an ordinary human being like they are, who is ready to share his or her personal stories and (humorous) mishaps even if this may entail being exposed, ridiculed, laughed at or even humiliated; indeed, this deserves respect and credit. The worthwhile result is the desired persuasive impact, as well as enhancement of conviction on the part of the listener, that is the quintessential goal of religious discourse. Example 38 neatly

224 

M. Adam

illustrates the initial claim that religion and humour are not mutually exclusive, but highly complementary: 38. I confess to you, I am always afraid of religious people who have no humor. They are invariably fanatical. But the greatest saints I have ever met have invariably possessed a wonderful sense of humor. (REL-ENG-19) Jesus Christ himself, being a renowned master of ancient Jewish rhetoric, exercised humour in his language, be it subtle wit, sagacious parables, wordplays, hyperbolic similes, irony, sarcasm or even mockery (cf. Darden, 2008; Wierzbicka, 2001). Jesus’s humour, too, was at its most effective when used against a background of serious content, as an explanatory segue, as an enticing lead-in, or as a social or psychological mediator. Simply put, humour works: the non-serious in sermons operates in the service of the serious. In conclusion, not only does an insightful application of humour seem to be a hallmark of a versed rhetorician, it can effectively enhance successful persuasion in protestant sermons.

References Adam, M. (2017). Persuasion in religious discourse: Enhancing credibility in sermon titles and openings. Discourse and Interaction, 10(2), 5–25. https:// doi.org/10.5817/DI2017-2-5 Adam, M. (2019a). Enhancing persuasion in sermon conclusions through fear induction. In M. Crhová & M. Weiss (Eds.), Silesian studies in English 2018. Proceedings of the 5th international conference of English and American studies (pp. 7–23). Opava, Czechia: Silesian University in Opava. Adam, M. (2019b). Vrstvení apelativních složek jako přesvědčovací strategie v závěrečných oddílech českých a anglických kázání. [Layering of appeal components as a persuasive strategy in closing passages of Czech and English sermons]. Časopis pro moderní filologii, 101(1), 7–20. https://doi. org/10.14712/23366591.2019.1.1 Attardo, S. (1994). Linguistic theories of humor. Berlin, Germany/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

225

Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous texts: A semantic and pragmatic analysis. Berlin, Germany/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110887969 Attardo, S. (Ed.). (2017). The Routledge handbook of language and humor. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315731162 Attardo, S., Pickering, L., Lomotey, C. F., & Menjo, S. (2013). Multimodality in conversational humor. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 11(2), 402–416. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.11.2.12att Attardo, S., & Raskin, V. (1991). Script theory revis(it)ed: Joke similarity and joke representation model. HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research, 4(3–4), 293–347. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1991.4.3-4.293 Berlyne, D. E. (1972). Humour and its kin. In J. H. Goldstein & P. E. McGhee (Eds.), The psychology of humour (pp. 43–60). New York: Academic. Cambridge Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/ Carter, R., & Nash, W. (1990). Seeing through language. A guide to styles of English writing. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Cotterell, P., & Turner, M. (1989). Linguistics and biblical interpretation. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. Crystal, D. (2018). Whatever happened to theolinguistics? In P.  Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp. 5–18). New York: Oxford University Press. Darden, R. (2008). Jesus laughed: The redemptive power of humor. Abingdon, UK: Abingdon Press. Dillard, J. P., & Pfau, M. (Eds.). (2002). The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781412976046 Dillard, J. P., & Seo, K. (2013). Affect and persuasion. In The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp.  150–166). London: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452218410.n10 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). A contrastive (English, Czech English, Czech) study of rhetorical functions of citations in linguistics research articles. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18 Dvořák, M. (2013). Means of increasing credibility in religious discourse. Language and Communication Quarterly, 2(4), 230–241.

226 

M. Adam

Dynel, M. (2011). The pragmatics of humour across discourse domains. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.210 Geybels, H., & van Herck, W. (Eds.). (2011). Humour and religion. Challenges and ambiguities. New York: Bloomsbury. Gyuro, M. (2017). Humor and metaphors in medical language. Discourse and Interaction, 10(2), 47–60. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2017-2-47 Halmari, H., & Virtanen, T. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion across genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Hillson, T.  R., & Martin, R.  A. (1994). What’s so funny about that? The domain-interaction approach as a model of incongruity and resolution in humor. Motivation and Emotion, 18(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/ BF02252473 Hobbes, T. (1840). Human nature. In The English works of Thomas Hobbes (Vol. 4, pp. 45–47). London: John Bohn. Hobbes, T. (1981). Leviathan. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. Hogan, M. (2013). Persuasion in the rhetorical tradition. In J.  P. Dillard & L.  Shen (Eds.), The Sage book of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp.  2–19). London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/ 10.4135/9781452218410.n1 Kater, M. (2019). Mark 6:45-52 as a fear-increasing and fear-decreasing passage: A homiletical analysis from a biblical-theological perspective. International Journal of Homiletics, 4, 91–99. Krikman, A. (2009). On the similarity and distinguishability of humour and figurative speech. TRAMES. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.3176/tr.2009.1.02 Martin, R.  A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. Mihalcea, R., & Pulman, S. (2007). Characterizing humour: An exploration of features in humorous texts. In A.  Gelbukh (Ed.), Proceedings of the conference on intelligent text processing and computational linguistics (pp.  337–347). Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-540-70939-8_30 Nash, W. (1985). The language of humour. London: Longman. Overstreet, L. R. (2014). Persuasive preaching: A biblical and practical guide to the effective use of persuasion. Wooster, OH: Weaver Book Company. Perloff, R. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion. Communication and attitudes in the 21st century (4th ed.). New York/London: Routledge.

5  Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour… 

227

Povolná, R. (2019). Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives. Discourse and Interaction, 12(1), 47–74. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47 Raskin, V. (1985). Semantic mechanisms of humor. Dordrecht/Lancaster, Netherlands//Boston, MA: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Unger, C. (2018). Cognitive pragmatics and multi-layered communication: Allegory in Christian religious discourse. In P. Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp.  333–352). New  York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/ 9780190636647.003.0013 Virtanen, T., & Halmari, H. (2005). Persuasion across genres: Emerging perspectives. In H.  Halmari & T.  Virtanen (Eds.), Persuasion across Genres (pp.  3–24). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/pbns.130.03vir Vogel, R. (2018). Persuasion in business documents: Strategies for reporting positively on negative phenomena. Ostrava Journal of English Philology, 10(1), 55–70. Wierzbicka, A. (2001). What did Jesus mean? Explaining the ‘sermon on the mount’ and the parables in simple and universal human concepts. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195137337.001.0001

6 Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals

6.1 Introduction The unquestionable role of English as a lingua franca of all communication has necessitated the study of the language resources used in technical settings in Anglophone and non-Anglophone cultures in order to understand and demonstrate how effective intercultural communication is achieved in this relatively scarcely researched area (Malone, 2007; Dobrin, Keller, & Weisser, 2014; Sharpe, 2014). This chapter intends to reveal how rhetorical strategies and their language realisations associated with the three Aristotelian types of appeal, that is ethos, logos and pathos, contribute to the persuasiveness of technical discourse, represented here by user manuals. Many different strategies, such as logical reasoning, reference to statistics, proofs and facts, providing evidence, direct appeal to the audience, supporting credibility and creating an atmosphere of caring and responsibility can be employed by technical communicators to present their ideas and instructions in order to persuade their readers to behave as required and expected. These strategies entail certain broader categories of persuasive features, such as stance and engagement (Hyland, 2005a), © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_6

229

230 

R. Povolná

dialogicity (Gil-Salom & Soler-Monreal, 2014) and intertextuality, and they are manifested in language means, such as personal structures, non-­ assertion speech acts, evaluative lexis, stance and linking adverbials, some of which are typically used in technical discourse. The verbal representation of persuasion in user manuals is typically supported by visual means (although not studied here), such as charts, diagrams, graphs, icons, images and tables, which also clearly enhance the overall effectiveness of technical texts, since “persuasion relies on the power of [both] verbal and nonverbal symbols” (Miller, 2013, p. 71). The target audience, even if invisible or implied, as in the case of user manuals (cf. Coney, 1984), also contributes to the interactive process of persuasion; in fact, it determines what kind of persuasion, that is what kind of strategies and language means, are most important for the expression of persuasiveness (Hyland, 2008). Means and conventions expected by the target audience and shared by a specific discourse community (Swales, 1990; Hyland, 1998) naturally carry the highest degree of persuasive force. And this is exactly where all types of metadiscourse markers studied in this chapter can play a role.

6.2 Technical Discourse and User Manuals Technical discourse is related to topics from “the specialized areas of science and technology” with a primary goal of conveying technical information, even if this means sacrificing “style, grace, and technique for clarity, precision, and organization” (Blake & Bly, 1993, pp.  3–4). In contrast to “expressive” communication represented, for example, by religious discourse, it is viewed as a typical representative of “strategic” communication (Rus, 2014, pp. 655–656). In order to produce meaningful and well-written instructions, technical writers have to consider (1) who they are writing to; (2) the relationship with their audiences; (3) the purpose, which comprises the intention to persuade the readers of the importance and usefulness of the guidelines, and the transmission of the information necessary for enriching the audience’s knowledge of certain technical aspects; and (4) the professional technical settings in which the communication takes place, since all forms of communication arise in

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

231

certain social and cultural contexts which are created by “the dynamics of interaction between utterers and interpreters” (Verschueren, 1999, p. 110). Since the main purpose of technical discourse is the accurate transmission of technical information (Trimble, 1985; Blake & Bly, 1993; Crowder, 2014; Marshall, 2018) from the writer to the reader, technical communicators strive to organise “the information into a series of clearly defined steps [and] avoid ambiguity” (Crystal & Davy, 1969, p.  336). They have “to provide information that can be used not just efficiently and successfully, but also safely” (Dobrin et al., 2014, p. 11). In addition, they have to bear in mind the expected level of technical proficiency and understanding of the targeted audiences (cf. “socioliterate competence” in Johns, 1997, p. ix), their rhetorical expectations and processing needs (Hyland, 2008), in order to create a persuasive, effective and useful set of instructions for people who intend to use particular technical devices. According to Blake and Bly (1993) and Whitaker and Mancini (2013), good technical texts should be technically accurate, useful, concise, complete, clear, consistent, targeted, well organised and interesting. “Being concise means telling the whole story using the fewest possible words” (Blake & Bly, 1993, p.  8), but not leaving out anything essential. Unambiguity, brevity and exhaustiveness are also qualities emphasised by Schubert, who studied English and German user manuals (2016, p. 97). Therefore, user manuals should be clearly understood and of interest even to the least technical reader. Inconsistencies can easily confuse the reader, and together with mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar, they can reduce the degree of believability, reliability and competence of the technical writer, thus diminishing his/her ethical voice. Undoubtedly, technical texts should also be well organised, that is the technical data must be presented in a clear, logical, easy-to-follow and reader-friendly way with regard to the technical device described (cf. Dobrin et al., 2014, p. 5). Blake and Bly (1993, p. 18) provide a useful list of common formats for organising technical material, in the following order: by location, by increasing difficulty, by sequentiality, alphabetically. All of this can be fostered by different categories of metadiscourse markers (Hyland, 2005a) studied in this chapter.

232 

R. Povolná

This chapter focuses on key persuasive strategies and their linguistic realisations as applied in user manuals (cf. Chap. 2), since of many possible types of manuals, such as policy, procedures, operations, operator’s, owner’s, service and maintenance, and training, as listed in Dobrin et al. (2014, pp. 561–564), this type is “designed for both expert and lay audiences” (p. 563). While an expert user “needs the manual just for reference”, an inexperienced one follows “the instructions step by step” (Frutos, 2015, p. 104). The importance of studying technical discourse from a genre perspective, which is discussed in this chapter, is emphasised by Luzón (2005), who maintains that “genre researchers can improve understanding of technical communication practice […] by exploring the linguistic and rhetorical features of the repertoire of genres used by the community” (p. 202). With regard to the usual content of user manuals (see Wikipedia User Guide), only those parts that potentially comprise metadiscourse markers have been analysed, which entails (1) a preface with details of related documents and information on how to navigate the user manual, (2) a guide on how to use at least the main functions of the system, (3) a troubleshooting section dealing with possible errors or problems that may occur, along with how to fix them, (4) FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), (5) information about where to find further help and contact details. The other parts, such as cover page, title and copyright page, contents page, and glossary have been excluded from the analysis because they do not normally contain metadiscourse markers. Frutos (2015), who studied the rhetorical structure of instructions manuals for household appliances written in English and Spanish, found “no major difference between the two languages except for the fact that the English texts are more detailed […] regarding objective description and legislation” (p. 110).

6.3 Metadiscourse in User Manuals The interactive and dynamic process of persuasion is studied in this chapter with regard to the interpersonal model of metadiscourse (Hyland, 2005a, 2005b) and the three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos and pathos.

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

233

In technical discourse, metadiscourse can be viewed as the commentary on a text made by the technical communicator in the course of writing in order to enable the potential reader to understand and become convinced of the necessity of following the technical instructions provided. The text of user manuals is related not only to the world, which is concerned with exchanging technical information (i.e. some specific aspects of particular technical devices to be used by the reader), but it also refers to itself with material (i.e. concrete language means) which helps the reader to interpret and evaluate technical texts in agreement with the authors (cf. Hyland & Tse, 2004; Tse & Hyland, 2006; Hyland, 2008, 2017). Consequently, the metadiscourse analysis conducted here is instrumental in revealing how the persuasive force may be conveyed in user manuals. The list of all types of metadiscourse markers mentioned in Hyland (2005a) was used as a basis for a list of features to be investigated in the TECH sub-corpus. Hyland’s (2005a) items “realizing metadiscourse functions” (pp.  218–224) were supplemented with items identified by previous research on user manuals (cf. Povolná, 2018b, 2019). Further, using several reference dictionaries, a list of equivalent items to be searched for in the Czech part was created. Every search had to be accompanied with a manual assessment, since some of the searched items can perform functions other than those under scrutiny. Finally, the quantitative results from the Anglophone and Czech components were compared and considered with regard to the research goals of the project.

6.3.1 Interactive and Interactional Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals Although there are many cross-cultural studies dealing with L1 as well as L2 language resources that can be considered metadiscourse markers (e.g. Vogel, 2008, 2013; Mur-Dueñas, 2009, 2011; Hu & Cao, 2011; Murillo, 2012, 2018; Sudková, 2012; Mirshamsi & Allami, 2013; Povolná, 2015, 2018a; Chen & Zhang, 2017; Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018), to our knowledge no investigation has been carried out on technical texts such as user manuals. For this reason, the present study focuses on all categories of interactive resources (i.e. frame markers, transitions, endophoric

234 

R. Povolná

markers, evidentials and code glosses) and interactional resources (i.e. attitude markers, hedges, boosters, self-mentions and engagement markers) in order to identify their role in enhancing persuasion and contributing to the effectiveness of user manuals. The results in Table 6.1 reveal that although all categories are used in both the Anglophone and Czech parts of the TECH sub-corpus, there are some cross-cultural differences between the frequency rates (more prominent ones are highlighted in bold) and the types of markers identified in the data, which is caused by the relative importance technical writers from different linguacultural backgrounds attribute to particular rhetorical strategies and their language manifestations when expressing persuasion. While Anglophone technical writers use interactional markers (7,774 occurrences) more prominently than interactive ones (4,755), Czech writers give undeniable preference to interactive markers (8,036 occurrences) over those that are interactional (5,568). Thus, it follows that for the former it is more important to enhance the interactive process of persuasion through direct appeals to the reader (see the dominant use of engagement markers in Table 6.1), while for the latter it is crucial to appeal to the rationality of the audience by enhancing the logical persuasive appeal usually regarded as typical for technical discourse (Sharpe, 2014; Table 6.1  Metadiscourse markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

TECH-CZ

Interactive markers Frame markers Transitions Endophoric markers Evidentials Code glosses All interactive markers Interactional markers Attitude markers Hedges Boosters Self-mentions Engagement markers All interactional markers All metadiscourse markers

Frequency 638.2 2,548.5 179.5 82.5 1,305.9 4,754.6

Frequency 368.1 4,193.8 399.2 249.9 2,824.5 8,035.5

191.4 1,173.6 990.4 28.4 5,390.2 7,774.0 12,528.6

521.1 814.5 536.3 138.1 3,558.3 5,568.3 13,603.8

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

235

Johnson-Sheehan, 2015). Moreover, since Czech writers use all metadiscourse categories when taken together slightly more often (13,604 occurrences) than Anglophone writers (12,529), it can be stated that they tend to relate to the text of user manuals more prominently in order to “negotiate propositional information in ways that are meaningful and appropriate to a particular disciplinary community” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p. 4). When comparing the individual categories of interactive markers, which are used to manage the information flow of interaction and to organise discourse according to anticipated readers’ knowledge, it is evident that almost all types are more prominent in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. The higher frequency of frame markers in the Anglophone part is probably associated with a tendency to produce reader-friendly texts while using markers to sequence and label stages of user manuals. By comparison, interactional resources are more common in Anglophone manuals, since the authors have a greater tendency to intensify the force of their propositions and above all to address their potential readers by stating directly what action to take (see the dominant use of engagement markers in Table 6.1). Owing to a slightly stronger tendency to modify the expression of their attitudes to what they are trying to communicate (see the more prominent use of hedges and boosters above), it is even possible to claim that in certain respects Anglophone manuals tend to be more openly persuasive (cf. Povolná, 2019). Only two sparse categories (i.e. self-mentions and attitude markers) are more common in the Czech component of the TECH sub-corpus.

6.3.2 Interactive Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals This section is concerned with particular types and selected realisation forms of interactive markers, that is those that help technical writers in the languages under comparison to organise discourse with potential readers’ processing needs and rhetorical expectations in mind, thus appealing above all to the rationality and logic of the audience.

236 

R. Povolná

6.3.2.1  Frame Markers The category of frame markers is the only category of interactive markers more common in the Anglophone part of the TECH sub-corpus. Table 6.2 lists the most important markers with more than ten occurrences per 100,000 words in either part of the sub-corpus, while contrasting English (given in order of decreasing frequency) and Czech equivalents, which are displayed in the same lines. All other markers are excluded here, as well as from the subsequent tables. Examples 1 to 4 illustrate some of the more frequent types of frame markers which clearly reduce the processing efforts of readers when they are following the guidelines. The first comprises both listing in the form of numbering, which is a typical way of indicating sequencing in all user manuals (unlike the use of letters, such as a), b), etc.), and the linking adverbial then, which is the most common of all in the Anglophone part. It clearly labels steps to be taken by users of particular technical devices. The Czech equivalents pak and potom were also found with much lower frequency, however. 1. 3. Tap the recipient text box, and then enter a contact name or phone number. Matching contacts are displayed as you type. Select a contact. Or tap to add more recipients. 4. Tap the message text box, and then enter a message. (TECH-ENG-02) Table 6.2  Frame markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Frame markers then numbering (1, 2, 3, etc.) in the X section now first next (+ a noun) subsequently in this manual focus if you want to Total of all frame markers

312.9 218.2 39.1 19.6 15.7 6.5 0 0 0 0 638.2

TECH-CZ pak/potom vyčíslení (1, 2, 3, etc.) v X sekci nyní první další (+ a noun) následně v tomto návodu za účelem pokud chcete

44.8 136.8 1.2 7.5 6.2 24.9 38.6 26.1 22.4 18.7 368.1

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

237

2. If you have any problems, please refer to the Troubleshooting section of this User’s Manual. (TECH-ENG-04) 3. Přečtěte si pokyny v části „Materiály vhodné pro používání v mikrovlnné troubě” a „Materiály nevhodné pro používání v mikrovlnné troubě”. (TECH-CZ-11) [Read the instructions in the part “Materials suitable for microwave use” and “Materials not suitable for microwave use”.] 4. Aby váš spotřebič sloužil co nejlépe, přečtěte si všechny pokyny v tomto návodu. (TECH-CZ-10) [To best serve your appliance, read all instructions in this manual.] Example 3, which includes the prepositional phrase v části, comprises a noun typically referring to the relevant part of the given manual in which the readers can find important information. A similar marker appears in Example 2; it also openly labels the content of the relevant part (the Troubleshooting section of this User’s Manual) the reader might need in case of problems. This example also illustrates the use of logical connectors, such as if, by which technical writers often enhance their logical reasoning when giving instructions (cf. Chap. 2). Czech readers are sometimes referred to the whole text through the use of prepositional phrases, such as v tomto návodu (Example 4). This marker does not have an equivalent in the Anglophone sub-corpus, so it seems that Anglophone writers prefer to refer their readers to concrete sections of the given manual while helping them to process the text in agreement with the author’s intentions (Example 2). All examples illustrate how frame markers can be applied to refer to text boundaries or elements of text organisation, that is strategies clearly enhancing the logical persuasive appeal. In addition, they also comprise directives expressed by imperatives, such as tap, enter, select, refer and přečtěte si, and reader pronouns, which directly appeal to the reader to take action, thus contributing to the ethical persuasive appeal. Overall, it can be stated that technical writers commonly resort to the “numbered lists of sequential steps” (Whitaker & Mancini, 2013, p. 31) and labelled stages of actions to be taken, since these represent the clearest ways of directing the reader through the technical text. These verbal

238 

R. Povolná

means are often enhanced by visuals, such as icons and images, which contribute to persuasiveness (cf. Miller, 2013).

6.3.2.2  Transitions The category of transitions, which are used “to mark additive, contrastive, and consequential steps in discourse” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p. 4), is far more heavily represented in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus, where it clearly enhances the logical persuasive principle, which seems to be more important for Czech writers (Table 6.3). The results demonstrate that the most typical transitions of all, that is the additive conjunction and and its Czech equivalent a, represent the overwhelming majority of all transitions in either part. They are illustrated in Examples 5 and 7; these examples also comprise the contrastive conjunctions but and ale. Their frequency rates prove that markers associated with contrastive relations are important for logical reasoning in both parts of the TECH sub-corpus (cf. Johnson-Sheehan, 2015).

Table 6.3  Transitions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Transitions and but so because however since also in addition otherwise hence so as to the result is furthermore accordingly at the same time Total of all transitions

2,387.4 40.3 17.6 14.6 14.6 11.5 10.4 6.1 6.1 1.9 1.5 0.8 0.4 0 0 2,548.5

TECH-CZ a ale tak protože avšak, však neboť také navíc jinak proto aby tím dále v souladu s současně

3,178.9 49.8 184.1 41.0 17.4 4.9 8.7 17.4 16.2 43.5 402.9 52.2 21.1 44.8 33.6 4,193.8

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

239

5. To avoid shrinkage, please carefully follow the care and use instructions for your garment, because some fabrics will naturally shrink when washed. Other fabrics can be washed but will shrink when dried in a dryer. (TECH-ENG-14) 6. Since it is not so far possible to satisfactorily recycle the majority of electronics equipment, most of these potentially damaging substances sooner or later enter nature. (TECH-ENG-04) 7. Navolené rychloklávesy nelze smazat, ale pouze přeložit. Výjimkou je smazání a synchronizace dat, … (TECH-CZ-14) [The selected hotkeys cannot be deleted, but only saved. The only exception is deleting and syncing data, …] 8. Dejte pozor, aby nedošlo k poškrábání hlavy. (TECH-CZ-16) [Be careful not to scratch the head.] Apart from additive and contrastive relations, the expression of cause and consequence is typically used to strengthen logical relations between different parts of technical texts. Example 6 comprises the causal conjunction since, which has a similar frequency as its synonym because (Example 5). By contrast, Czech neboť and its synonym protože vary in their frequencies, since the rather bookish neboť seldom finds its way into technical texts. The main function of aby, that is the second most typical transition in Czech manuals, is to introduce the purpose of an action the reader is expected to perform (e.g. dejte pozor in Example 8). The use of markers similar to aby clearly reduces the processing needs exerted by the reader while enhancing the logical appeal. It is worth noting that some types of transitions, such as the Czech markers současně [at the same time], naopak [by contrast] and kromě toho [besides], do not have equivalents in the data, although they also contribute to logical reasoning. This does not mean that certain semantic relations are not expressed in the languages under comparison; it indicates only that they use different means of expression. The results prove that Czech technical writers in general apply transitions much more, especially when expressing additive, contrastive and causal relations, for which they have wide repertoires of markers. This cross-cultural variation is different from the results achieved by

240 

R. Povolná

Mur-­Dueñas (2009), who revealed the highest frequencies of additive, contrastive and consecutive logical connectors in English-medium business research articles, where they contribute more to writer-reader relationship than in Spanish texts. Since transitions represent the most frequent type of interactive markers, it is evident that they play an important role in all user manuals under scrutiny, where they enhance the reader’s understanding of the author’s messages and contribute to the effectiveness and persuasiveness of technical texts. Transitions were also reported to be the most frequent of all interactive resources by Hyland and Tse (2004) in postgraduate dissertations from different disciplines, including computer science and electronic engineering, that is areas that seem close to the content of the user manuals under scrutiny.

6.3.2.3  Endophoric Markers As indicated in Table 6.4, like transitions, endophoric markers are more commonly applied in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. They are used by technical writers to refer to other parts of the manual, so making Table 6.4  Endophoric markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Endophoric markers page X X above X below (table, diagram, information) figure X (in) part X example X following reasons, field, column, etc. table (e.g. of discounts, sales) table in column X see table Total of all endophoric markers

TECH-­ ENG 92.0 28.4 24.5 16.5 13.1 2.3 0 0 0 0 0 179.5

TECH-CZ strana X X výše X níže (tabulka, diagram, informace) obrázek X (v) části X příklad X (Příklad:) následující důvody, pole, sloupec, etc. tabulka (e.g. slev, prodejců) tabulka ve sloupci X viz tabulka

0 27.4 43.5 65.9 4.9 21.1 84.6 36.1 21.1 16.2 14.9 399.2

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

241

additional information available to the reader and providing (further) evidence for instructions concerning appropriate and safe operation of particular technical devices. The following examples illustrate the most important types, while showing that the strategies of logical reasoning and providing reference to statistics, rules and regulations contribute to the logical persuasive appeal. The nouns page and part, in Examples 9 and 10, respectively, are typically used by Anglophone writers to refer readers to another part of the given manual or part of a different text, thus helping them to understand the logical relations between these parts. The numbering of parts, figures (used always with an initial capital letter in the data), tables and pages is often applied to provide precise reference to facts, statistics, rules and evidence, that is strategies contributing to the explicitness and logical structure important in user manuals (see Example 10; cf. Nyman, 1994, p. 67; Johnson-Sheehan, 2015, p. 344). The same strategies are used in Czech manuals, where nouns such as obrázek, příklad and tabulka often occur. They are used together with numerals or content specification of a particular visual the reader is expected to consult in order to understand the technical details provided, as in Example 11. 9. On the back page of this folder, you will find a brief summary of the environmental requirements met by this product. (TECH-ENG-04) 10. This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. (TECH-ENG-11) 11. Tabulka slev se nachází pod nabídkou s názvem „Tabulky“ a slouží pro zobrazení a konfiguraci požadovaných slev. (TECH-CZ-14) [The discount table is located below the “Tables” menu and is used to display and configure required discounts.] 12. Porušení následujících pokynů může způsobit lehké zranění nebo poškození přístroje. (TECH-CZ-16) [Violation of the following instructions may cause slight injury or damage the device.] The strategy of referring to statistics, facts and rules is often realised in Czech manuals by the adjective následující (Example 12), which represents almost one-fifth of all Czech endophoric markers. Followed usually by a noun, such as důvody, pole and sloupec, it refers to the subsequent

242 

R. Povolná

part of the manual, where more details, further evidence or explanations are given. The results prove that Czech technical writers appeal more to logic and rationality in their readers by openly directing them to different parts, often visual, of the technical texts, explicitly labelling the content of those parts, providing additional relevant information and thus making their guidelines more persuasive and easier to follow. These results correspond with findings by Schubert (2016, pp. 102–103), who demonstrates that German user manuals are in general more explicit than English ones, thus offering the reader considerable support with comprehension of the text.

6.3.2.4  Evidentials Another category of interactive markers more prominent in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus and thus crucial for the realisation of the logical persuasive appeal is evidentials, aptly labelled by Thomas and Hawes (1994) “metalinguistic representations of an idea from another source” (p. 129). The results in Table 6.5 demonstrate that Czech writers attach more than three times greater importance to the use of evidentials to refer their readers to sources of technical information which originate outside the given part of the manual, and sometimes outside the text, thus applying the strategies of providing proof and evidence to support their technical instructions.

Table 6.5  Evidentials in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Evidentials shown specified according to X referred to [ref. no.]/[name] No. cites Total of all evidentials

39.1 17.3 14.9 5.4 3.8 0.4 82.5

TECH-CZ zobrazeny specifikován podle X uvedený [odkaz. č.]/[jméno] č. uvedeno

1.2 1.2 60.9 130.6 22.4 26.1 249.9

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

243

Evidentials are the most lightly represented category of all interactive markers in the TECH sub-corpus (cf. Table 6.1). The types illustrated below, namely the adjectives shown in Example 13 and uvedený in Example 14, are the most typical in the data. Example 13 also comprises the possessive your, which gets the reader involved in the discourse and at the same time manifests the writer’s care for potential users of particular electrical appliances, thus appealing to the emotions of the reader (i.e. pathos). The adjective uvedený in Example 14 obviously refers the audience to relevant information stated outside the text. 13. The amount of refrigerant in your particular appliance is shown on the identification plate inside the appliance. (TECH-ENG-03) 14. Tyto programy byly vyvinuty ve shodě s teplotou uvedenou na štítku prádla. (TECH-CZ-19) [These programs have been developed in accordance with the temperature indicated on the laundry label.] It can be stated that the overall more prominent application of evidentials in Czech manuals proves that Czech writers have a greater tendency to enhance appeals to the rationality of their readership as well as credibility of the persuader by referring the audience to further technical facts, proofs and evidence.

6.3.2.5  Code Glosses Code glosses, which are used above all to signal reformulation or exemplification of information provided in the text, represent the last category of interactive markers more common in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. Here, the normalised frequency of all markers is more than double that of the Anglophone part (Table 6.6). This variation confirms that Czech technical writers find it much more important to reformulate and exemplify what they have just stated in the manual, which is the main discourse function of code glosses. (For the same tendencies

244 

R. Povolná

Table 6.6  Code glosses in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Code glosses () – such as for example e.g. i.e. which means or X Total of all code glosses

793.5 336.4 93.2 41.0 10.4 1.9 1.5 0.4 1,305.9

TECH-CZ () – jako například např. tj. viz a to

1,343.2 905.4 172.9 17.4 215.2 21.1 115.7 22.4 2,824.5

identified in Czech academic discourse, cf. e.g. Povolná, 2015, Vogel, 2013; in Spanish academic discourse, cf. Murillo, 2012, 2018.) Examples 15 and 17 show typical code glosses used in the Anglophone and Czech manuals, respectively. The former comprises the linking adverbial such as, which is typically used for exemplification, while the latter illustrates not only the marker např., but also the application of brackets, which is the most common type in all manuals. However, the use of dashes is also quite prominent (Example 16). 15. Do not store your battery with metal objects, such as coins, keys or necklaces. (TECH-ENG-15) 16. Movie – Ideal for watching movies – News – Ideal for speech – Music – Ideal for listening to music. (TECH-ENG-01) 17. Pokrmy s obsahem tuku (např. hranolky) je proto nutno připravovat za stálého dozoru. (TECH-CZ-13) [Foods containing fat (e.g. fries) should therefore be prepared under constant supervision.] It is worth noting that Czech writers attempt to enhance the persuasive force of their argumentation in technical instructions with more exemplifications and reformulations than Anglophone writers, while using brackets and dashes in particular, often together with some other types of code glosses, as in Example 17, where brackets appear together with the

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

245

linking adverbial např. to introduce exemplification. Reasoning with examples and evidence typical of technical communication (cf. JohnsonSheehan, 2015, p. 344) clearly enhances the logical appeal. To conclude, it should be noted that all rhetorical strategies and their realisations illustrated above, such as logical reasoning, providing evidence, giving proofs and exemplification, and referring to statistics and rules, clearly contribute above all to the logical persuasive principle. However, these strategies are often intricately associated with those related to the ethical appeal, thus representing an ethos-logos interface.

6.3.3 Interactional Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals All types of interactional markers studied in this chapter “have a dialogic purpose in that they refer to, anticipate, or otherwise help take up the actual or anticipated voices and positions of potential readers” (Hyland, 2008, p. 6; cf. Bakhtin, 1986). This section focuses on realisation forms used most typically by technical writers. It shows how the expression of voice and interaction between writers and their potential audience contributes to the persuasiveness of user manuals and, at the same time, how particular language means enhance the reliability and competence of the persuader, that is the ethical persuasive appeal. The emphasis in the following cross-cultural analysis is on concrete realisation forms of equivalent types of interactional markers expressing a similar or the same meaning in the two languages under comparison. Less common types are commented on only briefly.

6.3.3.1  Attitude Markers Attitude markers and self-mentions are categories of interactional markers more common in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus (cf. Table  6.1). They are mostly realised as evaluative adjectives, such as important and appropriate in English, and vhodný, nutný, důležitý, základní and hlavní in Czech, or adverbs, such as properly, správně and řádně, and

246 

R. Povolná

Table 6.7  Attitude markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Attitude markers exclamation mark properly important appropriate necessary basic even useful serious correctly valuable m  ajor Total of all attitude markers

49.8 46.4 33.4 21.5 19.6 18.4 18.0 18.0 11.6 11.1 0.8 0.4 191.4

TECH-CZ exclamation mark řádně důležitý vhodný nutný základní dokonce užitečný vážný správně cenný hlavní

242.0 53.5 54.7 144.3 72.1 53.5 3.7 6.2 9.9 88.3 14.9 51.0 521.1

are used to express “the writer’s appraisal of the propositional information” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p. 5) stated in user manuals. As indicated in Table 6.7, some types common in one language have equivalents that are also frequent in the other language, such as important and důležitý, or properly and řádně. The most important representative of attitude markers in all manuals is the exclamation mark (Examples 18 and 19). It is often used together with evaluative adjectives or adverbs such as řádně, which demonstrates that two attitude markers often co-occur within one sentence, thus expressing a higher degree of author commitment to the claims in the text. This effect is often emphasised by direct appeal to the reader, mostly expressed by directives, such as do not insert, zapněte, nevysávejte in the following examples: 18. WARNING! DO NOT INSERT THE CARD! It is advised to connect your PC to the mains before starting the installation. (TECH-ENG-09) 19. UPOZORNĚNÍ! Zapněte spotřebič, až co je těsnění řádně suché. (TECH-CZ-09) [WARNING! Do not switch on the appliance until the gasket is properly dry.]

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

247

20. Nikdy nevysávejte bez správně založeného filtračního systému a mikrofiltrů. (TECH-CZ-03) [Never vacuum without a properly installed filter system and microfilters.] Examples 18 and 19 also show that technical writers often use exclamation marks together with nouns, such as Warning!, Upozornění!, which clearly indicate that something urgent follows (cf. Nyman, 1994). This is sometimes enhanced by capital letters in the text that follows, which often prevent the reader from taking inappropriate action, such as avoidance of inserting the card in Example 18. Apart from the evaluative adverb správně, Example 20 comprises the frequency adverb nikdy, which functions as a booster. The accumulation of interactional markers (here one attitude marker and one booster) is a strategy mentioned by Hyland (2005a) and exemplified, for example, in Sudková (2012, p.  6). It increases the persuasive force of the writer’s guidelines and strengthens the ethical voice of the persuader, who, thanks to his/her expertise and knowledge of relevant technical aspects and thus higher credibility, can easily persuade the reader to behave as required. All the strategies and their realisations exemplified are useful ways of drawing the reader’s attention to technical information the communicator finds crucial and urgent when giving appropriate, efficient and safe instructions. For Czech writers it is more important to emphasise stance through attitude markers, thus fostering their ethical voice in the dialogic process of persuasion.

6.3.3.2  Hedges Similarly to attitude markers, the category of hedges (Table 6.8) is associated with the authorial stance expressed in the text. Hedges are applied by technical writers in order to withhold their full commitment to the propositions (Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 169) stated in user manuals, that is a strategy that also contributes to a collegiate atmosphere and decreases the distance between the technical writer and his/her readership.

248 

R. Povolná

Table 6.8  Hedges in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Hedges can may should might/could possible indicate certain about approximately usually often/frequently would Total of all hedges

620.5 279.6 109.1 86.7 27.5 27.4 15.2 14.5 14.5 13.0 13.0 10.1 1,173.6

TECH-CZ lze snad/třeba měl/i by mohl/i by možný/možno označovat určitý asi přibližně obvykle často by (se)

195.6 0 7.3 16.0 195.7 15.9 14.5 27.5 10.2 2.9 17.4 220.3 814.5

Apart from epistemic modals, such as can, may, might, could and would, and their Czech equivalents, which are typically used to hedge the persuasive force of the message to be communicated (see Example 21), there are other types of hedges frequently used to modulate the writer’s commitment to the guidelines given in user manuals, such as modal predicatives (e.g. possible, certain, and možný/možno (Example 22), lze; cf. Šipková, 2017), evidential verbs (e.g. indicate, označovat) and prepositions expressing a proximate amount or lower degree of certainty (e.g. about (Example 23), approximately, and asi, přibližně). As shown in Table 6.8, there is cross-cultural variation in the types and frequencies with which English and Czech equivalents are used; this is influenced by the writer’s choices and, of course, by structural differences between the languages under comparison. 21. You can access a saved Performance Run through the Memory Screen. (TECH-ENG-20) 22. Tabulku slev je ovšem možné upravovat pouze na portálu. (TECH-CZ-14) [However, the discount table can only be edited on the portal.] 23. It takes about 12 to 24 hours for a newly installed fridge to begin making ice. (TECH-ENG-03)

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

249

Example 22 illustrates the use of modal predicatives, which, as demonstrated in Povolná (2018b), are typical of Czech manuals. This is also evidenced by a very high frequency rate of možný/možno, which is more than seven times higher than the rate of its English counterpart possible. This variation demonstrates that English and Czech often resort to different ways of expressing the same or a similar meaning, although equivalent means exist. The most striking case is that of the Czech modal predicative lze [it is possible], which often has as its counterpart the English modal can. These different ways of modulating the author’s stance are demonstrated in the following example: 24. Doklad lze změnit, doplnit a vytisknout. (TECH-CZ-14) [The document can be changed, added to and printed.] The results show that for Anglophone technical writers it is more important to hedge the propositional content of the information they provide in their texts, although both Anglophone and Czech writers apply quite wide repertoires of language means to express the authorial stance while enhancing the ethical appeal.

6.3.3.3  Boosters The category of boosters, like hedges, is a group of interactional markers more prominent in the Anglophone part of the TECH sub-corpus. Boosters, together with attitude markers, hedges and self-mentions, are among resources that contribute to the expression of the author’s voice in the text, thus appealing to the reliability and competence of the technical communicator and so enhancing the persuasiveness of user manuals. Table 6.9 gives the most important boosters in the TECH sub-corpus, while contrasting English and Czech equivalents. Apart from modals such as must, will and should and their Czech equivalents (Examples 25 and 26), which represent the overwhelming majority of boosters, there

250 

R. Povolná

Table 6.9  Boosters in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Boosters will must should always show never established Total of all boosters

442.8 126.4 109.1 59.9 58.7 39.7 18.1 990.4

TECH-CZ bude/te/ou muset měl/i by vždy ukázat nikdy zavedený

182.6 205.8 7.3 89.1 1.5 53.6 0 536.3

are adverbs used for modulating the writer’s commitment to what is stated in the manual, such as the frequency adverbs always and never and their respective counterparts vždy and nikdy; some are illustrated in Example 20 or in the following: 25. You should ALWAYS keep the device more than 15 cm / 6 inches from your pacemaker. You should not carry the device in a breast pocket. (TECH-ENG-08) 26. Uživatel musí vždy určit dodavatele, na kterého se příjemka vystavuje. (TECH-CZ-14) [The user must always identify the supplier to which the receipt is issued.] The examples demonstrate how technical writers sometimes cumulate boosters (should always, musí vždy), a strategy that intensifies the persuasive effect. In addition, Example 25 comprises the reader pronoun you, which openly directs potential readers to perform the required action (you should always keep) or prevents them from taking it (you should not carry). The persuasive effect can also be increased by the use of capital letters (Example 25). Finally, it should be noted that Anglophone writers have a much greater tendency to emphasise the force of their propositions by using boosters, thus expressing a higher degree of persuasiveness in their texts. This effect is often enhanced in both languages by the combined application of boosters and engagement markers such as directives and reader pronouns.

251

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

6.3.3.4  Self-Mentions Self-mentions are evidently the most lightly represented category of all metadiscourse markers in the respective parts of the TECH sub-corpus, and therefore Table 6.10 includes all possible types. The results concerning first-person singular pronouns are not at all surprising, since technical writers rarely speak about themselves while giving instructions, nor do they emphasise that what they are stating is their own opinion. These results are very different from those identified in research on academic discourse, where authors often use self-mention resources to emphasise their own standpoints (cf. e.g. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018). By contrast, by using reader pronouns technical writers try to get their readers involved, or by applying first-person plural pronouns they present themselves as representatives of a company which produces particular technical devices. The most important type of self-mentions in the Anglophone part is that referring to the first-person plural. Example 27 illustrates both the pronoun and the possessive in their exclusive meaning, which means that they relate to the whole company while excluding potential readers. 27. Our products are under continual improvement and we reserve the right to make changes without notice. (TECH-ENG-11) The corresponding Czech pronoun my [we] was not found in the data at all, since there is no need to express it (cf. Chap. 2). This is illustrated in Example 28, which also includes the only occurrence of the possessive náš found in the data. Table 6.10  Self-mentions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Self-mentions us our we I/me/my Total of all self-mentions

18.0 6.9 3.5 0 28.4

TECH-CZ nám náš my já/mi/m(n)ě/moje

0 1.3 136.8 0 138.1

252 

R. Povolná

28. Blahopřejeme k zakoupení výrobku Tescoma a děkujeme za důvěru projevenou naší značce. (TECH-CZ-11) [Congratulations on your purchase of Tescoma and thank you for the trust you have expressed in our brand.] Summing up, self-mentions play only a minor role in user manuals. They represent the ethical voice of the persuader while enhancing the writer’s or the company’s credibility and confidence, thus fostering persuasiveness.

6.3.3.5  Engagement Markers Engagement markers are the most important category of interactional resources in the TECH sub-corpus. With an average normalised frequency of 5,390 occurrences in the Anglophone and 3,558 in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus, they are unambiguously the most important language means enabling technical writers to persuade potential readers to perform actions in agreement with the instructions provided, thus being clearly involved in the interaction between writers and readers, who are pulled into the discourse and whose rhetorical expectations and technical knowledge influence the interpretation of the message conveyed in the text. The survey of engagement markers in the TECH sub-corpus given in Table  6.11 distinguishes directives, questions, reader pronouns and Table 6.11  Engagement markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

TECH-CZ

Engagement markers Directives   Imperatives   Modal verbs   Predicative adjectives Reader pronouns Appeals to shared knowledge Questions Total of all engagement markers

4,020.0 3,542.0 296.0 182.0 1,303.9 40.3 26.0 5,390.2

3,190.0 2,331.0 400.0 459.0 235.1 70.9 62.3 3,558.3

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

253

appeals to shared knowledge. Since personal asides (Hyland, 2005a) do not have a single occurrence, they are not even listed in the table. Two categories, namely questions (i.e. rhetorical questions in the case of user manuals) and appeals to shared knowledge, which are only scarcely represented in the TECH sub-corpus, are studied in Chap. 7. Therefore, this section is concerned only with directives and reader pronouns, which are considered the most important of all engagement markers for referring to and building a relationship with readers (Hyland, 2017, p.  7) in user manuals. In the overwhelming majority of the cases, engagement markers are expressed by directives, which have 4,020 occurrences in the Anglophone and 3,190 in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. Directives openly instruct readers on what kind of action to take in order to use particular technical devices successfully and in the reader’s interests. This is also why they are not considered bald-on-record strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1978, pp.  94–101), because it is in the reader’s interest to follow the instructions (cf. Povolná, 2018b, 2019). Owing to high frequency rates of engagement markers in the TECH sub-corpus, Table  6.11 includes only general categories, such as directives, questions and reader pronouns, and it does not list individual types. The only category further divided is that of directives, which, in agreement with Hyland (2002), are grouped into those expressed by imperatives of full verbs, modal verbs of obligation, necessity or prohibition addressed to the reader, and predicative adjectives expressing the writer’s judgement on the necessity or importance of performing an action. All these realisation forms are important in the language of user manuals. Table 6.12 demonstrates that directives expressed by imperatives are unambiguously the most typical realisation form, since they account for Table 6.12  Proportions of all directives in the TECH sub-corpus Types of texts

TECH-ENG

TECH-CZ

Affirmative imperatives Negative imperatives Affirmative modals Negative modals Affirmative predicative adjectives Negative predicative adjectives

83.8% 4.3% 5.6% 1.8% 2.9% 1.6%

59.7% 13.4% 8.5% 4.0% 12.1% 2.3%

254 

R. Povolná

88% and 73% of all directives in the Anglophone and Czech parts of the TECH sub-corpus respectively. These results are slightly different from those by Schubert (2016), who points out that imperatives are more prominent in German than in English-medium user manuals: he speaks about “the greater appeal of directness” (p. 98). Table 6.12 distinguishes affirmative and negative forms, showing significant cross-cultural differences. While affirmative forms tend to be much more common in general, negative forms are used only rarely, as the results given in percentages of occurrence indicate. Imperatives, especially affirmative ones, are automatically selected by Anglophone technical writers as the most direct and explicit way to get the reader involved in the required actions (Example 29). The prominence of imperatives is also emphasised by Sharpe (2014, p. 6), who considers them a basic rhetorical feature of technical instructions, that is a feature unambiguously contributing to the persuasiveness of technical discourse. With the exception of affirmative imperatives, all forms of directives, both affirmative and negative, are more frequently represented in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. When using imperatives, Czech technical writers have a slightly greater tendency (by about 9%) to protect their readers from behaving in an inappropriate way, as shown in Example 30, in which the directive force of the negative imperative nepoužívejte is increased by the booster nikdy. This can be tentatively associated with the expression of slightly greater power and authority claimed by Czech technical writers when persuading the audience to avoid an action. This strategy can also be associated with the writer’s care and responsibility for actions taken by potential readers of user manuals. 29. Remove the batteries between use. Remember to keep each set of batteries in its own storage container so they can be used together. (TECH-ENG-17) 30. Nikdy nepoužívejte mýdlo, prací ani mycí prostředky na nádobí pro ruční mytí. Udržujte všechny tyto prostředky mimo dosah dětí. (TECH-CZ-08) [Never use soap, detergent or dishwashing detergent for hand washing. Keep all these devices out of the reach of children.]

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

255

As regards the distribution of modal verbs and predicative adjectives (Table 6.12), the greatest differences are in the proportions in which affirmative modals and in particular affirmative adjectives are used, since these represent respectively about 3% and 9% more directives in Czech manuals (Examples 31 and 32). It seems that their higher proportions within all directives compensate for the relatively lower proportion of affirmative imperatives in the Czech sub-corpus (60% in CZ vs 84% in ENG manuals). By contrast, proportions of negative predicative adjectives are very similar in both languages. 31. Zástrčku musíte zapojit do odpovídající zásuvky instalované a uzemněné v souladu s místními zákony a vyhláškami. (TECH-CZ-08) [The plug must be connected to an appropriate outlet installed and earthed in accordance with local laws and ordinances.] 32. Je nutné dodržovat několik základních pravidel. (TECH-CZ-19) [It is necessary to follow several basic rules.] Example 31 comprises one of the strong modals typically applied in all user manuals, here together with the implied reader pronoun vy [you], which need not be present in Czech. The above example illustrates the use of directives, which enhances the ethical persuasive appeal, and that of reader reference, which contributes to the pathetic appeal, through which technical writers can express care for their readers and what happens to particular technical devices. In addition, Example 31 includes reference to facts or statistics, realised through a transition marker (v souladu s místními zákony a vyhláškami), which contributes to the logical appeal. Thus, it demonstrates how all three persuasive principles can be intricately combined within one sentence. Example 32 exemplifies the predicative adjective nutné, which functions as a directive with the meaning ‘follow several basic rules’. Adjectives of similar type are typical of Czech manuals (cf. Povolná, 2018b, 2019), in which they show more than double the frequency of Anglophone manuals (see Table 6.11). Directives used in the TECH sub-corpus refer to three types of acts, that is physical, textual and cognitive (Hyland, 2002). Owing to the

256 

R. Povolná

content of user manuals and types of activities the readers are instructed to perform, the overwhelming majority refer to physical acts (95–96%), such as connect, press, push, read, remove, use, select, set and tap. Since user manuals provide guidance for various electrical appliances, they mostly require performance of concrete actions in the real world, such as remove in Example 29 or read in Example 33, in which the imperative is combined with the polite expression please, which clearly diminishes the directive force, but at the same time shows the writer’s benevolence towards the reader while enhancing communality: 33. Please read this manual before using the device to ensure safe and proper use. (TECH-ENG-19) The reader can also be instructed to refer to another text, that is either another part of the same manual, as in Example 34, or a completely different text, mostly available online, as in Example 35, thus performing textual acts (4–5%). The most typical verbs are see, refer and go to, all enabling reference to both the same and another text. Textual directives are clear manifestations of important strategies related to the ethical and logical appeals in the TECH sub-corpus, since reference to statistics and facts, evidence, exemplification and expert opinion enhances not only the credibility and expertise of the persuader, but it also appeals to the rationality of the audience. 34. See the Care and Cleaning section for more information. (TECH-ENG-03) 35. For warranty information, go to tomtom.com/legal. (TECH-ENG-08) Only exceptionally are readers of user manuals instructed to perform cognitive acts (around 0.5%), which, according to Hyland (2002, p. 218), express the highest degree of imposition. The only two verbs identified in the Anglophone sub-corpus, that is remember and consider, are exemplified in Examples 29 and 36 respectively. 36. Also consider the capabilities of your computer or TV to be sure your hardware can support the selected resolution. (TECH-ENG-14)

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

257

The above example also comprises two instances of reader reference, namely the possessive your, which easily gets the reader involved in the discourse and at the same time expresses the writer’s care for what happens to the reader and his/her technical device or its equipment, thus appealing to both the ethical and pathetic persuasive appeal while representing an ethos-pathos interface. Example 37 comprises three occurrences of the reader pronoun you. Their direct appeal to the reader is strengthened by the modal should, which has a directive function, and the booster always, which modulates the author’s stance to the action required for safe and successful operation of the given device, a GPS. All these realisations of engagement clearly contribute to the persuasive force of the instructions provided. 37. In the interest of safety and to reduce distractions while you are driving, you should always plan a route before you start driving. (TECH-ENG-08) Finally, it should be noted that all strategies and their realisations by different types of interactional markers, such as referring to expert opinion, modulating commitment to statements, supporting credibility and competence, and above all direct appeal to the audience to become involved, contribute to the ethical persuasive appeal. In the user manuals under scrutiny, it is sometimes difficult to identify rhetorical strategies related to just one of the three persuasive principles; consequently, it is often possible to speak about an ethos-logos or ethos-pathos interface.

6.4 Conclusion The analysis of persuasive strategies and their linguistic realisations in user manuals has demonstrated the crucial role of interpersonal metadiscourse. Technical communicators attempt to produce effective and persuasive texts in harmony with readers’ rhetorical expectations and “socioliterate competence” (Johns, 1997, p. ix) using all types of interpersonal metadiscourse resources. However, the conveyance of the

258 

R. Povolná

persuasive force is slightly different in the two languages under comparison. While Anglophone writers use interactional resources (especially engagement markers, hedges and boosters) more prominently, Czech writers rely slightly more heavily on almost all categories of interactive resources. These cross-cultural differences are probably associated with a slightly greater preference on the part of Anglophone technical writers for the dialogic process of persuasion through strategies related to stance and engagement, such as modulating the author’s attitude to actions to be performed and engaging the reader in successful operation of a given technical device. By comparison, for Czech writers it seems more important to appeal to rationality and logic in the reader. Czech writers apply more prominently strategies associated with giving facts, proofs, evidence, additional information and exemplification, and they have a greater tendency to use logical connectors when expressing semantic relations such as addition, contrast and cause. We trust that this study proves that all interpersonal metadiscourse markers are important means of facilitating effective and persuasive technical communication with ‘maximal relevance’ of the conveyed message, even for the least technically minded readers. In harmony with Britton’s (1965) frequently cited primary “characteristic of technical and scientific writing [which] lies in the effort of the author to convey one meaning and only one meaning in what he says” (p. 114), the analysis reveals that the most straightforward and direct ways in which persuasion can be expressed (i.e. engagement markers expressed by imperatives) are typically applied by all authors of user manuals. In conclusion, it can be stated that both interactive and interactional resources, often in intricate combination within one sentence, enhance all three persuasive appeals. However, the whole situational context, that is the technical settings in which instructions are read and followed, and the whole text, which includes visual means, clearly help readers perform required actions and contribute to the effectiveness and persuasiveness of user manuals.

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

259

References Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Blake, G., & Bly, R.  W. (1993). The elements of technical writing. New York: McMillan. Britton, W. (1965). What is technical writing? College Composition and Communication, 16(2), 113–116. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1978). Politeness. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Chen, C., & Zhang, L. J. (2017). An intercultural analysis of the use of hedging by Chinese and Anglophone academic English writers. Applied Linguistics Review, 8(1), 1–34. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/33681 Coney, M.  B. (1984). The implied author in technical discourse. Journal of Advanced Composition, 5, 163–172. Crowder, A. (2014). Technical writing  – Technical communication: Technical writing instruction and real world professional guidance. Kindle Edition. KRB Instructional Publications. Amazon Digital Services LLC. Crystal, D., & Davy, D. (1969). Investigating English style. London: Longman. Dobrin, S. I., Keller, C. J., & Weisser, C. R. (2014). Technical communication in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). Persuasion in academic discourse: Cross-­ cultural variation in Anglophone and Czech academic book reviews. In J. Pelclová & L. Wei-lun (Eds.), Persuasion in public discourse. Cognitive and functional perspectives (pp.  227–257). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79.11don Frutos, A. C. (2015). A corpus-based genre study of instructions manuals for household appliances. Procedia  – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 198, 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.425 Gil-Salom, L., & Soler-Monreal, C. (Eds.). (2014). Dialogicity in written specialized genres. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/ resla.28.2.12san Hu, G., & Cao, F. (2011). Hedging and boosting in abstracts of applied linguistics articles: A comparative study of English- and Chinese-medium journals. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(11), 2795–2809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. pragma.2011.04.007

260 

R. Povolná

Hyland, K. (1998). Persuasion and context: The pragmatics of academic metadiscourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 30, 437–455. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(98)00009-5 Hyland, K. (2002). Directives: Arguments and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2005a). Metadiscourse. London/New York: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2005b). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K. (2008). Persuasion, interaction and the construction of knowledge: Representing self and others in research writing. International Journal of English Studies, 8(2), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.6018/ijes.8.2.49151 Hyland, K. (2017). Metadiscourse: What is it and where is it going? Journal of Pragmatics, 113, 16–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.03.007 Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25(2), 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Johns, A. (1997). Text, role, and context. Developing academic literacies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Johnson-Sheehan, R. (2015). Technical communication today (5th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson. Luzón, M.  J. (2005). Genre analysis in technical communication. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 48(3), 285–295. https://doi. org/10.1109/TPC.2005.853937 Malone, E. (2007). Historical studies of technical communication in the United States and England: A fifteen-year retrospection and guide to resources. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 50(4), 333–345. https://doi. org/10.1109/TPC.2007.908732 Marshall, C. (2018). Technical writing for business people (Business and technical writing). Swindon, UK: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Miller, G.  R. (2013). On being persuaded. Some basic distinctions. In J.  P. Dillard & L.  Shen (Eds.), The Sage handbook of persuasion. Developments in theory and practice (pp. 70–82). London: Sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781412976046.n1 Mirshamsi, A., & Allami, H. (2013). Metadiscourse markers in the discussion/ conclusion section of Persian and English master’s theses. The Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 32(3), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.22099/ jtls.2013.1706

6  Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of Interpersonal… 

261

Mur-Dueñas, P. (2009). Logical markers in L1 (Spanish and English) and L2 (English) Business research articles. English Text Construction, 2(2), 246–264. https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.2.2.07mur Mur-Dueñas, P. (2011). Attitude markers in business management research articles: A cross-cultural corpus-driven approach. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 50–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-4192.2009.00228.x Murillo, S. (2012). The use of reformulation markers in Business Management research articles. An intercultural analysis. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 17(1), 64–90. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.17.1.03mur Murillo, S. (2018). Not the same, but how different? Comparing the use of reformulation markers in ELF and in ENL research articles. In P.  Mur-­ Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  237–253). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/aals.18.11mur Nyman, S. (1994). The role of cautions and warnings in operating instructions. In S.-K. Tanskanen & B. Wårvik (Eds.), Topics and comments. Papers from the discourse projects (pp. 67–74). Turku, Finland: University of Turku. Povolná, R. (2015). On cross-cultural variation in the use of conjuncts in research articles by Czech and native speakers of English: Can conjuncts contribute to the interactive and dialogic character of academic texts? In R. Pló Alastrué & C. Pérez-Llantada (Eds.), English as a scientific and research language. Debates and discourses. English in Europe (Vol. 2, pp.  115–140). Berlin Germany/ Boston: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516378-008 Povolná, R. (2018a). Conference abstracts in English: A challenge for non-­ Anglophone writers. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp. 151–171). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18.07pov Povolná, R. (2018b). On some persuasive strategies in technical discourse: Crosscultural analysis of directives in English and Czech technical manuals. Topics in Linguistics, 19(2), 72–85. https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2018-0011 Povolná, R. (2019). Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives. Discourse and Interaction, 12(1), 47–74. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47 Rus, D. (2014). Technical communication as strategic communication. Characteristics of the English technical discourse. Procedia Technology, 12, 654–658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.545 Schubert, C. (2016). Cohesion in contrast: A case study of English and German user manuals. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 29, 95–117.

262 

R. Povolná

Sharpe, M. (2014). Language forms and rhetorical function in technical instructions. English for Specific Purposes World, 43, 15. http://www.esp-world.info/ Articles43/Sharpe.pdf. Accessed 6 June 2019 Šipková, M. (2017). O modálních predikativech slovesného původu typu To přende, (se) patři…zbórat. [On modal predicatives of verbal origin, type To přende, (se) patři…zbórat.]. Naše řeč, 100(4), 265–271. Sudková, M. (2012). Vyjadřování interpersonální funkce v českých a anglických odborných textech. Kontrastivní studie. [Expressing the interpersonal function in Czech and English academic texts. A contrastive study.]. Časopis pro moderní filologii, 94(1), 31–42. Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Thomas, S., & Hawes, T. P. (1994). Reporting verbs in medical journal articles. English for Specific Purposes, 13, 129–148. https://doi. org/10.1016/0889-4906(94)90012-4 Trimble, L. (1985). English for science and technology: A discourse approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Tse, P., & Hyland, K. (2006). ‘So what is the problem this book addresses?’ Interactions in book reviews. Text and Talk, 27, 767–790. https://doi. org/10.1515/TEXT.2006.031 User guide, Wikipedia. (n.d.). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_guide. Accessed 18 June 2019. Verschueren, J. (1999). Understanding pragmatics. Understanding language series. London: Arnold. Vogel, R. (2008). Sentence linkers in essays and papers by native vs. non-native writers. Discourse and Interaction, 1(2), 119–126. Vogel, R. (2013). Sentence adverbials in academic texts: Preference of native vs non-native writers. In J. Schmied & C. Haase (Eds.), English for academic purposes: Practical and theoretical approaches (pp.  81–93). Göttingen, Germany: Cuvillier Verlag. Whitaker, J. C., & Mancini, R. K. (2013). Technical documentation and process. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

7 Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised Discourses

7.1 Introduction Adopting an intercultural rhetoric approach (Connor, 2004) to the analysis of Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses, this chapter undertakes to identify the common tendencies and divergences in the conveyance of persuasive intents in Anglophone and Czech academic, business, religious and technical discourses. The analysis is based on the assumption that neither the value systems in different linguistically and culturally defined communities, nor the functional needs in different fields and their corresponding genres are fully identical, which is reflected in the prominence given to individual persuasive strategies and the preferred language means used for their realisation. The focus of the cross-cultural analysis is primarily on interactive language resources which are typically associated with making persuasive attempts drawing on the ethical, logical and pathetic persuasive appeals. In order to allow for systematic comparison across the target-specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds, four key types of explicit realisation of persuasion have been selected for scrutiny. These comprise:

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_7

263

264 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

1. personal structures expressing self-mention 2. reader pronouns and verbal endings indicating reader reference 3. non-assertion speech acts, comprising directives, questions and exclamations 4. evaluative lexis (epistemic and value markers) The reasons for the choice of these forms of persuasive language stem from their prominence in the specialised discourses under investigation, as well as from their potential to convey all persuasive appeals: self-­ mention, reader reference and evaluative lexis are instrumental in evoking the ethical appeal, cognitive directives support the logical development of the argument, and reader reference, questions, exclamations and evaluative lexis address the emotions of the audience.

7.2 L inguacultural Constraints on Conveying Persuasion in Anglophone and Czech Specialised Discourses The contextual constraints imposed on the Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses to a large extent reflect the slightly different ways in which authority is built in the two ‘big cultures’ (Atkinson, 2004). These distinctions stem from the different sizes of the respective discourse communities, as well as from different historical and political developments in the two societies. When approached from the perspective of Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010), the large Anglophone cultures may be characterised as prioritising individuality and tolerance towards a relatively high degree of ambiguity, plurality of views and competing approaches. By contrast, the small Czech culture shows a considerably lower score for individualism (58 Czech Republic vs 98 GB and 91 USA) and tends towards a higher degree of uncertainty avoidance, leading to a preference for minimising tension and allegiance to well-established models and approaches (https://www. hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/czech-republic/). These divergences are also reflected in stylistic traditions, as, for instance,

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

265

Anglophone academic discourse tends to use I as a self-mention marker, while Czech conventions traditionally require the use of the exclusive we as a self-mention indicator. The two ‘big’ cultures also differ in their approach to power distance, that is the degree to which a person can influence other people’s ideas and behaviour (Hofstede et al., 2010). Anglophone cultures typically show a low degree of power distance and therefore are expected to adopt a more democratic, reader-oriented attitude in their specialised discourses. The Czech ‘big’ culture diverges from this pattern, as it has been found to display the higher degree of power distance typical of hierarchically structured societies, where an authoritative person can more easily seek agreement from less powerful members of the community. This seems to be reflected in the importance attributed to display of knowledge and the role of the audience in meaning negotiation. Thus in Czech specialised discourses reference is typically made to a few well-established authoritative sources (e.g. the Bible in religious sermons, secondary sources ratified as disciplinary knowledge in research articles), while Anglophone discourses tend to draw on a variety of diverse data and views to enhance the credibility of the argument. This also seems to affect the expected length of texts of different genres. As the difference in the word count of the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora of the CECSD corpus clearly shows, Anglophone texts are considerably longer in all the genres under consideration, which, apart from the analytical character of English, is apparently conditioned by the need to develop a more detailed argument anchored in various sources and to acknowledge numerous alternative views. However, under the pressure of globalisation, the rhetorical strategies typical of the target-specialised discourses seem to accommodate to the changing character of audiences which are now larger and multicultural, and enjoy better and quicker access to information. As a result of the increasing domination of English as the world’s leading medium of professional communication, Anglophone-specialised discourses (especially in the academic sphere) have been compared to Tyrannosaurus rex (Swales, 1997; Tardy, 2004)—a powerful carnivore threatening to eliminate competing national discourses and sentence them to extinction. Given that dominant position of Anglophone conventions in professional discourses

266 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

in the globalised world, non-Anglophone cultures are forced to at least partially accommodate their discourse conventions to Anglophone ones in order to have a chance of partaking in the international dialogue. The Anglophone influence can be first perceived in the English-medium texts of non-Anglophone authors intended for an international audience (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2014), but certain features have also gradually penetrated vernacular discourse conventions. Thus, for instance, in the last two decades Czech-medium research articles and corporate reports have been clearly influenced by the Anglophone discourse conventions and have undergone a change from lack of explicit text structure to explicit, complex and conventionalised text structure. Finally, the choice of persuasive resources is also constrined by the possibilities of the language itself. Thus, the rich inflectional repertoire of Czech allows the non-realisation of the subject; this explains the very low occurrence of first-person pronouns in Czech  specialised discourses, which is compensated by the verbal inflection functioning as a self-­ mention marker. Similarly, the low level of obligation modals reflects the tendency to express evidential meanings (epistemic and deontic included) by structures comprising predicative adjectives and adverbs. While the structural differences between Czech and English do not affect the persuasive strategies that writers can use in their persuasive attempts, they are obviously reflected in the choice of linguistic resources expressing persuasive intents.

7.3 P  ersuasive Strategies in Anglophone and Czech Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Discourses: Common Tendencies and Divergences The results of the cross-cultural analysis indicate that the target Anglophone and Czech  specialised discourses use persuasive strategies pertaining to all persuasive appeals. The following comparison of the main persuasive strategies used in the academic, business, religious and

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

267

technical discourses strives to highlight common tendencies in as well as differences between ways in which persuasive attempts are typically made in the Anglophone and Czech specialised discourse communities.

7.3.1 Academic Discourse Similarly to Anglophone academic discourse, Czech academic discourse in the field of soft sciences prioritises the ethical persuasive appeal through which the writer endeavours to construct his/her credibility while establishing a relationship of collegiality, in-group membership and agreement with the reader. The ethical appeal is often enhanced by the pathetic appeal addressing the emotional need of readers to be treated as in-group members. As Examples 1 and 2 show, the ethical appeal expressed by various language resources such as self-mention (usuzujeme; I will focus on), inclusive reader-reference forms (přesuneme, podíváme; we can focus, we would expect), epistemic markers (je možné; it is not possible, relatively) and appeals to shared knowledge (zřejmě) has a marked presence in both sub-corpora. However, while Anglophone authors (Example 2) clearly prefer I as a self-mention form, Czech writers tend to use we, which is in line with Czech academic writing conventions. 1. Nyní přesuneme pozornost k textům Věry Linhartové a podíváme se nejprve na úvahovou pasáž, jíž začíná Povídka nesouvislá: [Example]. Citovaná vstupní úvaha, v níž podavatel sdělení odkrývá „svým “vnímatelům proces geneze literárního textu, je zřejmě fokalizována z pohledu „všech “tvůrců textů […]. Také je možné uvažovat o autorském plurálu, avšak na všeobecnější platnost usuzujeme z předpokládané společné zkušenosti autorů (epických literárních) textů. (ACAD-CZ-LING-11)

268 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

[We will now move our attention to Vera Linhartova’s texts, and we will first look at the meditative passage which opens Povídka nesouvislá (Incoherent Tale): [Example] The quoted introductory passage, in which the narrator reveals to “her” narratees the process of the genesis of a literary text, is obviously presented from the perspective of “all” text creators […]. Therefore it is possible to consider it as authorial plural, although we deduce its generalisability on the basis of a common experience of authors of (epic literary) texts.] 2. Turning again to the VOS map, we can gain a more detailed picture by considering the spatial relationships of disciplines to each other. It is not possible in the space of a single article to explore all of the relationships found in this map and readers are invited to explore further for themselves. I will focus here on just two contrasting examples. Figure 5 shows the VOS map with each of the six disciplines which are found only in the Humanities and Social Sciences cluster shaded a different colour. As we would expect, each of the disciplines is relatively tightly grouped, reflecting a high degree of homogeneity. (ACAD-ENG-LING-05) Formed under the influence of the Teutonic epistemology and literacy and also affected by the Russian scientific tradition, Czech academic discourse is usually assumed to favour a writer-oriented, depersonalised style in which authority is established through presentation of disciplinary knowledge and avoidance of making the author’s position clearly recognisable (Clyne, 1987; Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997; Duszak, 1997; Vassileva, 1998; Yakhontova, 2006). On the other hand, Anglophone academic discourse is generally regarded as dialogic and reader-oriented (cf. Harwood, 2005; Hyland, 2005b; Ivanič, 1998). Yet, as evidenced by the ACAD sub-corpus, Czech research articles show somewhat greater writer-reader involvement on the interactional dimension of discourse than research articles by Anglophone scholars (cf. Tables 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 7.4). It seems that for members of the small Czech academic discourse community, who often know each other personally, share most of their research interests and methodological principles, and tend to adopt patterns of interaction marked by symbiosis and avoidance of tension (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2014), it is even more important to create a

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

269

bond of collegiality and communality with readers than for Anglophone scholars, who address a heterogeneous international audience. The construal of writer credibility across the Anglophone and Czech academic discourses also differs in the extent to which they rely on citations to create explicit intertextual reference to existent literature and position new research within prior disciplinary knowledge. Perhaps in response to the need to convince the global non-homogeneous audience of their credibility and professionalism, research articles by Anglophone authors are packed with numerous citations allowing the authors to display their expertise in the field and support their views and claims by reference not only to authorities, but also to various alternative views (Example 3). 3. The first strand of literature (e.g. Dalum et  al., 1998, 1999; Proudman and Redding, 2000; Redding, 2002; Amador et  al., 2007) explores the changing patterns of export specialization over recent decades. […] The second strand of literature links economic performance to the variety or quality of exports. In particular, Hummels and Klenow (2005), Hausmann et  al. (2007), and Freenstra and Kee (2007, 2008) associate different productivity levels with the production of different types of exports, such as “new” or “high-tech” products as opposed to “traditional” or “low-tech” products. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-01) 4. Empirickou studii zabývající se konkrétními důsledky povinné implementace IAS/IFRS předkládají například Stenka, Ormrod, Chan (2008). Významem implementace IAS/IFRS do prostředí kapitálového trhu České republiky se zabývá Janičíková (2014). (ACAD-CZ-ECON-04) [An empirical study dealing with the specific results of the implementation of IAS/IFRS was carried out, for instance, by Stenka, Ormrod, Chan (2008). The importance of the implementation of IAS/IFRS in the context of the Czech Republic capital market is explored by Janičíková (2014).] Czech scholars make fewer bibliographical references and use less in-text citations than their Anglophone counterparts, which may stem from the allegiance of authors to the local disciplinary community, which is assumed to be acquainted with the main theoretical tenets and research

270 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

methods that they are applying (Example 4). Another reason for this may be the ‘continuing a tradition’ orientation of most articles in the ACAD-CZ sub-corpus, which contrasts with the more competitive orientation of the research articles in ACAD-ENG, where authors tend to compare their findings critically with earlier work in order to establish the significance of their research results (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2018). The impact of competitiveness on Anglophone articles published in high-impact international academic journals is also attested by the systematic occurrence of self-citation intended to promote scholarly reputation and gain professional credit for one’s research (Hyland, 2003). The concern to assist the reader in following the chain of reasoning motivates the use of logical connectors and cognitive directive acts in both ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (Examples 3 and 4), although it appears to be somewhat more prominent in Anglophone articles. The logical persuasive principle is also enhanced by the providing of proof by experimental results, quantification, statistics and examples; however, the study of these is mostly beyond the scope of this study.

7.3.2 Business Discourse It can be assumed that corporate annual reports as a professional genre employ the appeals of ethos and logos; pathos, too, is common, because reports are focused directly at target readers. Whereas the logical appeal seems to be realised by analogous means in both Anglophone and Czech annual reports, ethos and pathos display some intercultural differences. Annual reports are a tool of marketing communication, which is fully functional only in a competitive free market economy. Although liberal market conditions in the Czech Republic have been obtained for three decades, many practices have not yet reached Western standards, as they are a hybrid of local tradition from times of a centrally planned economy and emulation of Western norms. The ethical and pathetic appeal thus still tend to be of different intensities, although convergence (i.e. adaptation of Czech annual reports to the more personal and inclusive Anglo-­ Saxon reporting tone) can be observed recently.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

271

The biggest differences have been identified in such strategies as sharing personal views and modulating commitment to claims. In the long period of separation of management from ownership in a state-controlled economy until the reestablishment of a market economy in 1990, it made no sense for managers to speak on behalf of the company in a personal way or even to get emotionally involved. Annual reports could not play a decisive role in maintaining loyalty of current shareholders (as the owner was mostly the state) and attracting new investors and partners. A residuum of such a discontinuity in traditions of generic conventions can still be perceived in Czech business discourse, although the gap is closing quickly. Anglophone (and Western in general) corporate and institutional annual reports have often served as models for reports drafted in smaller language communities, since developed English-speaking countries (mainly the USA) not only dominate the world economy, but they also spearhead social and cultural trends. This influence is obvious in reports by multinationals, and it is reproduced in English mutations of reports prepared by organisations active on local markets and in reports drafted only in vernacular languages. This particularly concerns the differences identified in ethos and pathos. The pathetic appeal in the Anglophone sub-corpus uses strategies creating a sense of community, and an atmosphere of caring, sharing and protecting. The emphasis on equality of gender and for people of all abilities, on inclusive environment and on respecting the rights of sexual, ethnic, religious and other minorities or groups is indispensable in annual reports of large global companies (Example 5). Also an extensive section devoted to social and environmental responsibility and another to the development and well-being of employees seem to be obligatory components of such reports. In such sections, companies digress the farthest from reporting on their core activity, business, and here they tend to use evaluative language with preference for positive connotations, with a frequency similar to that demonstrated in letters to shareholders. 5. We provide equal opportunity in recruitment, career development, promotion, training and rewards for all employees, including those with disabilities. Where possible, we make reasonable adjustments in job

272 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

design and provide appropriate training for employees who have become disabled. We actively monitor representation of women and local nationals in senior leadership positions, and have talent-development processes to support us in delivering more diverse representation. (BUS-ENG-REV-10) Generally speaking, the bigger a company is and the more debatable their core business is (from the point of view of ecology, society, ethics, etc.), the more space is devoted to countering the potentially tarnished image by stressing basically non-business efforts and achievements. This trend has spread to the reports of top Czech companies (Example 6), but it is underrepresented or absent in those of small and truly local businesses. This fact is not only related to a less heterogeneous character of Czech society and company stakeholders, it also suggests lower sensitivity on the part of the Czech readership to such socio-cultural issues (and a belief that they are not a matter of concern for businesses in the first place). 6. Tato činnost se neobejde bez vlivu na okolí. Společnost Sokolovská uhelná se ale dlouhodobě aktivně hlásí k systémové ochraně životního prostředí a minimalizaci těchto dopadů. (…) Sokolovská uhelná hraje také významnou roli v oblasti rekultivace a revitalizace krajiny dotčené povrchovou těžbou a působí i v oboru odborné likvidace odpadů vzniklých průmyslovou činností. (BUS-CZ-REV-7) [This activity necessarily has an effect on the environment. The company Sokolovská uhelná has long been an active proponent of systematic protection of the environment and of minimisation of such impact. (…) Sokolovská uhelná also plays an important role in the field of rehabilitation and revitalisation of a landscape affected by open-pit mining and is active in professional disposal of waste created by industrial activity.] While big multinational companies consider the whole world as their playground and benefit from it (Example 7), an apparent strategy in Czech annual reports is an appeal to the tradition, local origin and domestic production of their goods, as well as the expertise of domestic staff (Example 8). However, this appeal is not exclusively Czech, as it is used

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

273

analogously in different relatively small national communities, and it distinguishes reporting by businesses largely active on small national markets from reporting by global, multinational corporations. 7. This global approach helps us remain competitive in local markets and enables us to continue to attract top talent from across the world. (BUS-ENG-REV-3) 8. Strategicky výhodná poloha v srdci Evropy spolu s vysokou odborností, profesní kvalitou zaměstnanců a po mnoho let budovanou celosvětovou distribuční sítí jsou klíčovými základními kameny, na nichž úspěch společnosti stojí. Přes 80% naší produkce vyvážíme do 80 zemí 5 kontinentů, především na vysoce konkurenční a náročné trhy západní Evropy, a jsme dlouhodobě jedním z největších exportérů v Ústeckém kraji i České republice. (BUS-CZ-REV-23) [A strategically convenient location in the heart of Europe along with high expertise, professional competence of staff and a global distribution network built over many years are the key foundation stones on which the company’s success is based. We export over 80% of our production to 80 countries in 5 continents, mainly to highly competitive and demanding markets of Western Europe, and we have been one of the biggest exporters in the Ústí Region and the Czech Republic for years.] Related to the patriotic appeal is the emphasis on broader social responsibility, such as when a company claims credit for creating or preserving jobs, fostering education and training (cooperation with schools and universities) and making other contributions to communal well-being (Example 9). 9. (…) nám tato hala poskytla prostor pro instalaci nové výrobní linky typu Compact, původně plánované pro náš výrobní závod v Egyptě. Nová technologická platforma Compact tak prokázala svou flexibilitu, kdy jsme mohli reagovat na aktuální situaci na trzích a přesunout instalaci nových kapacit do České republiky. (BUS-CZ-16) [(…) this hall has given us a space for installation of the new production line of the Compact type, originally planned for our production plant in Egypt. The new Compact technological platform has proved its flexibility,

274 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

so we have been able to respond to the current market situation and shift installation of the new capacity to the Czech Republic.] This strategy can involve contrasting us with them and claiming achievements for maximisation of benefits for the local community. Ethos (focus on competence, expertise and resourcefulness) is combined here with pathos (appeal to a sense of community and proving that the company cares).

7.3.3 Religious Discourse Although the persuasive strategies adopted in the Anglophone and Czech sermons feature a number of common denominators, there are two areas in which the two sub-corpora differ distinctly. The first cross-cultural discrepancy is related to the degree of persuasive urgency and explicitness exerted upon the audience; being inherently related to the interplay of ethos, logos and pathos, this diversity is especially conspicuous in the field of fear induction, emotional pressure and conducive argumentation. It is notable that persuasive force is much more strongly and overtly demonstrated in the Anglophone sermons, while their Czech counterparts feature more sensitive and implicit ways of persuasion. Examples 10 and 11 will illustrate this general cross-­ cultural divergence: 10. And what about the fruit in your life? Have your deeds been always filled with love, your words always kind and helpful, your thoughts always for the good of others, and your desires always holy and pure? Or is there rottenness in you as well? I know how I answer those questions. The same as you. And so the call goes out today just as at the Jordan: to repent. (REL-ENG-23) 11. Možná pro někoho z nás je toto pozvání o tom, že máme prohloubit svůj vztah s Bohem. Možná jsme už zapomněli na tu první lásku, nebo jsme ji opustili. Vraťme se k ní. Vstupme dnes ho hlubšího společenství s Bohem. (…) A věřme, že On jako milující Otec odpoví a budeme ho znát nově, jinak, hlouběji. Bůh je nám TAK BLÍZKÝ. Tak se k němu přibližme i my. Amen. (REL-CZ-43)

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

275

[Perhaps for some of us this invitation means deepening our relationship with God. Maybe we’ve forgotten the first love, or we’ve abandoned it. Let’s return to it. Let us now enter a deeper communion with God. (…) And let us believe that He, as a loving Father, will answer and we will know Him better, anew, and more deeply. God IS SO CLOSE to us. So let’s get closer to him. Amen.] Noticeably, the English sample is somewhat coercive and rigorous in expression. The fear-related emotions induced by the preacher encompass threat and fear of condemnation; the spirit of the message is supported by the choice of conducive vocabulary (e.g. the intentionally dual semantics, such as rottenness, zapomněli [have forgotten], opustili [have abandoned] vs holy, pure, láska [love]). The message latently perceivable between the lines clearly communicates the need to act urgently and immediately; the preacher even claims he knows the congregation’s answer. Obviously, such negative emotions may be just a step away from what could be perceived as manipulation or even abuse of emotive pressure verging on emotional blackmail (cf. Kater, 2019). Pathetic moves contain thought-­ provoking questions that are directly targeted at the congregation; the audience is given a ‘controlled choice’ (i.e. the preacher leads their mental exercise and suggests an implied answer) and thus is personally challenged through the emotional appeal to take a stance. Suggestive questions bring the necessary portion of pathos into play, directly placing listeners in a position in which they are expected to provide the desired answer, which is heavily determined by feelings aroused deliberately by the preacher (Adam, 2019; Overstreet, 2014). Conversely, the Czech sermon (Example 11) seems to be more sensitive, including a socially careful tone, prominent use of hedging and deontic modality, and careful choice of vocabulary (e.g. reiterative use of možná, appeals formed by the first-person plural such as vstupme, věřme). The REL-CZ pathetic passages appear to be reserved in the application of persuasive power, as well as more moderate, and perhaps less rigid in spirit. The general mood of the Czech sermons, unlike their English counterparts, is more soothing than alarming. In addition, the denominational and personal identity of the preacher has an inevitable impact on the style of persuasion and the persuasive strategies employed. Incidentally,

276 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

this tentative cross-cultural difference in the overt/covert conveyance of pathetic appeal is observed both in negative and positive emotions. Another cross-cultural divergence within the persuasive strategies may be observed in the area of intertextual references. In many respects, intertextuality embodies the red thread interwoven in the sermonical texture, being naturally connected with the preacher’s intention to enhance his credibility and, at the same time, foster the desired engagement in the audience. As regards cross-cultural differences, it appears that whereas Anglophone preachers practise intertextuality above all through textual allusions, statistics and facts of various sorts, their Czech counterparts employ, as a rule, a more personal (sometimes even intimate) approach, which may include personal recollections, reminiscences, family stories and real-life anecdotes. Hence, on the whole, if a Czech preacher refers to a set of statistical data or results of a public poll, it will defy the odds rather than stick with the usual pattern. The rational appeal in both the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora is used especially in connection with the principal source of the doctrine conveyed, that is Scripture. Analysis indicates that Czech preachers quote directly from the Bible nearly three times less frequently (6.32 quotes per sermon on average) than their English-speaking counterparts (17.48). What is more, in the Czech sermons, explicit references to Scripture are often most distinct in the opening passages, when the preacher gives a topical reading; later, in the sermon, Czech preachers may refer back to the opening reading or quote other biblical verses, but this is less frequent. Conversely, Anglophone sermons make plentiful use of biblical quotes throughout the sermon; by referring directly and overtly to the Bible they add to the credibility as well as the persuasive power of the sermon. In this way, the English sermons encompass logical appeal (rooted in the assumed rationality of the doctrine and argumentation) as well as ethical appeal, enhancing the trustworthiness of the preacher and the credibility of the sermon as such. In addition, corpus data testify to the overall tendency of English-­ speaking preachers to quote other sources, such as media and statistics, more often (8.36 extra-biblical illustrations per sermon on average) than Czech speakers (5.82). On the other hand, Czech preachers seem to compensate this discrepancy through longer discussion of the opening

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

277

reading, that is its biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, focusing on both the logical argumentation and practical applications.

7.3.4 Technical Discourse Both the Anglophone and Czech components of the TECH sub-corpus tend to apply above all intricate associations between the ethical and logical persuasive appeals, thus making an ethos-logos interface their defining characteristic. The most prominent strategies are direct appeals to the audience and logical reasoning, which are realised by directives, reader pronouns and markers of logical connections between individual parts of user manuals (cf. Chap. 6). Strategies enhancing the logical appeal tend to be slightly more common in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus, in which writers seem to consider it more important to foster their logical reasoning and supply proof by exemplification and evidence. These strategies are further enhanced by reference to data given in tables, graphs and other visuals (although these are not part of the study in this volume) and by reference to technical information available in another part of the given manual or outside the text, mostly online. These are shown in Example 12, in which the ethical and logical appeals are expressed by various language means, such as self-mention (na našem webu), reader reference (evidujete, najdete, můžete), directives (nezapomeňte) and epistemic markers (je nutné), all associated with the ethical persuasive appeal and reference to relevant technical information (v sekci www.vodafone.cz/epokLadna, část Ke stažení) and logical connectors (například), both pertaining to the logical appeal. All these realisations of persuasive strategies occur in the TECH sub-corpus as a whole with frequencies worth mentioning. 12. Nezapomeňte se řídit aktuálním zněním zákona o EET a plnit další náležitosti, jež zákon ukládá. Aktuálně je například nutné, abyste na každé své provozovně měli viditelně umístěnou informaci o tom, že evidujete tržby podle EET.  Přesnou formulaci věty najdete na stránkách MFČR anebo na našem webu v sekci www.vodafone.cz/ epokLadna, část Ke stažení, kde si ji můžete ve formátu PDF stáhnout a rovnou vytisknout. (TECH-CZ-14)

278 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

[Remember to follow the current wording of the EET Act and fulfil other requirements that the law imposes. For example, it is currently necessary for you to have visibly displayed at each of your locations a notice that you are recording EET revenue. You can find the exact wording on the website of the Ministry of Finance or on our website in the section www.vodafone.cz/epokLadna, Download section, where you can download and print it in PDF format.] Anglophone user manuals tend to be slightly more dialogic, since the writers have a greater tendency to use direct appeals to their audience (Example 13), expressed above all by imperatives (do not insert, start, close, insert, select) and reader reference (your), and to apply modulation of their commitment to claims, expressed by predicative adjectives (advised), which are associated with the ethical appeal. These linguistic means are often used together with logical connectors (if) and numbering of the steps to be taken (1., 2. …), which in turn foster the logical persuasive appeal. Example 13 starts with an exclamation followed by a directive, the persuasive force of which is strengthened by an exclamation mark. The noun warning explicitly states what follows. The urgency is further enhanced by the negative imperative often used by technical writers to prevent the reader from taking action. Both these language means not only appeal to the audience, they also manifest the writer’s care for the reader and his/her technical device, thus illustrating that in user manuals it is often difficult to find strategies appealing to just one persuasive appeal. 13. WARNING! DO NOT INSERT THE CARD! It is advised to connect your PC to the mains, before starting the installation 1. Start Windows. 2. Close all applications. 3. Insert the CD-Rom into your computer’s CD-Rom drive. If auto play is enabled the setup will start automatically. 4. If this does not happen, select the Run command from the Start menu. 5. Select the drive that contains the CD. (TECH-ENG-09) In comparison, Czech user manuals comprise slightly more rhetorical questions and exclamations to appeal to the audience and resort more prominently to attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge to

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

279

express evaluation and create an atmosphere of caring, responsibility and collegiality while enhancing an ethos-pathos interface. It can be stated that Anglophone and Czech technical writers use the same strategies, although there are some differences in the frequency of particular linguistic realisations. These are caused by the different structural properties of English and Czech, which each give preference to slightly different means, although equivalent lexico-grammatical choices are available.

7.3.5 C  ommon Tendencies and Divergences Across the Target Anglophone and Czech Specialised Discourses The comparison of the dominant persuasive strategies in Anglophone and Czech academic, business, religious and technical discourses indicates that they share the same general tendencies; however, they also display subtle differences, which can be related to the situational characteristics of the two linguacultural backgrounds. Most of these differences concern the expression of the ethical appeal and its interfaces with the logical and pathetic persuasive appeals. Thus, in the global heterogeneous Anglophone context, the emphasis is on collegiality and tolerance towards a plurality of views, which is in consonance with the tolerance towards ambiguity and low degree of power distance typical of the Anglophone ‘big’ culture. In academic discourse, this is evidenced by numerous citations referring to various views and approaches, as well as by a more democratic, reader-oriented approach inviting readers to consider alternative interpretations. Anglophone sermons are marked by a higher number of intertextual references to diverse sources, user manuals rely on direct appeals to readers, and corporate reports show a prominent concern for issues of equality and inclusion. On the other hand, the small Czech ‘big’ culture, which is characterised by avoidance of ambiguity and high degree of power distance, prioritises tradition, communality, caring and the avoidance of tension. This is reflected in the strong element of reader involvement and the predominant ‘continuing a tradition’ orientation of Czech research articles complemented by fewer citations, and

280 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

these typically to highly authoritative sources, which are considered sufficient guarantee of the credibility of the writer and his/her views. Czech business discourse is also oriented towards appeal to tradition, and it values local production and goods. In contrast to Anglophone preachers, Czech preachers typically prefer a soothing tone over fear-related appeals; their sermons are also characterised by a lower number of citations, most of which quote the text of the most authoritative text—the Bible—to claim credibility and persuasive power. It is likely that some of these divergences will be reflected in the language resources that the specialised discourse communities in the two linguacultural contexts find persuasive. The comparative analysis of persuasive language typically used by the Anglophone and Czech academic, business, religious and technical discourse communities is the focus of the next section of this chapter.

7.4 V  ariation in Linguistic Realisations of Persuasion Across Anglophone and Czech Academic, Business, Technical and Religious Discourses A comparative analysis of the linguistic manifestations of persuasion shows that the target Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses tend to use a similar range of language means to convey persuasive intents, although not all language resources show the same frequency of use and functional specialisation. Thus, for instance, Anglophone texts tend to be more explicitly interpersonal, which is indicated by the use of self-­ mention and reader reference, and directive speech acts. However, these tendencies are not identical in all specialised discourses under consideration. As mentioned above, the comparative analysis in this chapter focuses on the most prominent realisations of persuasive strategies associated with the ethical, logical and pathetic appeals across the target linguacultural backgrounds and specialised discourses. As the previous chapters have shown, the ethical appeal related to the representation of the writer

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

281

as a credible professional willing to share his/her knowledge with the readers is central to persuasion in all four specialised discourses. The key linguistic realisations of this persuasive appeal are self-mention, reader reference, non-assertion speech acts and evaluative lexis, assigning to a statement the status of fact or assessment via epistemic markers (hedges and boosters), and a positive or negative value via attitudinal markers (cf. Hunston, 1999; Martin & White, 2005). Resources expressing the logical appeal comprise cognitive directives guiding readers through the text and inviting them to derive an interpretation intended by the writer. Finally, reader reference, questions, exclamations and evaluative lexis are the manifestations of the pathetic appeal compared across the disciplinary and linguacultural sub-corpora. It is obvious that the demarcation line between the three persuasive principles is frequently fuzzy, giving rise to what has been labelled here persuasive appeals interface.

7.4.1 Academic Discourse 7.4.1.1  Self-Mention and Reader Reference The ethical appeal related to the ability of the writer to boost his/her credibility and personal involvement in the research while appealing to the reader and assuming communality, collegiality and solidarity with the audience is clearly the main persuasive principle in Anglophone and Czech academic discourses. Perhaps the most visible language resources expressing the ethical appeal in both linguacultural contexts are personal structures functioning as self-mention, which enhance the writer’s presence in the text, and reader reference resources, which bind the writer and the reader together and create a sense of in-group membership based on sharing of similar values, assumptions and goals. The results of the comparative analysis of personal structures in the ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ sub-corpora (Table 7.1) have revealed somewhat surprising results, as they clearly indicate that Czech scholars use only a slightly lower rate of self-mention than their Anglophone counterparts (546.3 vs. 527.2) and a considerably higher rate of reader reference (204.5 vs. 124.4). The view that Czech academic discourse is not as deprived of

282 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.1  Variation in self-mention and reader reference across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Self-mention 1st pers. sg. exclusive 1st pers. pl. exclusive Total Reader reference 1st pers. pl. inclusive 2nd pers. Indefinite Total

ACAD-ENG

ACAD-CZ

471.5 74.8 546.3

155.4 371.8 527.2

105.1 4.2 19.1 128.4

204.5 0 0 204.5

personality as it is generally believed has already been suggested by Sudková’s (2012) investigation, which reported that Czech linguists use more self-mention and reader reference (‘relational markers’ in Sudková’s terminology) resources than Anglophone linguists. A closer look at Table 7.1, however, reveals important differences in the choice of specific forms realising the self-mention and reader-­reference functions in the ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ sub-corpora. Anglophone authors show a marked preference for the use of first-person singular forms (I, my, me), indicating an effort to enhance their authority and credibility by getting personally behind their claims and positions and opening a dialogic space for the negotiation of their views with readers. Self-mention is often employed to position the writer as an active agent in the research process (typically in clusters with research verbs, such as calculate, compare, assume, set, multiply). The prominence of this self-­ mention function in ACAD-ENG suggests that Anglophone writers invest a significant effort in explaining research procedures so as to make their work replicable and thus more credible in the eyes of the highly heterogeneous audience they address. First-person structures tend to be self-promotional by overtly claiming that the research contributes new knowledge to the field (Example 14). The rare occurrences of exclusive first-person plural pronouns and possessives in the ACAD-ENG sub-­ corpus are instances of reference to the writer and someone else partaking in the research, as in Example 15, or, especially in economics research articles, a tentative indication that although the text is single-authored, the study is a result of a team effort.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

283

14. I provide new theoretical results on the effect of tariff liberalization on entry for unilateral tariff reductions versus multilateral reductions in bindings. […] I find that lowering bindings, while holding applied tariffs fixed, brings the entry decision forward by reducing the incentive to delay investment. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-12) 15. I do not know how Peng understood racial relations in the US or how he viewed himself in racial terms, and it seems quite likely that our stances toward race are dissimilar given our differing backgrounds. (ACAD-ENG-LING-02) By contrast, in research articles by Czech scholars 70.5% of the instances of self-mentions are realised by plural forms (verbal endings and occasionally we, our, us). This is in conformity with the stance of humility and avoidance of face-threatening forms, which according to Čmejrková and Daneš (1997) is traditionally associated with Czech academic discourse (Example 16). The function of singular forms is typically confined to outlining the general field of research and discourse organisation and to referring to data and results via possessive forms (Example 17). 16. Pro modelování konvergenčního procesu používáme logaritmus původní úrovně HDP (LGDP). Použili jsme i jiné kontrolní proměnné zmiňované v literatuře. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-12) [For modelling the convergence process, we use the logarithm of the original level of LGDP. We have also used other control variables mentioned in the literature.] 17. Moje výsledky tyto tendence potvrdily—nejvíce velkých písmen se vyskytovalo u Melantricha (a Dačického). (ACAD-CZ-LING-08) [My results have confirmed these tendencies—the highest number of capital letters occurred in Melantrich (and Dacicky).] Reader reference realised by inclusive first-person plural forms is instrumental in involving readers in the argumentation and acknowledging them as disciplinary equals with whom the writer negotiates his/her views and claims and whom he/she strives to persuade to accept his/her contribution to disciplinary knowledge (Examples 18 and 19). The more extensive use of reader reference in ACAD-CZ may indicate a more urgent need to enhance communality and positive politeness (cf. Harwood,

284 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

2005; Myers, 1989); by doing this, the authors appeal to the emotional needs of readers to be treated as in-group members, thus achieving an ethos-pathos interface. 18. Předpokládejme, že analyzovaná data tvoří údaje o čtyřech následujících letech 2007–2010 […] a že máme k dispozici domácnosti, které byly zařazeny do šetření ve všech sledovaných letech. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-13) [Let’s assume that the data analysed comprise income values for the following four years 2007–2010 […] and we have available the households that were part of the survey in all monitored years.] 19. As we would expect, each of the disciplines is relatively tightly grouped, reflecting a high degree of homogeneity. (ACAD-ENG-LING-05) The higher rate of reader reference in Czech research articles, however, may stem not only from the intensity of the pathetic persuasive appeal; it may also reflect a difference in the frequency of occurrence of the passive construction in Czech and Anglophone research articles (cf. Sudková, 2012). While regarded as one of the style markers of Anglophone academic discourse, the passive is not so frequent in Czech academic writing, where its function is often conveyed by first-person plural forms (it is assumed vs předpokládejme).

7.4.1.2  Non-assertion Speech Acts Non-assertion speech acts indicating direct appeal to the reader to request some information or action show generally the same tendencies across the two linguacultural contexts. As Table 7.2 indicates, the prominence of the two types of non-assertion speech acts occurring in the ACAD sub-­ corpus is strikingly different—while directives are a relatively frequent persuasive resource both in Anglophone and in Czech research articles, questions show a very low frequency in the ACAD sub-corpus as a whole. There are no occurrences of exclamations in the academic sub-corpus. Despite the obvious potential of questions to function as a positive politeness device indicating the writer’s willingness to create a rapport with their readers, and thus contributing to the pathetic persuasive

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

285

Table 7.2  Variation in non-assertion speech acts across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

ACAD-ENG

ACAD-CZ

Questions Directives  Imperatives  Obligation modals  Predicative adjectives

18.0 172.7 94.3 70.6 7.7

39.3 223.6 149.1 3.6 70.9

appeal, their frequency in the Anglophone and Czech research articles is rather low (Table 7.2). As indicated in Chap. 3, the reason for the higher frequency of questions in the ACAD-CZ sub-corpus seems to be the tendency of Czech writers to list explicitly formulated research questions. While this strategy focuses the reader’s attention on the research purposes and aims, their rhetorical potential is somewhat limited. Given the varied functions that they may perform, directives are clearly more central than questions to making persuasive attempts in the academic corpus. As Table 7.2 indicates, the overall occurrence of directives is more prominent in the Czech scholars’ research; however, there are considerable differences in the forms and functions of directives across the ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ sub-corpora. Of the three basic structures conveying directives, that is imperatives, obligation modals and predicative adjectives (Hyland, 2002b), imperative structures are the most frequently realised in the whole ACAD sub-­ corpus (94.3 in ACAD-ENG and 149.1 in ACAD-CZ). Despite their potential face-threatening character (cf. Myers, 1989; Swales et al., 1998), Anglophone and Czech writers use imperatives to provide clear and precise instructions and to guide the reader through the steps of reasoning chains (Example 20). 20. Consider first a model with no change point, and a common response across all firms to changes in trade costs. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-14) The most striking cross-cultural difference in the use of directives concerns the use of obligation modals and predicative adjectives. A clear pattern emerges from the data which indicates that while Anglophone academic discourse expresses emphasis through obligation modals (e.g. it

286 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

should be recognised, it must be noted) (Example 21), Czech academic discourse conveys emphasis by modal predicatives (adjectives and adverbs) (e.g. je třeba, je nutno, je důležité) (Example 22), although these constructions exist in both languages (e.g. musíme podotknout and it is important to). It should be noted, however, that this equivalence is functional rather than structural, as in the case of predicative adjectives the subject of the English construction is the prop-it, while in the Czech construction the function of subject is fulfilled by the infinitive (Sudková, 2012). 21. It should be recognised that the use of a single forum places restriction on potential generalisations because it can only represent a small sub-­ culture, but the analysis represents a starting point in developing a second-­order understanding of mock politeness which is founded on first-­ order use. (ACAD-ENG-LING-12) 22. Je třeba říci, že zkoumaný vzorek přitom obsahuje slova, která jsou z dnešního pohledu neutrální […].(ACAD-CZ-LING-03) [It should be mentioned that the sample under analysis comprises words which are neutral from a contemporary perspective […].] Variation in the use of directives is not restricted to the frequency of formal realisations. Apart from being more prominent in Czech research articles, directives in the ACAD-ENG and the ACAD-CZ sub-corpora differ according to the principal type of activity they direct readers to be involved in—textual, cognitive and physical acts (Hyland, 2002b). Cognitive directives occur with a similar frequency in the two sub-­ corpora (96.3  in ACAD-ENG vs 91.8  in ACAD-CZ), implying that Anglophone and Czech scholars employ the persuasive force of directives to guide readers through arguments and proofs in an attempt to convince them to accept the suggested interpretation (Example 21). In the Czech sub-corpus, the predominant form of imperative directives realises textual acts (131.8 occurrences), inviting readers to join the writer in a dialogical engagement with previous research (Example 23) or directing their attention to other sections of the texts, visuals or additional materials, such as tables, graphs or appendices. This high rate of textual directives explains the higher frequency of imperatives in the Czech sub-corpus, as textual directives are considerably less frequent in Anglophone research

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

287

articles (36.5). This points to a difference in academic discourse conventions, as Czech academic discourse uses the directive viz [see] to introduce most non-integral citations, while Anglophone academic discourse does not require the use of see in in-text citations. 23. První výsledky byly publikovány v r. 2009 (viz Klazar—Slintáková, 2009), další výsledky dosažené v r. 2010 publikovány zatím nebyly. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-06) [The first results were published in 2009 (see Klazar & Slintakova, 2009). Results of the 2010 study have not yet been published.] While physical act directives instructing the reader how to reproduce the research process are not very frequent in the Anglophone sub-corpus (38.6), they are practically absent in the Czech sub-corpus.

7.4.1.3  Evaluative Lexis: Epistemic Markers Pertaining to the ethical persuasive appeal, epistemic modality markers, which allow academic writers to modify the degree of certainty and commitment they opt for when negotiating their views and claims with readers, have been shown to vary significantly across cultural and disciplinary contexts (cf. Dahl, 2004; Fløttum, Dahl, & Kinn, 2006; Hyland, 1998; Pérez-Llantada, 2010; Vold, 2006). The results of the comparative quantitative analysis summarised in Table  7.3 show that hedges, typical of academic discourse in general, are used considerably more frequently than boosters, and that hedges and boosters are more prominent in the ACAD-CZ sub-corpus (1743.6 hedges vs 530.9 boosters) than in the ACAD-ENG sub-corpus (1290.7 hedges vs 347.2 boosters). One reason for this may be the generally high degree of epistemic modality present in Czech academic texts, combined with a tendency towards generalisation and avoidance of explicit commitment to claims (Čmejrková, Daneš, & Světlá, 1999). However, this contradicts Sudková’s (2012) results reporting that in her sample Anglophone linguists used four times more hedges than Czech linguists. Perhaps this may be attributed to the discipline, the type of articles selected or even to idiosyncratic use. The more marked use

288 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.3  Variation in epistemic markers across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

ACAD-ENG

Hedges Most frequent hedges may suggest appear would could indicate likely might relatively seem Boosters Most frequent boosters

find will show indeed clear(ly) the fact that demonstrate in fact must actually

ACAD-CZ 1,290.7 153.1 111.3 78.8 78.8 75.3 71.1

moct [may] by [would] lze [(it is) possible] často [frequently] možný [possible] z tohoto hlediska [from this perspective] ukazovat [indicate] předpokládat [assume] poměrně [relatively] téměř [almost]

70.6 67.5 64.9 54.6 347.2 58.7 budou [will]

45.8 zřejmě(-)y [evident(-ly)] 42.8 zjistit [find] 32.9 skutečnost/fakt, že [the fact that] 29.9 muset [must] 24.7 prokázat [demonstrate] 21.6 ukázat [show] 17.0 vždy [always] 17.0 potvrdit [establish] 12.4 skutečně-(ý) [true(-ly)]

1,743.6 360.0 274.5 221.0 119.0 116.3 84.5 81.8 77.2 47.2 46.3 530.9 89.1 53.6 49.1 48.2 38.2 38.2 37.2 34.5 28.2 27.3

of boosters in the Czech sub-corpus may be regarded as complementing the use of hedges, thus achieving a balance between commitment to and detachment from views and claims. A comparison of the top ten most frequent hedges and boosters indicates further differences between the preferences of Anglophone and Czech writers. While modal verbs seem to be the most frequent means of conveying different degrees of certainty in the ACAD-CZ sub-corpus, ACAD-ENG displays a marked presence of epistemic lexical verbs (suggest, appear, indicate, find, show). The extremely high frequency of moct in Czech research articles seems to result from its role as the only counterpart for the meaning of may, might and could.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

289

In both sub-corpora hedging is most frequently associated with the expression of possibility (may, could, might; moct, možný, lze), thus acknowledging the existence of alternative views (Example 24) and the uncertainty of human judgement (Example 25). 24. Banking crises might therefore be the result of weak macroeconomic “fundamentals”, or they could be exacerbated by international spillovers. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-02) 25. Na základě výsledků provedených analýz je možné stanovit určitá doporučení, vztahující se k dalšímu zkoumání problematiky determinant kapitálové struktury firem. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-03) [On the basis of the results of the analysis it is possible to make specific recommendations relevant to the further research of the issue of determinants of capital structure of business entities.] Anglophone discourse seems to rely more heavily on speculative judgements referring to the part played by human evaluation in interpreting research results (suggest, indicate, likely), while Czech academic discourse shows a greater prominence of approximators reducing the precision of results and measurements (často, poměrně, téměř). Another difference is visible in the occurrence of sensory evidential verbs (appear, seem), which indicate an observation-based source of information. Sensory evidential verbs are among the top ten most frequent hedges only in ACAD-ENG sub-corpus, thus implying that in an Anglophone context persuasion tends to be associated with more objective data-related interpretations and claims (cf. Hyland & Jiang, 2019). The most prominent boosters in both sub-corpora are judgement epistemic verbs (find, show, demonstrate; zjistit, prokázat, ukázat, potvrdit), confirming the presence of a diachronic trend towards more empirically based commitments to claims, as reported by Hyland and Jiang (2017) (Examples 26 and 27). 26. With reference to the transcribed life histories of a particular collection of people, I have demonstrated how these approaches to research have the potential to be mutually informative. (ACAD-ENG-LING-01)

290 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

27. Analýza kolokací vybraných neutrálních slov ukázala, že co se týče okruhu nejčetnějších kolokátů zkoumaných slov, vykazují oba korpusy značné rozdíly.(ACAD-CZ-LING-04) [An analysis of selected neutral words indicated that as far as the range of the most frequent collocates of the words under investigation is concerned, the two corpora show marked differences.] When striving to enhance the strength of their argument, Anglophone and Czech scholars tend to diverge in their choice of epistemic adjectives, adverbs and phrases. The only factuality marker occurring in both sub-­ corpora is the fact that/ skutečnost/ fakt, že (Examples 26 and 28). It is interesting to note that in the Anglophone sub-corpus the fact that is often used to introduce a contrastive result or view (marked by despite, however, although, as in Example 29), while in the Czech sub-corpus such instances are practically absent. The other forms stressing factuality diverge, comprising actually, in fact and clear/ly in the Anglophone sub-­ corpus and zřejmě and skutečně in the Czech sub-corpus. 28. Despite the fact that exposure to municipal bonds did not precipitate the financial distress of the municipal bond insurers, the cost of capital for issuers of insured debt increased. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-02) 29. Skutečnost, že se hyperbolická zájmena vyskytují v anglickém vzorku se stejnou četností jako substantiva, je překvapující. (ACAD-CZ-LING-10) [The fact that hyperbolic personal pronouns occur with the same frequency as nouns is surprising.] The frequency marker vždy is one of the top ten most frequent boosters only in Czech research articles, which seems to resonate with a high rate of approximation hedges. Despite differences in the choice of specific lexical forms for the expression of evidentiality, epistemic markers pertaining to the ethical appeal are clearly the most prominent language resource Anglophone and Czech scholars use when making their persuasive attempts, as they allow them to express subjective evaluations, modulate commitment to claims and involve the reader in negotiating suggested interpretations as knowledgeable peers, thus achieving ethos-pathos interface.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

291

7.4.1.4  Evaluative Lexis: Markers of Value A willingness to share the writer’s subjective assignment of values to propositions via evaluative lexis is a relatively prominent feature of both Anglophone and Czech academic discourse. Pertaining to the ethical and pathetic persuasive appeals, attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge allow writers to explicitly convey their feelings and evaluations by indicating the value they assign to actors, processes and events on the good-bad axis, subsuming the values of importance and expectedness. Obviously, the choice of value markers may vary as a function of divergences in the value systems associated with different cultures. Table 7.4 shows the ten most frequent attitudinal markers and shared knowledge appeals in the ACAD-CZ and the ACAD-ENG sub-corpora. It is evident that several of the most frequent attitude markers in the two sub-corpora are identical, and that all items in the lists indicate positive evaluation. The adjectives significant and important are the most Table 7.4 Variation in value markers across ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Attitude markers Most frequent items

Shared knowledge Most frequent items

ACAD-ENG significant important even key major new relevant insight robust importance clearly(-ly) common(-ly) typical(-ly) of course obviously

ACAD-CZ 542.5 98.1 71.6 71.3 22.6 22.6 17.5 17.0 16.4 14.9 14.4 101.8 13.5 13.1 12.1 10.2 6.5

významný [important] důležitý [significant] hlavní [major] zajímavý [interesting] dokonce [even] potvrdit [support] nutný [necessary] nový [new] zásadní [fundamental] podstatný [fundamental] typický(-y) [typical(-ly)] zřejmé(-ě) [obvious(-ly)] zpravidla [as a rule] samozřejmě [of course] běžný(-ně) [common(-ly)]

571.8 79.1 59.1 54.5 49.1 29.1 27.2 23.6 22.7 16.3 13.6 165.4 36.4 23.6 22.7 12.7 10.0

292 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

frequent items in both linguacultural contexts. Apart from stressing the positive value assigned to the approach, result or entity under consideration, these lexical items assume that readers who abide by the same value system would share the writer’s evaluation, thus making the claim or view expressed difficult to challenge (Example 30). A similar evaluative attitude is expressed by the adjectives key, major, relevant and hlavní, nutný, zásadní, podstatný, which point to the centrality of the entity, quality or process to the research at hand. As Hyland and Jiang (2016) put it, such a categorical statement of attitude binds the writer and the reader in “a relationship where the writer is firmly in the driving seat” (p. 13). 30. ROE je důležitým ukazatelem zejména pro majitele firmy či její konkurenci. (ACAD-CZ-ECON-05) [The DER [debt equity ratio] is an important indicator, especially for business owners and their competition.] Not surprisingly, the adjectives new and nový, referring to the basic value of novelty in an academic context, are a common item; however, the noun insight, typically referring to new contributions in the field, is ranked as frequent only in the Anglophone research articles. The restrictive adverb even is another attitude marker which is one of the top ten in both sub-corpora, although its frequency is considerably higher in the ACAD-ENG sub-corpus. This seems to reflect the potential of even not only to represent something as unexpected from the point of view of the author, but also to position readers as colleagues sharing the same knowledge and expertise (Example 31). 31. Thus, even in models that feature sectoral heterogeneity, it is quantitatively important to account for product-level patterns of comparative advantage. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-13) Despite the obvious similarity in the repertoire of attitudinal markers used by Anglophone and Czech scholars, there are some minor differences. One of these concerns the occurrence of the adjective robust, which is a relatively high-frequency item in the Anglophone corpus, although its equivalent robustní does not occur in the Czech sub-corpus. The

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

293

reason for this might be a preference for clipped Methods sections in Czech articles, as well as the assumption that the methods and approaches shared by the members of the disciplinary community are so well-­ established that it is not necessary to highlight their robustness and replicability. The second difference worth mentioning is the high frequency of the verb potvrdit in ACAD-CZ, which resonates with the preference for conflict avoidance and continuing a tradition research orientation, related to confirming and extending the results of previous research. Appeals to shared knowledge are considerably less frequent than attitude markers in both ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ, and they show a lower rate in ACAD-ENG than in ACAD-CZ, which seems to concur with the general decline in the use of these markers in English-medium academic discourse over the last 50 years (Hyland & Jiang, 2019, p. 178). Similarly to attitudinal markers, the most frequent shared knowledge markers in the two sub-corpora are identical, comprising primarily logical reasoning markers (clearly, obviously, of course, zřejmě, samozřejmě) and markers of familiarity and tradition (commonly, typically, běžně, zpravidla). Anglophone writers tend to rely more heavily on logical reasoning markers (Example 32), which express an epistemic stance of certainty combined with assumed shared beliefs and experiences with the reader, thus making the author’s view and arguments seem self-evident and difficult to challenge. The preference shown for familiarity and tradition markers on the part of Czech scientists may stem from the assumption of shared knowledge of research procedures and an urge to enhance inclusiveness in the local discourse community (Example 33). 32. And, of course, the impact is in principle ambiguous. (ACAD-ENG-ECON-05) 33. V těchto konstrukcích typicky dochází právě ke změnám ve větněčlenských funkcích jednotlivých větných členů. (ACAD-CZ-LING-03) [In these constructions, there are typically changes in the syntactic functions of the individual clause elements.] Overall, the cross-cultural comparison of the language resources used for the expression of academic persuasion indicates that Anglophone and

294 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Czech research articles generally show similar tendencies. The main differences concern preference for singular or plural form of self-mention, the relative weight of cognitive and textual act directives, and specific lexical choices for which writers from the two linguacultural backgrounds opt to assign status and value along the parameters of certainty, importance and expectedness.

7.4.2 Business Discourse 7.4.2.1  Self-Mention and Reader Reference The principal persuasive appeals in the business discourse are those which enable the authors to assert their involvement in the reported activities and boost their credibility as competent managers and trustworthy reporters, as well as those which rely on objective facts and logical arguments. Thus, ethos and logos form the core of persuasion in business. However, pathos complements the two appeals, as corporate annual reports address their readers, build a feeling of community and caring and evoke preferably positive emotions. Ethos is largely realised by personal structures marking involvement of the author. Such self-mentions using personal pronouns and their equivalent first-person verb forms manifest considerable differences in the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora (Table  7.5). Reader reference is a considerably less common strategy, representing the pathetic appeal. Its Table 7.5  Variation in self-mention and reader reference across BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Self-mention 1st pers. sg. 1st pers. pl. exclusive Total Reader reference 1st pers. pl. inclusive 2nd pers. Total

BUS-ENG

BUS-CZ

112.6 1,953.2 2,063.2

68.4 494.6 563.0

4.3 45.0 49.3

0 32.7 32.7

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

295

function is to engage readers in the endeavours of the company (this is performed both by second person and inclusive first person) and to make them perform textual or cognitive acts. There are structural differences, of course, since verb forms in Czech carry grammatical information expressed by personal pronouns in English. Thus, Czech first-person pronouns já [I] and my [we] are not expressed, nor is the non-emphatic ty/vy [you]. Also possessives used as determiners in noun phrases are rarely seen in Czech, unlike in English. However, comparison of frequencies of object forms of the first-person singular and plural pronouns and to some degree second person (vám/vás), which are not dropped in Czech, indicates that they are represented comparably or only slightly less in Czech. The ratio between the dominant first-person plural (Examples 34 and 35), much less frequent first-person singular (Examples 35 and 37) and very rare second person (only plural in Czech, standardly used in polite address; Examples 36 and 37) reveals almost no interlanguage or intercultural differences. 34. This is a fundamental part of our culture as an organisation, and our focus on this area in recent years has seen us make a real impact. (BUS-ENG-LET-6) 35. Pro mě osobně je velmi potěšující, jak se nám daří… (BUS-CZ-LET-9) [For me personally, it is very satisfying (to see) how we manage…] 36. …Unipetrol poděkoval za Vaši důvěru, kterou jste do Unipetrolu vložili. (BUS-CZ-LET-11) […(on behalf of ) Unipetrol to thank you for your trust that you invested in Unipetrol.] 37. Přeji vám příjemné čtení! (BUS-CZ-LET-5) [I wish you pleasant reading.] Table 7.5 illustrates how self-mention (in Czech mostly realised by verb endings) is generally less frequent in Czech corporate reports than in  Anglophone ones. Particularly the first-person plural is scarce: it is almost four times less frequent than in BUS-ENG. Plural perspective is evidently reduced in favour of reference to the company, as well as of impersonal expression. It might be claimed that English corporate persuaders are more willing to speak on behalf of the company and get

296 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.6  Personality in BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ—variation by temporal reference (verb be) BUS-­ENG 1st and 2nd person of the verbs be and být (present, future, past)

I am you are we are we will I was we were

BUS-CZ 6.7 0 79.4 16.5 4.5 7.5

jsem jste jsme budeme byl jsem byli jsme

10.0 0.8 115.4 5.8 0 0.8

involved as a personalised corporate voice. Similar to the academic discourse, the overt ethical appeal is weakened in Czech reports, and more focus is placed on the logical appeal, providing facts and figures in a relatively impersonal way. All uses of the first-person plural forms in Czech were exclusive; the inclusiveness found in some reports in BUS-ENG was not identified here. The first person in Czech annual reports typically commits to claims and expresses opinions which are valid generally, without temporal limitation. Therefore, they collocate most often with the present tense of verbs, rarely with the future and never with the past (Table 7.6). In past reference the authors speak about the company (Company, Group—frequency 1,230.3  in BUS-ENG; and společnost, Skupina—frequency 1,342.0 in BUS-CZ, i.e. reference by the third person) and use neither animate nor pronominal subjects. In Czech reports, the ethical appeal tends to be conveyed by depersonalised means, which might indicate lower managerial self-confidence, while Anglophone readers expect managers to represent the company personally and persuade them by implication of their personal involvement in and contribution to the company’s achievements. The ratio of jsme [we are] to jsem [I am] is 11.6 to 1 in BUS-CZ and 11.8 to 1 in BUS-ENG. Generally, first- and second-person personality in English annual reports exceeds that in Czech reports, most strikingly so when the exclusive first-person plural combines the senses of author’s involvement and communality.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

297

7.4.2.2  Non-assertion Speech Acts Non-assertion speech acts are engagement devices; they are used to elicit information or to prompt a reaction from the discourse participants. Exclamatives are virtually absent and interrogative syntactic structures are marginal. Questions are employed only in interviews with managers and (sometimes) in headings. They do not address the readers of annual reports; they engage the sources of information. The proportion of questions in BUS-CZ is 7 out of 4,562 sentences, that is 0.15%. In BUS-­ ENG the figure is 0.43% (20 questions out of 4,649 sentences), of which almost a half come from a single annual report which used the genre of an interview with an executive (Table 7.7). On the whole, Anglophone reports seem to be slightly more interpersonal than Czech ones, and they engage subjects different from the author more than Czech ones do. This seems to be related to the extent of marketisation of this genre in a competitive global environment. Directives realised by imperative structures, their rarity notwithstanding, were found more frequently in BUS-ENG: almost all instances were of the verb see (See note…, See page…) directing to perform a textual act (Hyland, 2002b). In BUS-CZ the imperative Viz [see] is used moderately, twice as often than the polite request with a textual function Dovolte mi… [Let me…]. The author’s strategy is not to impose; in the Anglophone corpus authors seek more direct contact with readers, probably as another means of boosting their credibility as competent sources of information. Directives realised by modals of obligation show a comparable frequency in BUS-CZ (47.6; musí, měl by, má být, etc.) and BUS-ENG (40.7), where they are mostly represented by should and must, and only Table 7.7  Comparison of the use of non-assertion speech acts between BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

BUS-ENG

BUS-CZ

Questions Directives  Imperatives  Obligation modals  Predicative adjectives

17.3 62.4 18.6 40.7 3.5

6.9 66.4 8.9 47.6 9.9

298 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

marginally by shall. Corporate persuaders usually impose on themselves, not on readers, which is why these constructions are not perceived as dispreferred. If the obligation focuses on readers, it is mild, in the form of recommendation (Example 38). Obligation and its acceptance strengthen the ethical appeal, with the company demonstrating its responsibility and decisiveness in the face of challenges, as well as being in control of its business. 38. These separate financial statements should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements to obtain a complete understanding of the Group’s results and financial position. (BUS-ENG-REV-31) Predicative adjective constructions functioning as directives are the least common type in both sub-corpora; they are three times more frequent in Czech than in English. English texts prefer modal verbs, but the indirect directive appeal not addressing readers is functionally the same. Although predicative adjectives after a copula are classified as one of three typical realisations of directives (Hyland, 2002b, pp. 216–217), both BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ manifest low occurrence of directives as such, which may be caused by the consideration of deontic obligation as undesirable in the generally non-imposing and tentative discourse of company-­to-­client/ shareholder communication. The only cross-cultural difference seems to be that deontic obligation in Czech is expressed by a wider range of adjectives, but with low frequency.

7.4.2.3  Evaluative Lexis: Epistemic Markers Annual reports speak mostly on behalf of the whole company, with the notable exception of very personal letters to shareholders. However, an explicit attitude can be expressed in all sections, thus conveying the corporate stance to communicated facts. The logical appeal, interpretation of objective data, is then modulated by interactional devices of stance, implying the author’s evaluation. A credible and trustworthy author may expect readers to adopt his/her stance.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

299

Table 7.8 Variation in epistemic markers across BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Hedges Most frequent hedges

BUS-ENG may could would expect generally approximately likely indicate might assume

Boosters Most frequent boosters

will show must demonstrate confirm prove always clearly the fact that completely

BUS-CZ 440.3 133.4 moci [may/can]

249.5 78.9

91.4 53.2 51.9 30.0 23.2 8.2 7.5 6.7 6.0 343.3 231.6

30.7 22.8 22.4 20.8 13.3 10.8 10.8 5.8 5.0 425.7 311.3

32.2 16.5 11.2 10.5 8.2 6.0

možný [possible] lze [(it is) possible] téměř [almost] očekávat [expect] zhruba [roughly] předpokládat [suppose] přibližně [approximately] možná [possibly] ukazovat [show] bude/budeme/budou [will]

muset [must] vždy [always] dokázat [prove] zcela [completely] potvrdit [confirm] prokázat [demonstrate/prove] 5.2 zřejmý [obvious] 3.7 jednoznačně [unambiguously/ clearly] 3.0 zjistit [find]

19.8 16.6 11.6 10.8 8.3 6.6 5.8 4.2 3.0

As Table 7.8 indicates, the most common epistemic modality markers in hedging and boosting propositions are modal verbs. The English subcorpus shows a higher frequency of hedges (440.3) than the Czech one (249.5), whereas boosting is more typical of the Czech reports (425.7) than of the English ones (343.3). It appears that carefully formulated statements are slightly more characteristic of Anglophone reports which is as to be expected, and that Czech authors make particularly predictions unhedged or boosted, but the differences are not very significant. Status markers conveying evaluation of certainty express epistemic modality by means of modal verbs, as well as modal adjectives, adverbs and nouns (Hunston, 1999). The judgement on certainty in BUS-CZ is

300 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.9 Constructions it + be + predicative adjective expressing modality (per 100,000 words) BUS-ENG

BUS-CZ

it + be + adjective construction je + adjective construction Deontic— it is important 2.2 je nezbytné [it is urgent/crucial] obligation it is essential 0.7 je nutné/nutno [it is necessary] je nezbytné [it is fundamental / principal] je důležité [it is important] je potřeba [it is necessary] Epistemic— it is probable 2.9 je možné [it is possible] likelihood it is possible 1.5

2.5 2.5 1.7 0.8 0.8 8.3

dominantly realised by bude [will], expressing predictability and indicating future time reference; this is more prominent than in BUS-­ ENG.  Lexical verbs, such as hedges expect [očekávat], indicate and předpokládat [suppose], boosters show, demonstrate and dokázat [prove], are quite common, but not to the same extent as modal verbs. Table 7.9 follows the construction with a prop-it as a subject followed by the verb be and an epistemic or deontic adjective and shows the ratio between these status markers. Although the construction is not frequent in either language, its identical composition allows convenient comparison. Epistemic likelihood is lexically poor in Czech (only je možné, but relatively frequent), whereas in English the similar constructions it is possible and it is probable occupy the field. Nevertheless, Czech possesses a predicative adverb lze/nelze [(it is/is not) possible], used without a verb, and its combined frequency (29.1) suggests that it is complementary to Czech epistemic modals, otherwise less frequent than English ones. Another cross-linguistic difference between English and Czech is that adverbs are not equally capable of conveying modality (Table  7.10). Epistemic adverbs are more prominently used in English, and the BUS-­ ENG corpus is dominated by the booster clearly (5.2) and the hedge (more) likely (8.2) (also an adjective), the former being markedly more present in letters to shareholders. The BUS-CZ corpus manifests dominance of the epistemic adverb možná (5.8), followed by pravděpodobně (3.3), but it contains a wider range of adverbs.

301

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

Table 7.10 Epistemic adverbs in the sub-corpora of annual reports (per 100,000 words) BUS-ENG

BUS-CZ

Stance adverb (English) Epistemic adverbs of certainty clearly 5.2 obviously 0.7 undoubtedly 0.7

Stance adverb (Czech equivalent)

jistě [certainly] jasně [clearly] zjevně [obviously] nepochybně [undoubtedly] nesporně [unquestionably] Epistemic adverbs of likelihood/probability (more) likely 8.2 možná [possibly] possibly 0.7 pravděpodobně [probably/likely] skutečně [really] asi [perhaps] opravdu [really/truly]

1.7 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.8 4.0 3.3 3.3 1.7 0.8

Cf. the classification by Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999

The hedges generally, personally and simply are typical representatives of style adverbs in BUS-ENG (Example 39); the Czech sub-corpus contains hardly any equivalents. Although osobně [personally] is quite frequent in BUS-CZ, it is rarely used as a style adverb. 39. We generally have the ability to use other manufacturers if a current vendor becomes unavailable or unable to meet our requirements. (BUS-ENG-REV-3)

7.4.2.4  Evaluative Lexis: Markers of Value Attitude markers, expressing stance and realised by adverbs and adjectives, form the dominant category of persuasive resources in both the English and the Czech business discourse. Equivalents to popular lexical realisations in BUS-ENG (significant, important, key, major, support, risk) occur quite frequently in BUS-CZ, although in a different order of frequency (see Table 7.11). A higher frequency of významný (120.4, as compared to significant, 102.7) and hlavní (92.2, as compared to major, 42) in particular suggests a tendency in Czech to overuse central, easily

302 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.11  Markers of value: comparison of BNC and the BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) Value markers (English)

BNC

Attitude markers significant 10.7 key 13.0 expected 14.6 important 34.5 major 25.7 even 78.2 necessary 15.9 substantial 5.5 Appeals to shared knowledge typically 1.9 traditional 8.7 established 10.5 typical 4.3 normally 7.3 understandably 0.4

BUS-ENG 525.6 102.7 69.7 51.0 51.0 42.0 27.0 23.2 21.7 35.7 11.2 4.5 4.3 2.2 2.2 1.5

Value markers (Czech) významný [significant] hlavní [main/chief] klíčový [key] zásadní [principal] silný [strong] podstatný [substantial] očekávaný [expected] rozhodující [decisive] tradiční [traditional] zřejmý [apparent] samozřejmě [of course] typický [typical] přirozeně [naturally] zavedený [established]

BUS-CZ 511.5 120.4 92.2 40.7 38.2 30.7 16.6 14.1 12.5 47.2 19.9 5.8 4.2 3.3 2.5 2.5

collocable adjectives, rather than being illustrative of interculturally different persuasive conventions. Table 7.11 focuses on evaluation of value, particularly desirability, expectedness and importance (Hunston, 1999), realised by overtly attitudinal adjectives and adverbs. Writers may imply evaluation by choices of nouns and verbs, as is discussed in Chap. 4. Attitude in the Czech sub-­ corpus is not realised by the it + be + adjective construction at all. Czech adjectival attitude markers are used as attributes in noun phrases; the impersonal construction with an extraposed prop-subject it tends to suit expression of obligation and likelihood (see 7.4.2.3). Appeals to shared knowledge are means of engagement (Hyland, 2005a), since persuaders acknowledge presence of readers by reference to their assessment of reality. They are less frequent than attitude markers, and they make an overt evaluation. Czech reports seem to stress tradition (adj. traditional) and familiarity. However, the frequent adjectives common and běžný are mostly used terminologically (common stock/equity, běžný rok [current year]); only a small fraction of their use is persuasive (and included in Table 7.11). Low use of appeals to shared knowledge in Czech is also linked to a considerably lower occurrence of adverbs as a

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

303

whole, whereas in English adverbs, sometimes syntactically integrated in clause structure, are a standard phenomenon of formal style. Comparison of the two types of interactional metadiscourse resources— attitude markers, which express stance, and appeals to shared knowledge, which convey reader engagement—in BUS-ENG and BNC manifests that both are relatively frequent in this specialised discourse, which supports their possible persuasive intent. Attitude markers are considerably more typical of corporate annual reports than appeals to shared knowledge, and the overall frequencies in the Anglophone and Czech sub-­ corpora do not manifest a convincing difference. Persuaders use their trustworthiness and competence to mediate their own evaluation of facts, and they engage the attitude of readers quite marginally. Except přirozeně, adverbs as value markers are rare in BUS-CZ. It is interesting that the most common (though still infrequent) English attitude adverbs are sadly and understandably (both 4.6 in BUS-ENG-LET), which might be seen as indicative of mitigation strategies used when a manager explains unfavourable facts and stands behind explanations personally in letters to shareholders. The Czech equivalent bohužel [sadly] plays the same role; Example 40 shows that the message can be further softened by a hedge pravděpodobně [probably]. 40. Rok 2016 bude pravděpodobně bohužel ještě těžší než rok 2015. (BUS-CZ-LET-7) [Sadly, 2016 will probably be even harder than 2015.] Stance is the principal interactional persuasive function, be it realised by self-mentions, attitude markers, hedges and boosters or evaluative lexis as a whole. It appeals to ethos, as it highlights the persuader as one who is personally involved and willing to share information and opinions. He/ she is thus regarded as competent, trustworthy and in possession of expertise. Engagement is less common, as is evident from the low frequency of reader reference, directives, questions and appeals to shared knowledge. However much Western and Czech discoursal conventions have converged, Czech annual reports are still slightly less interpersonal and less evaluative.

304 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

In terms of linguistic manifestations, stance adverbs in Czech annual reports show low occurrence and lexical poverty compared with English-­ medium ones. The construction it + be + predicative adjective used to express obligation is avoided in BUS-ENG. Persuasive attempts to imply opinion by evaluative lexis indicate preference for a smaller number of central items in BUS-CZ. Naturally, semantico-grammatical properties (such as the syntactic necessity of using personal pronouns and different composition of lexical fields) differ between the two languages, which results in divergence in the frequencies of tentatively equivalent evaluative lexical items. A powerful type of markers of value is evaluative lexis (discussed in detail in Chap. 4). Adjectival and adverbial attitude markers overlap with this broader category, which also contains nouns and verbs employed with a persuasive intent. As the quantitative analysis of persuasive lexis reported in Chap. 4 has shown, in both language-defined corpora persuasive force of a lexical item correlates with the frequency of its use in persuasive texts. Frequent lexical items reflect authors’ preferences and intentional choices. Known to appeal to readers’ perception of an efficient management and trustworthy leadership, they carry a positive persuasive potential (e.g. new, increase, profit, grow, successful, innovative, opportunity). In many such lexical items, implied persuasiveness is aggregated by terminological function (e.g. profit, loss, effective, support, commitment) or general evaluative sense (e.g. new, significant, important, achieve, key) (cf. Hunston & Thompson, 2000). This is why neither the adjectives new (329.8) and nový (246.6) nor successful (27.7) and its equivalent úspěšný (45.7) are included among attitude markers in Table 7.11: their functions are more complex than simply evaluative. Rarely used or avoided lexical items display a low, a negative or no persuasive potential (e.g. old, fall, threat, unsuccessful, poor, ineffective, reject, slow(ly), negligence, weaken, fail). Non-persuasiveness as a constraint is countered by terminological use, which increases occurrence of affectively neutral items. Comparison of the Anglophone and Czech business sub-corpora has confirmed that, after self-mention, evaluative lexis is the leading means of persuasion in this discourse. By the same token, markers of value, which appeal to the ethical and pathetic aspects of persuasion, are more central

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

305

than status markers, which evaluate likelihood and certainty, or reader engagement in general. The persuasive author is the key source of information, as well as of evaluation. Readers are treated with tact and care, and their opinion is sometimes elicited, but the credibility and competence of the author are the main conditions for identification of readers with communicated information and stance.

7.4.3 Religious Discourse 7.4.3.1  Self-Mention and Reader Reference The ethical appeal to the audience in sermons is exercised above all via boosting the credibility of the preacher and personal engagement of the congregation (Overstreet, 2014). Both the REL sub-corpora under scrutiny are in essence highly personal and interactive; for this reason, special attention has been paid to the rate of self-mentions and reader references (Table 7.12). In terms of authorial presence in the REL corpus, the normalised rate of speaker-oriented stance items (self-mention) manifested in sermons is considerably lower than those engaging the audience (cf. Hyland, 2005a). To be more specific, in REL-ENG reader pronoun items (2,836) outnumber self-mentions (926) by more than 200%. Analogously, in REL-CZ the ratio between the corresponding items in Czech is nearly 3:1 at the expense of first-person singular forms; the Czech corpus, Table 7.12  Variation in self-mention and reader reference across REL-ENG and REL-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Self-mention 1st pers. sg. exclusive 1st pers. pl. exclusive Total Reader reference 1st pers. pl. inclusive 2nd pers. Total

REL-ENG

REL-CZ

877 49 926

1,015 252 1,267

1,819 1,017 2,836

3,585 599 4,184

306 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

however, manifests a much higher incidence of personal structures (1,267 in REL-ENG vs 4,184 in REL-CZ). Thus, both the sub-corpora under scrutiny display a clear preference for congregation-oriented direction of appeal over preacher-oriented reference. Such a tendency evidently aims at systematic inclusion of the audience, thus enhancing the spirit of community, the atmosphere of sharing and togetherness and ultimately the persuasive power of the sermon. In other words, both the preacher and the congregation take an active part in the church service, which is in this respect treated as a dialogic and collective rather than a monologic, one-­way event (cf. Crystal, 2018). In this way, the preacher obviously includes himself in the congregation and in what is preached; the persuasive effect is thus facilitated more efficiently. 41. A tak až budeme letos vybírat dárky, mysleme na to, že darujeme-li mobil, je důležitější než jeho značka, to co na něj budeme šťastnému majiteli volat. (REL-CZ-13) [And so when we are looking for presents this year, let us keep in mind that if we give someone a cell phone, what we tell the happy owner through this matters more than the brand.] Functions performed by author-reference pronouns may vary across the discourse. In harmony with previous studies (see e.g. the functional taxonomies suggested by Tang & John, 1999; Harwood, 2005; Hyland, 2002a; Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013), the following roles have been identified in both the sub-corpora, reflecting a gradient from the lowest to the highest degree of authority: (i) representative, (ii) discourse-organiser and (iii) opinion-holder. Within the representative role, the author is perceived as a member of a larger community; “this is the least authoritative role, typically expressed by the plural first person pronoun” (Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013, p. 14; cf. Hyland & Tse, 2004, p. 170); this role either describes disciplinary knowledge/practices, such as in And when we look at Jesus’ humanity we see who you and I were created to be (REL-ENG-1), or it sets out to seek reader involvement, as if taking listeners by hand and ushering them to the scene: As we cautiously enter this special place, we see the ewes and lambs (REL-ENG-9). The discourse-­ organiser guides the reader through the text, for example, Now let us go to

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

307

the second scene in another town in Judea... (REL-ENG-9). On the continuum of the degree of authority, the opinion-holder “assumes a higher degree of authority associated with expressing attitudes and elaborating arguments” (Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013, p. 14): I am sure the shepherds asked the same question… (REL-ENG-20). From the viewpoint of the cross-cultural comparison, reader reference (the author-inclusive first-person plural and second-person singular and plural forms) is distinctly more frequent in the Czech sub-corpus (frequencies 4,184 vs 2,837). It can be assumed that an emphasis on mutuality and brotherly fellowship built between the preacher and the congregation is much more prominent in the discourse of Czech sermons; preachers in Czech sermons tend to be more personal. In addition, the author-inclusive mode sometimes turns into a purely personal address of an individual in the audience, which allows for a powerful persuasive move, which could be labelled an ‘ethos-pathos twist’: 42. Musíme přemýšlet nad našimi životními situacemi. Co se to s námi děje? Co se to děje s mým životem? Co mi, Bože, chceš říct? (REL-CZ-44) [We have to think about our own life situations. What is going on in our lives? What is going on with my life? Lord, what do you want to tell me?] In terms of use of the second person across the corpora, Anglophone preachers seem to be more direct and interactive (1,017) than their Czech counterparts (599), that is they talk explicitly to the audience approximately twice as much as the Czech preachers. Since Czech grammar allows for a fine-grained analysis of personal structures in sermons, it can be assumed that Czech preachers tend to prefer the plural, more polite way of addressing the audience (507) (Vy jste světlo, vy svítíte, vy ukazujete lidem na cestu k Bohu [You /pl./ are the light, you shine, you show people the way to God]) to the singular-based, more familiar manner (359) (Děláš věci, které ani dělat nechceš [You /sg./ do things you /sg./ don’t want to do at all]). Admittedly, this Czech-specific distinction of verb number can address the individual much more effectively than English.

308 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.13  Variation in non-assertion speech acts across REL-ENG and REL-CZ REL-ENG

REL-CZ

Speech act

Raw no

Avg. per 1 sermon

Raw no

Avg. per 1 sermon

Questions Exclamations Directives

449 262 50

8.9 5.2 1.0

359 241 85

7.2 4.8 1.7

7.4.3.2  Non-assertion Speech Acts In the rhetoric of sermons, non-assertion speech acts are one of the key ways in which the persuader appeals effectively to his or her persuadees (Dillard & Seo, 2013; Overstreet, 2014). The structure and rate of non-­ assertion speech acts employed in the two REL sub-corpora are displayed in Table 7.13. Evidently, the incidence of individual types of discourse functions across the two parts of the REL sub-corpus is strikingly similar cross-­ culturally; the three types of speech acts do not reveal important differences. This is especially visible with regard to individual percentages and the amount of speech acts per sermon. It seems that such a relative resemblance in the structure of occurrence of discourse functions across the two sub-corpora is associated with the identical mission of the sermons, regardless of linguacultural environment: preachers appear to adopt analogous rhetorical and persuasive strategies as well as comparable linguistic realisations. Questions show the highest incidence among non-assertion speech acts. They have recorded comparable average scores of 8.9 versus 7.2 questions per sermon in the REL-ENG and REL-CZ sub-corpora respectively, even though REL-ENG displays a tendency to employ more questions. All questions in both sub-corpora are rhetorical questions with no actual verbal answer expected on the part of the listener; genuine, impromptu questions directed at the congregation were not detected in the REL sub-corpus (these are occasionally used to open the sermon in an interactive way or to break the ice, eliciting an authentic response from the audience, whether an individual or several people). With rhetorical questions, the expected answer is usually obvious and assumed. This rhetorical device is to help the audience to understand the message, inviting

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

309

them to think, question, examine and evaluate; sometimes, preachers make use of whole series of rhetorical questions to exert ethical and pathetic pressure upon the audience: 43. Do you know a baby that doesn’t cry? ‘Silent night, Holy night, all is calm, all is bright.’ In a stable? In a packed city? (…) Do you remember that joy that we have been talking about all through November in our sermon series ENOUGH? (REL-ENG-1) From the point of view of rhetoric, by encouraging active listening, rhetorical questions naturally hold the attention of the listener. Thus, rather than providing information, the preacher enhances the interactive and inclusive spirit of the sermon and, as a result, is more readily capable of a successful persuasive attempt (such as making the audience meaningfully apply the doctrine). Technically, what follows such rhetorical questions in sermons is either a ‘guided’ answer given or hinted at by the preacher, or the questions remain unanswered, thus leaving space for mental and spiritual exercise on the part of the audience. As opposed to the other three specialised discourses under scrutiny, exclamations in sermons constitute a major category in terms of speech acts analysis. Regarding the cross-cultural comparison, the incidence in both sub-corpora is nearly identical: 5.2% (REL-ENG) versus 4.8 exclamations per sermon on average. On the whole, exclamations seem to be a substantial component of sermons across cultures, differing only in the language-specific grammatical forms they take (Isn’t it fascinating that here in the Word of God you have that exact kind of terminology used of Jesus of Nazareth! (REL-ENG-20); To není pohádka! Díky mu za to! [It is not a fairy-tale! Thank him for it!] (REL-CZ-22)). Evidently, exclamations are employed primarily for purposes of emphatic use; hence the two sub-­ corpora are analogous not only in the number of exclamative structures used, but also in their function in sermons (prototypically that of emphasis marker, summariser and attention getter). The role of exclamations is inevitably related to the emotive load, which leads to pathetic appeal to the audience and rhetoric persuasive pressure imposed on the hearer. Unlike the other three specialised discourses addressed in the present volume, in sermons, directives are a marginal type of speech act. It seems

310 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

that directives constitute the most distinct discrepancy between the English and the Czech sub-corpora: whereas the REL-ENG sub-corpus features 50 directives (on average 1 per sermon), its REL-CZ counterpart displays 85 directive items (1.7 per sermon). Cross-culturally speaking, the analysis clearly shows that this relative discrepancy may be attributed to the English inclination to express the discourse function of a directive through indirect speech acts rather than genuine imperatives (which, incidentally, typically represent appeal or recommendation, not a command in the true sense of the word). Frequently, preachers exploit biblical verses that were quoted earlier in the sermon or simply cite or paraphrase them anew to perform a directive: Come to him, ye that are broken in spirit! (REL-ENG-49); Let us proclaim this good news this Christmas season! (REL-ENG-24). In line with Hyland’s classification of directives (2002b), other possible realisations of directives in REL-ENG and REL-CZ include modal verbs of obligation or necessity addressed to the audience, such as in You must receive Him by faith (REL-ENG-19), or Měli bychom více myslet na pronásledované křesťany [We should think of the persecuted Christians more] (REL-CZ-17), and predicative adjectives expressing the writer’s judgement of the necessity or importance of performing an action (cf. Povolná, 2019), for example, It was necessary that Christ be born under the Law (REL-ENG-3) or Je třeba bojovat se zlem [It is necessary to fight evil] (REL-CZ- 22).

7.4.3.3  Evaluative Lexis: Markers of Value Prototypically, evaluative language largely resides in a sophisticated use of evaluative adjectives and adverbs. The sections below demonstrate major tendencies observed in the area of evaluative lexis capable of enhancing persuasion in sermons. The set of key value-related lexemes in sermons is associated with a general tendency on the part of religious discourse to view the world through a relatively dichotomous prism of good and evil. Hence, in the sermons under scrutiny, one can observe a clear tendency to see things in a somewhat simplified, at times black-and-white manner, such as

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

311

Table 7.14  Evaluative adjectives in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) REL-ENG Positive evaluation great 197.2 good 172.1 wonderful 40.9 bad 18.7 beautiful 17.3 amazing 16.0 Negative evaluation evil 26.0 bad 19.4 difficult 15.3 sinful 10.7

REL-CZ dobrý [good] úžasný [amazing] krásný [beautiful] snadný [easy] dokonalý [perfect] nádherný [wonderful] zlý [evil] hříšný [sinful] těžký [difficult] špatný [bad]

161.4 43.2 35.2 26.8 20.1 13.4 43.4 17.1 17.1 14.8

concepts of good versus bad, right versus wrong, life versus death (Adam, 2019; Dillard & Seo, 2013). The positive evaluation repertoire is especially distinct in both components of the REL sub-corpora, as in Jesus Christ came to earth as a man, being perfect and holy, (…). He offers us a wonderful gift (REL-ENG-6). Table 7.14 presents adjectives with positive and negative polarity, listed in order of incidence. Evidently, it is especially adjectives with a positive load that take the lead in sermons. This apparently has to do with the tendency to present life values in a positive light and in accordance with the Scripture’s ethos, that is the concepts of faith, hope and love. From the cross-cultural perspective, the Anglophone repertoire of positive adjectives is relatively more abundant than its Czech counterpart; consequently, it makes a distinctly positive and emotive impression (see e.g. the high occurrences of great (rate 197.2) and good (172.1)), such as in It will be a great day too as Jesus Christ our Savior is glorified (REL-ENG-16). This cultural-specific trait of REL-ENG sermons allows for more effective employment of the pathetic and ethical appeals to the audience (cf. Dillard & Seo, 2013). In contrast, Czech tend to insinuate a relatively more neutral, careful (if not dispassionate) picture. In terms of the negative polarity, the two sub-corpora under scrutiny manifest almost verbatim data: the incidence of negative adjectives is relatively low, which goes hand in hand with the ‘marketing’ effort to operate on a positive note and, ultimately, to persuade (the negative mode

312 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

is prominent especially when phenomena such as sin and evil are discussed), as in The Bible says that all who have not received Jesus Christ as their Savior stand condemned by their sin (REL-ENG-9) (cf. Adam, 2019). Such ever-present dialectic of good and evil seems to resonate between the lines: preachers show an evident preference for this dichromatic presentation of the world (cf. Kater, 2019; Overstreet, 2014). Adjectives and adverbs associated in sermons with the expression of significance and emphasis (generally referred to as attitude markers) operate above all in the sphere of logos (argumentation, doctrine) and ethos (construing credibility). Table  7.16 shows the attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge with the highest normalised frequencies in the REL-ENG and REL-CZ components of the sub-corpus. The most distinct occurrence of attitude markers is seen with the adjectives important (37.1)/důležitý (81.3); other items record much lower scores (with the obvious exception of the total score of the positive and negative evaluative adjectives, which have been, for the sake of completeness, amended to the attitude markers outline from Table  7.15). As a rule, the occurrence of attitude markers accumulates a number of Table 7.15  Attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge in the REL sub-­ corpus (per 100,000 words) REL-ENG Attitude markers important main remarkable significant essential Positive/negative evaluative adjectives Appeals to shared knowledge clear(ly) known familiar normal(ly) common(ly) natural(ly) obvious(ly)

REL-CZ 681.3 37.1 9.4 8.0 4.9 3.3 613.5 94.1 30.5 17.7 13.5 10.1 9.0 3.6

důležitý [important] hlavní [main] klíčový [key] podstatný [essential] základní [basic]

jasný(-ě) [clear(-ly)] zřejmý(-ě) [obvious(-ly)] známý [known] běžný(-ě) [common(-ly)] normální(-ě) [normal(-ly)] tradiční(-ě) [traditional(-ly)] 3.6 přirozený(-ě) [natural(-ly)]

603.9 81.3 16.3 11.8 11.2 4.1 474.6 208.7 89.1 32.5 28.9 24.3 12.3 9.4 9.4

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

313

emphasisers and intensifiers, as in Jesus Christ is not only essential He is also central and absolutely sufficient simply as Saviour because He is God (REL-­ENG-2); Ale je to cosi nesmírně důležitého [But it is something incredibly important] (REL-CZ-5). In terms of appeals to shared knowledge, the most prominent markers, which are much more distinct in REL-CZ, include the parallel equivalents clear(-ly) (30.5)/jasný(-ě) (89.1), which evoke a sense of clarity in particular, but also familiarity, claiming common ground (The Bible tells us clearly that this is a gift that everyone can receive freely) (REL-ENG-6); Izraelci zcela jasně chápali propastný rozdíl mezi svou hříšností a mezi svatostí samotného Boha [The Israelites understood the gap between their sinfulness and the holiness of God himself quite clearly] (REL-CZ-39). The cross-cultural analysis indicates that logical reasoning by means of significance markers is more typical of Czech sermons, which goes in line with what has been said above about the overall tone of sermons cross-culturally: the Czech logos-related argumentation seems to be somewhat down to earth and substantive, while the English creates an impression of a more emotive and poignant sort of appeal.

7.4.3.4  Evaluative Lexis: Epistemic Markers Persuasive employment of epistemic markers in sermons is activated when preachers appeal to their own credibility, the reliability of the church’s teaching and the values related to tradition and assurance. Such references make the audience constantly aware of the solid ground on which the doctrine (above all the Bible) stands, so construing a guiding scaffold of coordinates, which in turn provides space for analysis, interpretation and application. Yet the incidence of the certainty markers is again relatively low (unlike most persuasive genres under scrutiny): the two highest scores are recorded by the functional equivalents sure(-ly) (37.2) and určitý(-ě) (31.7), as in Christ will surely return as He promised (REL-ENG-15); Je to příznivá zpráva? Ano? Ale jistě! [Is it good news? Yes? Surely it is!] (REL-CZ-18). This apparently has to do with the persuasive intent to present the doctrine in a user-friendly, alleviated and so acceptable way. The teaching is not presented with farfetched certitude; instead,

314 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.16  Epistemic markers in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) REL-ENG Boosters sure(-ly) of course certain(-ly) no doubt Hedges may/might perhaps probably maybe

REL-CZ 91.3 37.2 15.8 14.2 10.2 242.6 164.9 27.5 17.8 16.2

určitý(-ě) [certain(-ly)] jistý(-ě) [sure(-ly)] samozřejmě [of course] stoprocentně [100%] možná [maybe] asi [may/maybe] snad [perhaps] pravděpodobně [probably]

89.1 31.7 28.4 17.0 1.2 297.6 163.3 87.7 26.6 4.9

a whole repertoire of hedges is (seemingly paradoxically) brought to bear in an attempt to blunt the sharp edges of overt persuasion. Table 7.16 shows the epistemic markers (certainty items and hedges) with highest frequencies in sermons; cross-culturally, the rates are comparable. The relatively high score in the case of hedging testifies to an intentionally softened, and hence implicit, inclusion of persuasive force (e.g. Or perhaps we need to remind ourselves of what we really believe (REL-­ ENG-­48); Možná je to i naše zkušenost [Maybe it is also our experience] (REL-CZ-8)). In this way, preachers deliberately leave space for the audience to make conclusions, for instance by admitting that they might not be right in what they claim, thus leading the congregation to deeper involvement and, ultimately, persuasion.

7.4.4 Technical Discourse 7.4.4.1  Self-Mention and Reader Reference For the effectiveness and persuasiveness of user manuals, above all for the ethical and pathetic persuasive appeals, it is important to apply the strategies of building a sense of community, claiming common ground, showing involvement and creating an atmosphere of collegiality. The results of the comparative analysis of linguistic manifestations of these strategies are given in Table 7.17. It indicates a major cross-cultural variation in the TECH sub-corpus. Personal structures expressing self-mention are only

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

315

Table 7.17  Variation in self-mention and reader reference across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Self-mention 1st pers. sg. exclusive 1st pers. pl. exclusive Total Reader reference 1st pers. pl. inclusive 2nd pers. inclusive Total

TECH-ENG

TECH-CZ

0 28.4 28.4

0 138.1 138.1

1.9 1,302.0 1,303.9

62.2 172.9 235.1

scarcely represented in the Anglophone part, where they have fewer than 29 occurrences, while in the Czech part their frequency rate is 138 per 100,000 words. By contrast, those used for reader reference are much more typical of Anglophone manuals, where they have altogether 1,304 occurrences, while in Czech manuals the frequency is 235, which is, however, even more than that of self-mentions. This variation is influenced by the importance technical communicators from the two different linguacultural backgrounds attach to rhetorical strategies realised by self-­ mention and reader-reference resources, as discussed below. The most typical realisation of self-mention in Anglophone manuals is the first-person plural pronoun we/us, together with the possessive our. Although the Czech equivalent my [we] and its objective form were not found in the data at all and its corresponding possessive has only a single occurrence, there are 138 occurrences of personal forms realised by verbal endings. The use of the first-person plural, namely in its exclusive meaning, is shown in Example 44, in which the personal structure (doporučujeme) refers to the whole company producing particular technical devices, including the writer, although it clearly excludes the reader: 44. Doporučujeme pravidelné čistění vychladlé pečící trouby a příslušenství po každém použití. (TECH-CZ-13) [We recommend regular cleaning of the cooled oven and accessories after each use.]

316 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

The personal structure in its inclusive meaning as a reader pronoun is also more heavily represented in the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus. This is illustrated in Example 45, in which potential readers are included in actions to be performed according to instructions. This reader reference clearly enables immediate reader involvement in the actions to be taken in agreement with the instructions, thus contributing to the building of a sense of community. Both the writer and the potential reader participate in the discourse and are thus presented as members of the same community. It is worth noting that the translation equivalent of Example 45 would normally be the imperative (put the prepared dish …), not the literal one given below (we put …), which demonstrates that the languages under comparison often resort to slightly different means even when parallel structures are available. These preferences are naturally reflected in the frequency of self-mention and reader-reference resources. 45. Připravovaný pokrm vložíme na spodní patro. (TECH-CZ-13) [We put the prepared dish on the bottom floor.] The most prominent reader reference is realised by the second-person pronouns and possessives in the TECH sub-corpus, reaching 1,302 and 173 occurrences in the Anglophone and Czech parts, respectively. The results prove that it is more important for Anglophone writers to put readers at the centre of actions to be taken, since it is they who will use particular technical devices successfully and safely. This does not mean that Czech writers do not care for their readers, however. It only shows that they achieve this goal by different means, such as attitude markers, the use of which establishes a closer contact between the writer and his/ her readership. Typical examples of reader reference, which illustrate how potential readers of user manuals are drawn into the discourse and made active, follow: 46. You can select where you want to hear the TV sound and how you want to control it.—If you select Off, you permanently switch off the TV speakers.—If you select TV speakers, the TV speakers are always on. With an audio device connected with HDMI CEC, you can use one of the EasyLink settings. (TECH-ENG-01)

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

317

47. Myčku musíte připojit k přívodu vody pomocí nové hadice. (TECH-CZ-08) [You must connect the dishwasher to the water supply using a new hose.] Example 46 shows that technical writers often cumulate sentences with the second-person pronouns, a strategy that obviously intensifies the final persuasive effect. Example 47 demonstrates the non-realisation of the second-person subject when used with one of the more frequent verbs— the strong obligation modal musíte [you must], which is commonly used to express directives. The above examples illustrate how both reader reference and directives contribute to establishing personal involvement and a sense of communality (Harwood, 2005) and demonstrate how both languages enhance the effectiveness and persuasiveness of technical texts while drawing readers into the discourse and making them active discourse participants.

7.4.4.2  Non-assertion Speech Acts In consideration of the main communicative purpose of user manuals, which is the accurate, clear and concise guidance of potential readers through the instructions provided (Whitaker & Mancini, 2013; Crowder, 2014; Dobrin et al., 2014), it is important to study the application of three types of non-assertion speech acts (Kissine, 2016) which represent direct appeals to the audience and at the same time contribute to  an atmosphere of collegiality. The results drawn from the analysis of non-­ assertion speech acts in Table 7.18 show that directives with an average frequency of 4,020 and 3,190 occurrences in the Anglophone and the Czech part of the TECH sub-corpus respectively are the most important type of speech acts studied here. In fact, they are the most characteristic rhetorical feature of procedural writing such as technical instructions (Sharpe, 2014, p. 6). The analysed data indicate some cross-cultural variation in the three possible realisation forms of directives, that is imperatives, obligation modals and predicative adjectives (Hyland, 2002b). Although those

318 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.18  Variation in the use of non-assertion speech acts across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

TECH-CZ

Questions Directives  Imperatives  Obligation modals  Predicative adjectives Exclamations

26.0 4,020.0 3,542.0 296.0 182.0 49.8

62.3 3,190.0 2,331.0 400.0 459.0 242.0

expressed by imperatives are by far the most common in both languages, since they clearly and in a straightforward way instruct the reader on what to do (Crystal & Davy, 1969, p.  237), predicative adjectives are more typically used in the Czech manuals under scrutiny, in which their frequency rates are similar to those of obligation modals. By contrast, the relatively low frequency of predicative adjectives in the Anglophone sub-­ corpus is balanced by a relatively high rate of obligation modals and in particular imperatives. In general, it follows that imperatives are used by the overwhelming majority of technical writers to instruct their readers on what action to perform (cf. Sharpe, 2014, pp.  6–7), as in Example 48, or to prevent them from behaving in an inappropriate way, as in Example 49: 48. Connect the power supply. Check if the power supply is connected before use. Read the “Turning On The Power” section. (TECH-ENG-03) 49. Nepoužívejte spotřebič k jiným účelům, než ke kterým je určen. (TECH-CZ-20) [Do not use the appliance for purposes other than those for which it is intended.] As regards differences between directives relating to physical, textual and cognitive acts (Hyland, 2002b, pp. 217–218), there is no cross-cultural variation. Readers are mostly instructed to perform physical acts (about 95–96% of all directives in the TECH sub-corpus) by use of verbs such as connect, press, select and tap. These verbs refer to concrete real-world actions and are associated with actions to be performed according to instructions which, of course, require the performance of concrete actions

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

319

in the real world, for which see the cases of the imperatives connect, check and read in Example 48. Only occasionally (about 4–5%) are readers directed to another text or another part of the same manual, thus performing a textual act, and even less frequently are they instructed on how to understand a certain standpoint, thus performing a cognitive act. The cross-cultural variation in the use of predicative adjectives shown in Table 7.18 is rather surprising, since there are wide repertoires of adjectives in both languages, such as English predicative adjectives applicable, available, dangerous, designed, important, intended, necessary, required, subject and vital, of which only a few are used with a frequency worth mentioning (altogether only 182 occurrences) (Example 50). The size of the Czech repertoire is about the same, but most of the adjectives, such as dostupný [available], důležitý [important], možné/možno [possible], nutné/ nutno [necessary], třeba [necessary], určen [intended] and vhodný [suitable], are commonly used, amounting to 459 occurrences, one of which is included in Example 51. 50. The zoom feature is not available when using the front camera in selfie mode. (TECH-ENG-15) 51. Pro bezporuchový chod vysavače je nutné používat testované filtry a mikrofiltry doporučené výrobcem. (TECH-CZ-02) [For trouble-free operation of the vacuum cleaner it is necessary to use filters and microfilters tested by the producer.] Thanks to his/her expertise, credibility and competence, the technical writer is able to express his/her opinion and thus guide readers, who, owing to their lack of certain technical information, have to follow the instructions provided. By using impersonal constructions, such as predicative adjectives followed by infinitive in Czech, technical writers diminish the strength of their directives and express them in a form that sounds more like common knowledge, thus claiming common ground with their readers. As for modal verbs of obligation, necessity or prohibition, both languages show a tendency to use strong modals, such as must (Example 52) and must not and their Czech counterparts (Example 53). Czech writers use negative modals expressing prohibition more prominently (cf. Povolná, 2019), which can be tentatively associated with the expression

320 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

of slightly stronger persuasive force when expressing prohibition from taking action. 52. You must enter the password each time you turn on the device. (TECH-ENG-19) 53. Žehlička nesmí být ponechána bez dozoru, je-li připojena k síti. (TECH-CZ-04) [The iron must not be left without supervision if plugged into the power supply.] Another type of non-assertion speech act identified in the TECH sub-­ corpus is the question. However, all the questions identified are rhetorical questions which do not call for an answer from the reader; they function as direct appeals to potential readers, encouraging them to think about the problem stated in the question and then act according to the instructions. By first asking a question to which readers need an answer, rhetorical questions clearly enhance the dialogic nature of user manuals and contribute to its persuasiveness. However, they are used only exceptionally, with 26 and 62 occurrences in the Anglophone and the Czech components of the TECH sub-corpus respectively. 54. Jak připojit přívodní hadici? Myčku musíte připojit k přívodu vody pomocí nové hadice. (TECH-CZ-08) [How to connect the inlet hose? The dishwasher must be connected to the water supply using a new hose.] The above rhetorical question is applied as a useful means of attracting readers’ attention to a problem and then offering one or more than one suggestion on how to solve it. In addition, it contributes to  an atmosphere of collegiality by showing the writer’s interest in what happens and helping the reader with the problem stated in the questions. Thus it is possible to speak here about an ethos-pathos interface. As to exclamations, there is certain cross-cultural variation in their use: they have 242 and 50 occurrences in the Czech and Anglophone parts of the TECH sub-corpus respectively. They represent direct appeals to the audience and express the writer’s attempts to create an atmosphere of

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

321

caring and responsibility, that is strategies related to an ethos-pathos interface. Similar sentences tend to be used with all kinds of warnings, as in: 55. VAROVÁNÍ! Myčku nikdy nepoužívejte bez filtrů. (TECH-CZ-08) [WARNING! Never use the dishwasher without filters.] 56. Tento spotřebič není žádnou hračkou pro děti! (TECH-CZ-20) [This appliance is not a toy for children!] Example 55 can be regarded as a directive appealing to the potential reader to read what follows the introductory exclamation VAROVÁNÍ, at the same time showing the writer’s responsibility and care for the reader, including children who might be around, using a particular technical device. The exclamative function of the noun VAROVÁNÍ is achieved by an exclamation mark, and it is enhanced by capital letters. Sometimes, especially in the Czech sub-corpus, it is not stated that what follows is a warning, although the exclamation mark makes it clear (Example 56). Exclamations are used by technical writers as useful ways of attracting readers’ attention, and they are considered attitude markers according to Hyland (2005a) (cf. Chap. 6). They show how technical writers can enhance the dialogic nature of TECH texts while appealing to the ethical and pathetic persuasive appeals. The identification and interpretation of non-assertion speech acts can be rather complex, since “both the form of the language (as in the case of rhetorical questions) and its content (as when the speaker is appealing to some authoritative figure or the logical reasoning skills of the audience) contribute to the overall persuasive effect” (Halmari, 2005, p. 116), thus enhancing the effectiveness and persuasiveness of the text.

7.4.4.3  Evaluative Lexis: Epistemic Markers The strategy of modulating commitment to claims, which enhances above all the ethical persuasive appeal, is realised by hedges and boosters in all user manuals. Since both of these categories are studied in detail in Chap. 6, Table 7.19 lists only the most frequent tokens (10 hedges and 5 boosters) identified in the TECH sub-corpus.

322 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Table 7.19  Variation in epistemic markers across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus Hedges Most frequent tokens

TECH-ENG can may might could possible indicate certain about approximately usually

Boosters Most frequent tokens

will must should show always

TECH-CZ 1,173.6 620.5 by (se) [would] 279.5 45.5 41.2 27.5 27.4 15.2 14.5 14.5 13.0 990.4 442.8

814.5 220.3

lze [possible] 195.6 možný/možno [possible] 195.6 zcela [quite] 55.1 asi [about] 27.5 často [often] 15.9 označovat [indicate] 15.9 moct [may] 15.9 určitý [certain] 14.5 přibližně [approximately] 10.2 536.3 musí/musíte [must] 205.8

126.4 bude/budete/budou [will] 109.1 vždy [always] 58.7 nikdy [never] 45.8 skutečný [true]

182.6 107.3 104.4 8.7

The results show that both categories are more common in the Anglophone part, where there are 1,174 hedges and 990 boosters. In the Czech part, there are 815 hedges and 536 boosters. These results, which fully agree with Sudková’s results (2012) although these are drawn from analysis of academic texts, provide evidence that Anglophone technical writers have a greater tendency to “signal [their] reluctance to present propositional information categorially” (Tse & Hyland, 2006, p. 5) by using hedges, although they provide instructions to potential readers on what to do and clearly intend to persuade them of the necessity of taking action. The most important hedges are epistemic modal verbs such as can, may, might and could in the TECH-ENG texts, while in the TECH-CZ texts, the conditional mood (by (se) [would]) and modal predicatives, namely lze and možný/možno, are more typically used. Modal verbs mostly express epistemic modality, namely possibility of what might happen, and are immediately followed by imperatives which directly instruct the

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

323

reader on how to solve the given problem, or the reader is first prevented from taking inappropriate action through imperatives and then given an explanation of what might happen, as in Example 57. The latter strategy is more common in Czech. 57. Nenaplňujte konvici studenou vodou za účelem rychlého ochlazení. Mohlo by to snížit životnost topného tělesa. (TECH-CZ-05) [Do not fill the kettle with cold water in order to cool it down quickly. It could reduce the life of the heating element.] Apart from modal verbs which express different degrees of possibility, there are also lexical epistemic verbs (e.g. indicate), predicative adjectives (e.g. possible), adverbs (e.g. often) and prepositions expressing a proximate amount (e.g. about), which are used in both languages to modulate the author’s stance to the proposition stated in technical instructions. The comparative analysis provides evidence that English and Czech resort to different epistemic markers, such as the dominant use of modals in English and the more prominent application of other hedging devices in Czech, although the same means are available. These results demonstrate cross-cultural variation not only in the frequency, but also in linguistic manifestations of hedging. As to boosters, like hedges they are more heavily represented in the Anglophone part (990 vs 551 occurrences) (cf. Sudková, 2012). Unlike hedges, they tend to be realised in both languages by modal verbs, such as will, must and should, and frequency adverbs, such as always and never, and their Czech equivalents, some of which are included in the examples that follow: 58. Always disconnect the main power before cleaning. (TECH-ENG-03) 59. Ostré příbory vždy uložte špičkou směrem dolů! (TECH-CZ-08) [Always place sharp cutlery with the top facing down!] By modulating commitment to claims while using boosters together with imperatives, which can be followed by an exclamation mark, as in Example 59, technical writers clearly enhance the direct appeal to the audience and express a higher degree of persuasive force. This effect can

324 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

also be achieved by accumulation of boosters (you should always plan a route), such as the combination of modals and frequency adverbs.

7.4.4.4  Evaluative Lexis: Value Markers Technical writers sometimes consider it important to express evaluation of what they present in user manuals overtly, because such a strategy can enhance the degree of necessity of following instructions, that is it increases the persuasive force. The same concerns the strategy of claiming common ground and common goals, which makes the target audience realise what they already know or are supposed to know and establishes a closer relationship between the technical writer and his/her audience, who thus become members of the same technical community. Moreover, both strategies contribute to an atmosphere of collegiality, thus enhancing the overall persuasiveness of user manuals. The strategies of conveying the writer’s attitudes and claiming common ground are represented in the TECH sub-corpus by attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge respectively. Table 7.20 gives results of the most frequent tokens (ten attitude markers and five appeals to shared knowledge) and shows some cross-cultural variation. On the whole, it can be stated that in the Czech part both categories have higher frequency rates, more than that of the Anglophone part in the case of attitude markers. Anglophone writers use 191 occurrences of attitude markers, which are represented mostly by adjectives, such as important, appropriate, necessary, basic and useful. Czech writers apply 521 and, apart from the adverb správně (88 occurrences), they resort to adjectives, such as vhodný, nutný, důležitý, základní, hlavní, cenný and vážný, most of which have their counterparts in the Anglophone sub-corpus, although with different frequency rates. The results indicate that it is more important for Czech technical writers to overly express their attitude to the propositional information given in user manuals and thus enhance the ethical persuasive appeal. Example 60, which comprises the most common adjective vhodný, demonstrates how Czech writers often combine the expression of their attitudes with exemplifications, a strategy that clearly contributes to

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

325

Table 7.20 Variation in value markers across TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) Sub-corpus

TECH-ENG

Attitude markers Most frequent tokens

191.4 important 33.4 appropriate 21.5 necessary 19.6 basic 18.4 useful 18.0 even 18.0 serious 11.6 correctly 11.1 relevant 6.5 consistent

Appeals to shared knowledge Most frequent tokens

common normally typically established traditional

TECH-CZ vhodný [appropriate] správně [correctly] nutný [necessary] důležitý [important] základní [basic] hlavní [major] cenný [valuable] vážný [serious] nežádoucí [undesirable] 6.1 užitečný [useful] 40.3 16.1 5.4 5.4 3.1 3.1

běžný [common] obvyklý [usual] běžně [commonly] typický [typical] typicky [typically]

521.1 144.3 88.3 72.1 54.7 53.5 50.1 14.9 9.9 6.2 6.2 70.9 47.4 7.5 4.9 4.9 1.2

a higher persuasive effect. It thus provides evidence of how the ethical appeal (stance expressed by the evaluative adjective vhodné) and the logical appeal (exemplification by the logical connector jako) co-create an ethos-logos interface, which is typical of user manuals. 60. Doporučujeme používat nádobí vhodné pro přípravu potravin v troubě, jako jsou skleněné zapékací mísy, dortové formy, rošty do trouby. (TECH-CZ-18) [We recommend the use of dishes suitable for cooking food in an oven, such as glass baking dishes, cake moulds, oven shelves.] The strategies of claiming common ground and establishing a sense of community can be realised by different linguistic means appealing to shared knowledge. The most frequent are given in Table 7.20. Similarly to attitude markers, these appeals are manifested more overtly in the Czech sub-corpus (71 vs 27), in which the adjectives běžný (Example 61), obvyklý and typický are used, all having five or more occurrences.

326 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

61. Použitý prachový filtr i mikrofiltry zlikvidujte s běžným domácím odpadem. (TECH-CZ-02) [Dispose of the used dust filter and microfilters with normal household waste.] In the Anglophone sub-corpus, the most frequent representatives are not adjectives but adverbs, such as normally and typically, although adjectives, such as established, traditional and typical, also occur. On the whole, it can be concluded that appeals to shared knowledge are not typical of the TECH sub-corpus. This is associated with the fact that technical communicators possess information which potential readers need in order to be able to operate a given device appropriately. Consequently, they provide mostly new relevant information to their readers and only occasionally refer to something already given or known.

7.4.5 V  ariation in Persuasive Language Across the Anglophone and Czech Specialised Discourses The comparative analysis of persuasive language across the Anglophone and Czech  specialised discourses has indicated that despite numerous similarities, the two linguacultural contexts have given rise to important differences in the selection and frequency of linguistic realisations of persuasion. Table 7.21 compares seven categories of persuasive language—self-­ mention, reader reference, the three types of non-assertion speech acts (directives, questions and exclamations) and the two categories of evaluative lexis (epistemic markers and value markers) across the specialised sub-corpora. Overall, it is obvious that business discourse displays the lowest frequency of occurrence of language resources indicating explicitly the persuasive intentions of the writer, while religious and technical discourses employ the most extensive use of explicit persuasive language resources. Variation across the four specialised discourses generally shows similar tendencies in the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora; however, there are instances of considerable variation across the linguacultural backgrounds.

327

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

Table 7.21  Variation in persuasive language across the ACAD, BUS, REL and TECH sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) ACAD Sub-corpus Self-mention Reader reference Directives Questions Exclamations Epist. markers Value markers Total

ENG

CZ

BUS ENG

REL

CZ

TECH

ENG

CZ

ENG

CZ

546.3 128.4

527.2 204.5

2,063.2 49.3

563.0 32.7

926.0 2,837.0

1,267.0 4,184.0

28.4 1,303.9

138.1 235.1

172.7 18.0 0 1,637.9 643.5 3,146.8

223.6 39.3 0 2,274.5 737.2 4,006.3

62.4 17.3 0 783.6 561.3 3,537.1

66.4 6.9 0 675.2 558.7 1,902.9

43.5 390.4 227.8 333.9 681.3 5,439.9

113.3 478.7 321.3 386.7 603.9 7,033.6

4,020.0 26.0 49.8 2,164.0 231.7 7,823.8

3,190.0 62.3 242.0 1,350.8 592.0 5,810.3

Self-mention, one of the prominent language resources associated with the conveyance of the ethical appeal, varies considerably across the four discourses. The highest rate of self-mention is yielded by the business sub-corpus, where the use of the pronoun I strives to personalise the company via the voice of one of its executives, while the exclusive we projects the institutional identity of the company into the text. This reflects the highly promotional character of corporate reports, which apart from providing information on the state of the company seek to motivate shareholders to continue investing in the company, as well as to attract potential new clients. The reasons for the extensive use of selfmention in religious discourse are somewhat different; they stem from the high degree of personal involvement of the preacher with regular worshippers, which is particularly typical of Protestant sermons, where faith is seen as an individual and self-reflexive experience. As a moral leader the preacher enhances the personal dimension of sermons so as to strengthen the belief of churchgoers and to attract non-believers to join the Christian faith. While academic discourse provides a subjective interpretation of empirical or theoretical research, self-mention in research articles is not very frequent, as the concern for scientific objectivity presupposes a careful use of personality for a limited range of functions, such as hedging, evaluation, discourse organisation, research description and self-promotion. In contrast, technical discourse is essentially institutional and thus logically displays only rare occurrences of self-mention, as the producers only occasionally refer to themselves as we, and there are no

328 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

occurrences of self-referencing I. This is in conformity with the persuasive aim that writers of user manuals are striving to achieve: since the user has already acquired the device, the efforts of the persuader are directed towards providing clear instructions in order to convince the user to use the device safely and appropriately. The degree of cross-cultural variation in self-mention also differs across the specialised discourses: it is minimal in the academic sub-corpus, where the difference is rather in the specific language means that express personality, but there are considerable divergences in the other three specialised discourses. In the religious and technical sub-corpora self-­ mention occurs more frequently in the Czech texts. Probably as a result of the relatively high power distance typical of Czech ‘big’ culture, Czech preachers tend to use self-mentions more extensively to assert their authoritative status, which is expected to help them reinforce the strength of the beliefs of regular worshippers. Anglophone preachers seem to prefer to draw not only on their personal views, but also on various non-­ biblical sources to support their opinions. Czech user manuals employ more self-mentions than equivalent Anglophone texts, a fact which seems to reflect the preference for personal expression of advice, which is perceived as more reader friendly than the impersonal form. Business discourse, however, shows a considerably higher rate of self-mention in the Anglophone sub-corpus, as corporate reports seem to be considerably more promotional in an Anglophone context. Variation in reader reference across the four specialised discourses is also notable, and there are striking cross-cultural differences in the religious and technical sub-corpora. The religious sub-corpus shows clearly the highest frequency of reader reference, expressed primarily by inclusive we and considerably less frequently by the reader pronoun you. By appealing to regular worshippers and positioning them as in-group members, the preacher creates the feeling of belonging to the in-group and satisfies the emotional needs of believers to be part of the religious community, to be eligible for salvation, to be loved and to be saved from evil and death. The emotional appeal is used considerably more extensively by Czech preachers, which might reflect a more paternalist and caring approach typical of cultures characterised by a lower degree of individualism (cf. Hofstede et  al., 2010). Anglophone user manuals also display a high

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

329

frequency of reader reference, as they are centred on a reader presented as the owner of the device and the person who can activate it and perform different actions. Czech user manuals prefer a more impersonal and probably more formal way of providing instructions. Despite being an important rhetorical device for addressing the reader, reader reference is considerably less frequent in research articles than in sermons and user manuals, and it is Czech authors that tend to use it more. Finally, reader reference is scarce in corporate reports, as its occurrences are confined to the Letter to the Shareholders component of the BUS sub-corpus, while the rest of the texts represent a formal statement of facts. Out of the three types of non-assertion speech acts explored in this study, directives are the only one displaying important variation, as they show an extremely high frequency in technical discourse. Since user manuals are intended to provide clear, concise instructions, it is not surprising that they opt for directive structures realised primarily by imperatives, which can fulfil this aim most effectively. Given the importance of getting the information through to the reader, the need for precision and comprehensibility overrides concerns of politeness related to face-threat implied by directives. The higher rate of directives in the Anglophone corpus may be explained by the more frequent application of a descriptive approach in Czech user manuals, where the action is described not as performed by the user but as undergone by the device. Directives are not very frequent in the other three specialised discourses, largely because of their impositive character, which may raise the epistemic vigilance of the reader and reduce the chances of successful persuasion. In academic discourse directives have a certain presence related to their potential to focus the attention of the reader on important points in the argument, create intertextual references and guide the reader along the steps of the argumentative chain. While the low rate of directives in business discourse is as expected due to the formality of the interaction and the power balance between the participants, their low frequency may come as surprise in religious discourse, where the role of the preacher and the church is essentially to give advice and impose moral rules and obligations. It seems that the avoidance of directives in religious discourse is an important persuasive strategy intended to shift attention from obligations imposed on believers to sharing experiences, giving examples and stirring emotions

330 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

which are expected to make believers follow the intended path of faith. It is worth mentioning that from a cross-cultural perspective directives are more frequent in Czech sermons, thus once more stressing the greater power difference between the moral leader and regular churchgoers. The other two non-assertion speech acts—questions and exclamations—are not very prominent in any of the specialised discourses under investigation. The frequency of questions is practically insignificant in academic and technical discourse, where they are occasionally used to focus the attention of the reader on a significant point or to trigger interest in an issue. In religious and business discourses this attention-raising and focusing function of questions is more prominent, as writers seem to invest a more overt persuasive effort. In religious discourse, it is Czech preachers that use this device more frequently, probably to enhance the feeling of communality, as questions position the preacher and the believers as peers who are looking together for an answer. The occurrence of questions is more prominent in Anglophone corporate reports; this is due, however, to the inclusion of interviews with CEOs in the text of some Anglophone corporate reports rather than to a specific persuasive strategy favoured by the writers. Exclamations are generally the least frequent persuasive device in the corpus. They are totally absent in the academic and the business subcorpora, which concurs with the high level of formality expected in these professional contexts, as well as with a reliance on the logical appeal. In technical discourse exclamations are typically used to enhance the persuasive force of warnings, as non-observance of the instructions provided to the users may in some cases lead to dangerous situations in which not only the property, but also the health or even the life of the user may be threatened. The appeal to emotions is highly prominent in religious discourse, so it is not surprising that exclamatives are a common device relied on by preachers to highlight important issues, to point out doctrinal principles, and, ultimately, to enhance the hope of salvation or the fear of being damned or refused eternal life. From a cross-cultural perspective, exclamations are used more frequently in Czech user manuals and sermons, probably because a higher emotional involvement may result in easing tension and enhancing a sense of trust and shared goals and beliefs.

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

331

Evaluative lexis is present in all four specialised discourses under investigation. However, there is considerable variation in the frequency of occurrence and selection of lexical items expressing evaluation along the status and value dimensions (Hunston, 1999), both across the individual discourses and the two linguacultural backgrounds. Also, the meaning of some lexical items may be discourse specific or show a strong preference for some of the meanings of polysemous words. Thus, for instance, in academic discourse, robust tends to mean reliable and stable, not strong and massive as in religious discourse, while serious usually means important or significant and not the opposite of funny. Consequently, the comparison of evaluative lexis has been restricted to those persuasive language resources that occur in all the discourses under investigation, namely epistemic modality markers and value markers expressing affect and relevance. It is obvious that the most prominent occurrence of evaluative lexis is displayed by the academic sub-corpus, where hedges, boosters and value markers seem to be the key persuasive resources available to writers to present their views and claims in a way which the reader may find convincing. Modulating the level of certainty is particularly important, as a careful balance between commitment and detachment enhances the credibility of the persuader and the reliability of the imparted content. As to cross-cultural variation, there is more evaluative lexis in the Czech than in the Anglophone part of the ACAD sub-corpus, which concurs with the preference for tentativeness and higher incidence of shared knowledge markers in Czech academic discourse. The frequency of evaluative lexis is somewhat lower in the technical sub-corpus. The epistemic markers show a higher rate in Anglophone user manuals, where authors allow for various paths to reach the intended results and at the same time are somewhat more pressing in their advice and instructions, while Czech authors employ a higher rate of value markers to stress the urgency of following instructions in the appropriate way. While epistemicity is more prominent in academic and technical discourse, value markers come to the fore in religious and business discourse. In sermons, they clearly outnumber markers of status, thus reflecting the importance of categorising individuals, actions and events as good, bad or significant from the point of view of Christian doctrine. It is

332 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

interesting that in both sermons and annual corporate reports, explicitly evaluative lexis tends to be complemented by lexical devices which are contextually coloured by positive or negative connotations, such as volatile, unchanged and conservative in business discourse and faith, life and world in religious discourse, thus extending the range of lexical devices that contribute to the evaluative dimension of the text and thus to the ethical and pathetic appeals. While epistemic markers are somewhat more frequent than value markers in corporate reports, the role of both types of evaluative lexis clearly enhances the ethical persuasive appeal. Cross-cultural variation is relatively unimportant, although Anglophone preachers and writers of annual reports tend to use more value markers than their Czech counterparts. Anglophone annual reports also display more epistemic markers than Czech annual reports, probably as a result of their more overtly promotional character. Despite numerous similarities and differences, it can be stated that each of the genres of specialised discourse explored in this study has its emblematic persuasive language markers: epistemic markers for academic discourse, self-mention for business discourse, reader reference for religious discourse and directives for technical discourse. In terms of cross-­ cultural variation, Czech academic and religious discourse display a more prominent presence of persuasive language; in the case of sermons this may be due to a more personalised and involved style of preaching, while in Czech research articles this seems to stem from a marked presence of hedges, boosters and value markers. The higher rate of persuasive language in business discourse clearly reflects the extremely high frequency of self-mention in Anglophone annual reports, associated with their promotional character. Anglophone user manuals also employ more persuasive markers, as they put a greater emphasis on direct appeal to the reader, directives and epistemic markers.

7.5 Concluding Remarks This chapter has focused on identification of common aspects and divergences in how persuasion is expressed across Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses and explanation of reasons for variation across the

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

333

linguacultural backgrounds and specialised discourses under investigation. The interactive language resources exploited in making persuasive attempts have been related to the three persuasive appeals—ethos, logos and pathos—and their use has been compared across two linguacultural backgrounds and four specialised discourses. The focus on four key types of explicit realisation of persuasion (self-mention structures, reader-­ reference devices, non-assertion speech acts and evaluative lexis) has allowed us to present a reasonable basis for comparability within the scope of these interpersonal resources. Linguacultural constraints affecting the construal of persuasion in Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses are presented in Sect. 7.2, which compares the Anglophone and Czech ‘big’ cultures, comments on the influence of globalisation on specialised discourses and reflects on specific features of English and Czech which may affect the choice of persuasive language. A comparison of the main persuasive strategies across the Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses carried out in Sect. 7.3 points out that despite numerous similarities between them, the academic, business, religious and technical discourses as used by Anglophone writers differ to some extent in the expression of the ethical appeal and its interfaces with the logical and pathetic persuasive appeals. The main focus of this chapter is cross-cultural comparison of the language resources used for making persuasive attempts in the four specialised discourses. The results of the comparative analysis clearly show the existence of cross-cultural variation in the use of persuasive language, motivated by differences in the two ‘big’ cultures, the rhetorical traditions and the specificity of the two languages. One of the interesting findings is that in several cases it was the Czech sub-corpus that manifested a higher frequency of use of persuasive language. Variation was also found across the four disciplinary sub-corpora related to the specific persuasive purpose of the discourses, the established conventions and the context in which the communication unfolds. The findings reported in this chapter support Halmari and Virtanen’s (2005) claim that persuasive genres are “sensitive to genre-external pressures: social, cultural, ideological, and economical changes related to the owners of the genre or its audience” (p. 239), which may lead to genre

334 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

diversification and eventually genre change. Since these pressures are typically not identical in different ‘big cultures’, they also result in cross-­ cultural variation in persuasive strategies and their linguistic realisations across different linguacultural backgrounds. It is a question, of course, whether under the pressure of globalisation and the dominant role of English as the lingua franca in academic and professional settings, divergences between cultural conventions will be preserved, or as Swales (1997) and Tardy (2004) claim, non-Anglophone specialised discourses will become prey to the linguistic Tyrannosaurus rex, that is the Anglophone discourse.

References Adam, M. (2019). Enhancing persuasion in sermon conclusions through fear induction. In M. Crhová & M. Weiss (Eds.), Silesian Studies in English 2018. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of English and American Studies. Opava, Czech Republic: Silesian University in Opava. Atkinson, D. (2004). Contrasting rhetorics/contrasting cultures: Why contrastive rhetoric needs a better conceptualization of culture. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3(4), 277–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2004. 07.002 Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, S. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Limited. Clyne, M. (1987). Cultural difference in the organisation of academic discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 211–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/ 0378-2166(87)90196-2 Čmejrková, S., & Daneš, F. (1997). Academic writing and cultural identity: The case of Czech academic writing. In A. Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp. 40–62). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https:// doi.org/10.1515/9783110821048.41 Čmejrková, S., Daneš, F., & Světlá, J. (1999). Jak napsat odborný text. Praha, Slovakia: LEDA. Connor, U. (2004). Intercultural rhetoric research: Beyond texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3, 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap. 2004.07.003

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

335

Crowder, A. (2014). Technical writing – technical communication: Technical writing instruction and real world professional guidance. Kindle Edition. KRB Instructional Publications. Amazon Digital Services LLC. Crystal, D. (2018). Whatever happened to theolinguistics? In P.  Chilton & M. Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp. 5–18). New  York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/ 9780190636647.001.0001 Crystal, D., & Davy, D. (1969). Investigating English style. London: Longman. Dahl, T. (2004). Textual metadiscourse in research articles: A marker of national culture or of academic discipline? Journal of Pragmatics, 36, 1807–1825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.05.004 Dillard, J. P., & Seo, K. (2013). Affect and persuasion. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The Sage book of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp.  150–166). London: Sage Publications. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781452218410.n10 Dobrin, S. I., Keller, C. J., & Weisser, C. R. (2014). Technical communication in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Columbus, Oh: Pearson. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2013). Authorial presence in academic discourse: Functions of author-reference pronouns. Linguistica Pragensia, 23(1), 9–30. Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2014). The changing face of Czech academic discourse. In K.  Bennett (Ed.), The semiperiphery of academic writing (pp.  39–61). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/ 9781137351197_3 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2018). A contrastive (English, Czech English, Czech) study of rhetorical functions of citations in Linguistics research articles. In P. Mur-Dueñas & J. Šinkūnienė (Eds.), Intercultural perspectives on research writing (pp.  15–37). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.18.01don Duszak, A. (1997). Cross-cultural academic communication: A discourse community view. In A.  Duzsak (Ed.), Culture and styles of academic discourse (pp.  11–39). Berlin, Germany: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi. org/10.1515/9783110821048.11 Fløttum, K., Dahl, T., & Kinn, T. (2006). Academic voices: Across languages and disciplines. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/ 10.1075/pbns.148 Halmari, H. (2005). In search of “successful” political persuasion. A comparison of the styles of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. In H. Halmari & T. Virtanen

336 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

(Eds.), Persuasion across genres (pp. 105–134). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130.08hal Halmari, H., & Virtanen, T. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion across genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Harwood, N. (2005). We do not seem to have a theory… the theory I present here attempts to fill this gap: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 26, 343–375. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ ami012 Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Hunston, S. (1999). Evaluation and the planes of discourse: Status and value in persuasive texts. In S. Hunston & G. Thompson (Eds.), Evaluation in text (pp. 176–207). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. (Eds.). (2000). Evaluation in text. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (1998). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text, 18, 349–382. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.3.349 Hyland, K. (2002a). Authority and invisibility: Authorial identity in academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 1091–1112. https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0378-2166(02)00035-8 Hyland, K. (2002b). Directives: Argument and engagement in academic writing. Applied Linguistics, 23(2), 216–239. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ 23.2.215 Hyland, K. (2003). Self-citation and self-reference: Credibility and promotion in academic publication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54(3), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.10204 Hyland, K. (2005a). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. https://doi. org/10.1177/1461445605050365 Hyland, K. (2005b). Metadiscourse. London/New York: Continuum. Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2016). Change of attitude? A Diachronic study of stance. Written Communication, 33(3), 251–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 0741088316650399 Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2017). Is academic writing becoming more informal? English for Specific Purposes, 45, 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2016. 09.001

7  Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised… 

337

Hyland, K., & Jiang, K. (2019). Academic discourse and global publishing. Disciplinary persuasion in changing times. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429433962 Hyland, K., & Tse, P. (2004). Metadiscourse in academic writing: A reappraisal. Applied Linguistics, 25, 156–177. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.2.156 Ivanič, R. (1998). Writing and identity: The discoursal construction of identity in academic writing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/swll.5 Kater, M. (2019). Mark 6:45–52 as a fear-increasing and fear-decreasing passage: A homiletical analysis from a biblical-theological perspective. International Journal of Homiletics, 4, 91–99. Kissine, M. (2016). Non-assertion speech acts. In S. Goldberg & E. Borg (Eds.), Oxford handbook of philosophy online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935314.013.5 Martin, J. R., & White, P. R. R. (2005). The language of evaluation. Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511910 Myers, G. (1989). The pragmatics of politeness in scientific articles. Applied Linguistics, 10, 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/10.1.1 Overstreet, L. R. (2014). Persuasive preaching: A biblical and practical guide to the effective use of persuasion. Wooster, OH: Weaver Book Company. Pérez-Llantada, C. (2010). The ‘dialectics of change’ as facet of globalisation: Epistemic modality in academic writing. In M.  Ruiz-Garrido, J.  Palmer-­ Silveira, & I.  Fortanet-Gómez (Eds.), English for professional and academic purposes (pp.  26–41). Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. https://doi. org/10.1163/9789042029569_004 Povolná, R. (2019). Cross-cultural variation in the expression of persuasive power in the genre of technical manuals: The case of directives. Discourse and Interaction, 12(1), 47–74. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2019-1-47 Sharpe, M. (2014). Language forms and rhetorical function in technical instructions. English for Specific Purposes World, 43(15). Retrieved from http://www. esp-world.info/Articles_43/Sharpe.pdf. Sudková, M. (2012). Vyjadřování interpersonální funkce v českých a anglických odborných textech. Kontrastivní studie. [Expressing the interpersonal function in Czech and English academic texts. A contrastive study.] Časopis pro moderní filologii, 94(1), 31–42. Swales, J. (1997). English as Tyrannosaurus rex. World Englishes, 16(3), 373–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00071

338 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al.

Swales, J., Ahmad, U. K., Chang, Y.-Y., Chavez, D., Dressen, D., & Seymour, R. (1998). Consider this: The role of imperatives in scholarly writing. Applied Linguistics, 19(1), 97–121. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/19.1.97 Tang, R., & John, S. (1999). The ‘I’ in identity: Exploring writer identity in student academic writing through the first person pronoun. English for Specific Purposes, 18, 23–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0889-4906(99)00009-5 Tardy, C. (2004). The role of English in scientific communication: Lingua franca or Tyrannosaurus Rex? Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3, 247–269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2003.10.001 Tse, P., & Hyland, K. (2006). ‘So what is the problem this book addresses?’ Interactions in academic book reviews. Text and Talk, 27, 767–790. https:// doi.org/10.1515/TEXT.2006.031 Vassileva, I. (1998). Who am I/who are we in academic writing? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(2), 163–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1473-4192.1998.tb00128.x Vold, E. (2006). The choice and use of epistemic modality markers in linguistics and medical research articles. In K. Hyland & M. Bondi (Eds.), Academic discourse across disciplines (pp. 225–251). Bern, Germany: Peter Lang. https:// doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0446-2 Whitaker, J. C., & Mancini, R. K. (2013). Technical documentation and process. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Yakhontova, T. (2006). Cultural and disciplinary variation in academic discourse: The issue of influencing factors. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5, 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2006.03.002

8 Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World

8.1 Introduction This book has offered a new intercultural approach to the analysis of persuasion in specialised discourse across different professional settings. It has explored persuasive strategies and linguistic resources used for their realisation across a selection of specialised discourses comprising the academic, business, religious and technical discourses in two linguacultural contexts, Anglophone and Czech, thus extending our understanding of how various contextual parameters impact the expression of persuasive intentions targeting increasingly diverse, specialised and competitive audiences. By conceptualising persuasion as a communicative process in which the persuader appeals to and attempts to change or reinforce the identity perception, behaviour, beliefs and emotional state of the persuadee in a specific professional and socio-cultural context, this book aligns with previous studies adopting a socio-cognitive and functional linguistics approach to the study of persuasion (e.g. Halmari & Virtanen, 2005; Orts Llopis, Gotti, & Breeze, 2017; Pelclová & Lu, 2018). It approaches this complex phenomenon through the prism of the ethical, logical and © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_8

339

340 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

pathetic persuasive appeals seen in association with an array of persuasive strategies and contextually conventionalised language resources on which the persuader can draw to achieve his/her persuasive intentions. Our study has endeavoured to achieve three main goals—to identify common denominators of persuasion in specialised discourse, to compare specific persuasive strategies and linguistic resources for conveying persuasion across the target specialised discourses and to give reasons and explanations for differences between the way persuasive attempts are made in Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses. Thus the contribution of this book lies not only in extending our knowledge of how persuasion is expressed across different specialised discourses, it brings new insight into variation in persuasive strategies and persuasive language across cultures and languages. The study has scrutinised persuasion in each of the selected specialised discourses on the basis of a prototypical genre characterised by a set of communicative intentions and targeting a specific audience—the research article for academic discourse, the corporate report for business discourse, the sermon for religious discourse and the user manual for technical discourse. An analytical approach combining qualitative analyses of rhetorical strategies essential to the study of persuasion complemented by corpus-based quantitative analyses of specific linguistic realisations of persuasion has allowed us to identify not only similarities and divergences in the use of specific persuasive rhetorical strategies and language recourses, but also distinctions in the pragmatic functions that these devices are intended to perform. We believe that apart from outlining how the two languages and cultures articulate persuasion across various contexts and genres, this study has also provided new insights into the relation between rhetorical organisation and language forms available for conveying meaning in a specific context.

8  Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World 

341

8.2 P  ersuasion Across the Academic, Business, Religious and Technical Specialised Discourses The set of specialised discourses selected for this investigation comprises discourses traditionally associated with persuasion, such as the religious, business and academic discourse, as well as the less frequently explored technical discourse (cf. Trosborg, 2000; Connor & Upton, 2004; Bhatia, Sanchez Hernandez, & Peréz-Peredes, 2011; Sancho-Guinda, 2019). These specialised discourses and their representative genres were chosen to map the making of persuasive attempts in such highly stereotyped institutional genres as the corporate annual report and the user manual, as well as in less restricted genres, such as the sermon and the research article, in which the individual, professional and institutional identities of the persuader interact in the build-up of persuasive discourse (van De Mieroop, 2007). The analysis of persuasive strategies used in the academic, business, religious and technical specialised discourses has shown that they share the same general tendencies; persuasion stems from an interplay of all types of appeal—ethical, logical and pathetic—and is based on enhancing the credibility and the trustworthiness of the persuader, the presentation of a rational and valid argument, and, less frequently, evoking the emotions of the persuadees. However, there are subtle differences in preferences for specific persuasive strategies. These stem from contextual constraints imposed by the area of knowledge and practices of the specialised discourse community, which is reflected in the conventional language means used to express the persuasive intention of the persuader. The results of the qualitative analysis have shown that one common denominator of the persuasive process across the four specialised discourses is the centrality of the ethical persuasive appeal (Fig. 8.1). It has been evidenced that the credibility and trustworthiness of the writer, based on his/her professionalism, experience and expertise in the specialised area of knowledge, are primary qualities availing the persuader a chance to succeed in his/her persuasive attempts. The key persuasive strategies pertaining to the realisation of the ethical appeal are similar in

342 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Business

Academic

Religious

Technical Fig. 8.1  Persuasive appeals across the academic, business, religious and technical discourses

all four discourses, although their relative importance differs slightly— asserting writers’ expertise by stressing their agentive role in the professional activity at hand, by supporting their views and opinions by reference to authorities, and by providing credentials for their expert membership status in the professional discourse community. The ethical appeal is frequently combined with the logical persuasive appeal. With regard to the genres under investigation, the logical appeal is particularly prominent in research articles, corporate reports and user manuals, while its role is somewhat backgrounded in sermons. The most common strategies expressing the logical appeal comprise providing factual evidence and statistics to support opinions and claims, and logical reasoning to build up a coherent argument so as to convince the audience to accept the interpretation of the information conveyed. Approached as a reinforcement device instrumental in enhancing the speaker’s credibility and the reliability of the message, the pathetic persuasive appeal is clearly most prominent in religious discourse. However, its role is not negligible in the other specialised discourses, as it is instrumental in enhancing the personal involvement of the persuader and creating a rapport with the audience based on communality and shared values, experiences and beliefs.

8  Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World 

343

By positioning readers as in-group members, persuaders assume shared values and goals with the audience and satisfy the emotional needs of readers, thus achieving an ethos-pathos interface. The most striking differences between the academic, business, religious and technical discourses have been found in the relative importance of the individual persuasive strategies employed, the linguistic resources realising these strategies and the specific way in which the ethical appeal is interwoven with the logical and pathetic appeals. A distinctive feature of religious discourse is an enhanced personality dimension and extensive use of the pathetic appeal expressed via strong emotional engagement with the audience, evoking strong positive and negative emotions and humour. By contrast, the academic, business and technical discourses are anchored in factual information and verifiable data, although these are open to subjective interpretation. In academic discourse, persuasion is based on the interface of the logical and ethical appeals, as knowledge-­ making in the domain of science is inherently connected to logical reasoning and proof by empirical evidence. A distinctive feature of academic discourse is the careful modulation of commitment to claims, which ranges from acknowledging alternative interpretations to showing certainty and involvement with the issue at hand. While also drawing primarily on the logical and ethical appeals, the realm of business is oriented towards a display of expertise and positive achievement—key factors that may convince stakeholders to invest in the company. Persuasion in business discourse prioritises objective statistics and factual proof and is further supported by engagement with the audience, personal involvement and reference to authorities on the ethical plane. Similarly to business discourse, technical discourse draws on objective facts when conveying instructions to end-users in order to help them operate a specific technical device. Credibility is therefore associated with expertise and an ability to provide clear, detailed instructions, which are construed primarily via the logical and ethical appeals. The findings of the qualitative analysis of persuasive strategies across the four specialised discourses have laid the ground for quantitative and qualitative analysis of differences in persuasive strategies and persuasive language resources used across the two linguacultural backgrounds

344 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

(Anglophone and Czech) which also have an important impact of the construal of persuasive attempt.

8.3 P  ersuasion Across Anglophone and Czech Specialised Discourses Drawing on the intercultural rhetoric approach (Connor, 2004), the analysis of cross-cultural differences across the Anglophone and Czech  specialised discourses as presented in this book was undertaken with the purpose of identifying common tendencies and divergences in the conveyance of persuasive intents in Anglophone and Czech academic, business, religious and technical discourses. The aim was to relate the value systems in different linguistically and culturally defined communities and the functional needs in different fields and their corresponding genres to individual persuasive strategies and preferred language means used for their realisation. The results of the cross-cultural analysis of persuasive strategies have shown that the major differences between the Anglophone and the Czech specialised discourses concern the expression of the ethical appeal and its interfaces with the logical and pathetic persuasive appeals. The specificity of the global heterogeneous Anglophone context is associated with building collegiality on the basis of tolerance towards a plurality of views. In academic discourse this is reflected in a large number of citations referring to various views and approaches, and a more democratic, reader-oriented approach inviting the audience to consider alternative interpretations and views, while in religious discourse it is signalled by intertextual connections made to diverse sources. By contrast, the small Czech specialised discourse communities prioritise tradition, communality, caring and avoidance of tension, which is reflected in the strong element of reader involvement, the predominance of a tradition orientation, an appeal to local values and goods and a preference for agreement and caring. These differences seem to be more prominent in the less restricted genres of sermons and research articles.

8  Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World 

345

The comparison of persuasive language employed by the Anglophone and Czech professional communities has focused primarily on interactive language resources typically associated with persuasive attempts, and it has explored a wide range of language devices in the individual chapters of this book. In order to assure comparability across the two linguacultural backgrounds and the specialised discourses, four key types of explicit realisation of persuasion have been selected as the focus of analysis: personal structures expressing self-mention, reader pronouns indicating reader reference, non-assertion speech acts (comprising directives, questions and exclamations) and evaluative lexis. The quantitative analysis of the targeted forms of explicit realisation of persuasion has indicated clear intercultural differences across the Anglophone and Czech sub-corpora representing the four specialised discourses. Self-mention is one of the features showing considerable variation. In  the academic sub-corpus, the frequency of occurrence of self-mention is similar across the Anglophone and the Czech sub-­corpora, but there is a prominent difference in the specific language means that express personality. In the other three specialised discourses, however, there are considerable divergences in the frequency of self-mention markers. In the religious and technical sub-corpora self-mention occurs more frequently in the Czech texts, a fact which has been tentatively interpreted as stemming from the assumed authoritative status of Czech preachers resulting from the relatively high power distance typical of Czech ‘big’ culture (cf. Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010), and a preference for personal expression of advice in Czech user manuals. Corporate reports, however, display a higher rate of self-mention in the Anglophone sub-corpus, perhaps due to the more competitive character of the Anglophone context. Variation in reader reference is particularly striking across the religious and technical sub-corpora. Czech sermons display the highest frequency of reader reference aimed at creating a feeling of belonging to the in-­ group and satisfying the emotional needs of believers to be part of the religious community, to be eligible for salvation and to be protected from damnation. The prominence of reader pronouns in Anglophone user manuals results in a reader-centred perspective positioning the user as the one expected to carry out all instructions provided by the writer; this stands in striking contrast with Czech user manuals, which are centred on

346 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

the device rather than the user. While rhetorically important as an indicator of reader engagement, reader reference is infrequent in research articles, and its occurrence in corporate reports is insignificant. The three categories of non-assertion speech acts display very different patterns of occurrence across the four genres of the Anglophone and Czech  specialised discourses. Directives are the only category showing prominence as well as important variation. While generally playing a major role in user manuals, as they are the clearest and most concise way of providing instructions, they show a considerably higher rate in the Anglophone sub-corpus, probably due to a preference in Czech user manuals for a descriptive approach, where the action is presented as undergone by the device. In the other three specialised discourses, directives are not frequent in either cultural context, perhaps because of their impositive character, which may raise the epistemic vigilance of the reader and reduce the chances of successful persuasion. The non-assertion speech acts of questions and exclamations are generally not prominent. While showing an insignificant occurrence in academic and technical discourse, questions are occasionally used in corporate reports and sermons to focus the attention of the reader on a significant point or to trigger interest in an issue. It is interesting to note that Czech preachers use questions more frequently, probably to position preacher and believers as involved in a joint quest for an answer. Exclamations are the least frequent persuasive device in our corpus, as they are totally absent in the academic and the business subcorpora, although they occur in Czech user manuals to enhance the persuasive force of warnings. Since the appeal to emotions is most prominent in religious discourse, it is not surprising that exclamatives are a common device relied on by preachers to worship within the congregation. This function of exclamations is more prominent in Czech sermons, probably because a higher emotional involvement may result in appeasing tension and enhancing a sense of trust and shared goals and beliefs. As a result of contextual demands, the categories of evaluative lexis differ slightly across the specialised discourses. Consequently, the comparison of evaluative lexis was restricted to those persuasive language resources which occur in all the discourses under investigation, namely epistemic modality markers and value markers expressing affect and relevance. The results of the comparison have indicated that evaluative lexis is highly

8  Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World 

347

prominent in the Czech component of the academic sub-corpus, where the use of hedges, boosters and attitude markers seems to be the key persuasive recourse available to writers as they attempt to present their views and claims in a way which readers may find convincing. In the technical sub-corpus, Anglophone authors use more evaluative lexis in order to suggest various paths to reach the intended results and to add urgency to their advice and instructions. Evaluative lexis in the religious and the business sub-corpora shows little variation and tends to encompass lexical items contextually coloured by positive or negative connotations, thus extending the range of lexical devices that contribute to the evaluative dimension of the text and thus to the ethical and pathetic appeals. Some divergences in preference for certain language resources are motivated by differences between the English and Czech languages. The analytical character of English accounts for the expression of self-­mention and reader reference by pronouns and possessives, while the synthetic character of Czech explains its reliance on verbal endings for the conveyance of these aspects of writer-reader interaction. Another difference concerns the relatively high incidence of reader reference in Czech specialised discourses, which stems from the fewer occurrences of impersonal passive constructions in Czech than in English. Tendencies in lexical choices also differ slightly, as Czech writers seem to rely on a narrower range of highly frequent epistemicity and value markers than Anglophone writers. This may explain why negative meaning value markers are more likely to occur in the top ten most frequent evaluative lexis items across Czech specialised discourses. Such a high prominence of negativity in Czech specialised discourses is also traceable in directives associated with instructions indicating what to avoid. It can be deduced from the divergences shown by the cross-cultural analysis that the choice of persuasive language resources which Anglophone and Czech writers have at their disposal is constrained by the contextualised relationship between the writer and the audience, the culture-specific stylistic tradition and the possibilities afforded by the linguistic code in which the communication takes place.

348 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

8.4 T  owards New Directions in the Study of Persuasion This investigation into the construal of persuasion across two linguacultural backgrounds and various specialised discourses has shown convincingly that persuasion is a complex context-dependent process modelled by numerous language-internal and language-external factors. Although we have identified some universal aspects of persuasion, such as the interplay of the three persuasive principles governed by the ethical appeal and the primacy of the persuader’s credibility and expertise in specialised discourse, and we have shown that there is clear interdependence between the choice of persuasive strategies and language resources and the specific context in which the persuasive process takes place, there is more to be discovered by future research. The importance of comparing persuasion as constructed and employed for achieving context-specific goals in various national specialised discourses with persuasion in Anglophone-specialised discourses is given by the dominant position of English in international professional communication. As a result of the complex language contact between professionals from different linguacultural backgrounds, Anglophone specialised discourses seem to have influenced not only the English-medium discourse of multilingual scholars; indeed, to some extent they may gradually be impacting national specialised discourse conventions (cf. Dontcheva-­ Navratilova, 2014). It should be noted, however, that international English is not necessarily unaffected by various influences—by becoming a lingua franca, English is both influencing and being influenced by other languages (Mauranen, 2019), a development which may eventually lead to some degree of flexibility or even change in established conventions. Therefore, questions in increasing need of attention include: What changes is English as a lingua franca undergoing in the area of professional discourses? Are non-Anglophone specialised discourses an endangered species? These issues can be addressed by larger scale synchronic and diachronic research across a wider scope of languages and specialised discourses.

8  Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World 

349

Another important dimension of analysis is the interplay between the written word and other semiotic modes. Multimodal presentation of knowledge is gaining importance in specialised discourses, as it allows for more complex and varied meaning-making. A deeper understanding of persuasion should take into consideration the contribution of all semiotic modes in the process of changing or reinforcing the identity perception, behaviour, beliefs and emotional state of the persuadee. This is particularly important in the context of religious discourse, which for centuries has relied on images and music to enhance the faith of believers, or in technical discourse, where instructions are inherently connected to images visualising the device and actions that the user is expected to perform. It goes without saying that the use of multimodal resources in academic and business discourse is crucial to the intended persuasive effect, as they summarise the factual and statistical data presented to the reader and allow the persuader to engage more intensely with the audience; this has led to the appearance of new genres, such as the oral abstract, the business presentation and the TED talk. To conclude, persuasion is inherent to human nature and to human social life. Persuasive attempts can be made by employing various rhetorical strategies and a plethora of language and other semiotic resources. It is not easy to recognise all the explicit persuasive devices used in human communication, and it is even more difficult to detect covert persuasive means employed in an attempt to get past our epistemic vigilance. This is why the study of persuasion from a multidisciplinary and multimodal perspective is a particularly promising vista for future research.

References Bhatia, V., Sanchez Hernandez, P., & Peréz-Peredes, P. (2011). Researching specialized languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi. org/10.1075/scl.47 Connor, U. (2004). Intercultural rhetoric research: Beyond texts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3, 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeap.2004.07.003

350 

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova

Connor, U., & Upton, T. (Eds.). (2004). Discourse in the professions. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.16 Dontcheva-Navratilova, O. (2014). The changing face of Czech academic discourse. In K. Bennett (Ed.), The semiperiphery of academic writing (pp. 39–61). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137351197 Halmari, H., & Virtanen, T. (Eds.). (2005). Persuasion across genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.130 Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Mauranen, A. (2019). Academically speaking: English as the lingua franca. In K. Hyland & L. Wong (Eds.), Specialised English: New directions in ESP and EAP research and practice (pp.  9–21). Abingdon/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429492082 Orts Llopis, M.  A., Gotti, M., & Breeze, R. (2017). Power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres: Providing keys to the rhetoric of professional communities. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11481 Pelclová, J., & Lu, W.-L. (Eds.). (2018). Persuasion in public discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79 Sancho-Guinda, C. (Ed.). (2019). Engagement in professional genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.301 Trosborg, A. (Ed.). (2000). Analysing professional genres. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.74 van de Mieroop, D. (2007). The complementarity of two identities and two approaches: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of institutional and professional identity. Journal of Pragmatics, 39, 1120–1142. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.01.009

Index

A

Annual report, 45, 159–193, 270, 271, 294, 332, 341 See also Corporate report Appeal, vi, 2, 39, 122, 160, 201, 229, 263, 339 Appraisal, 5, 63, 74, 77, 246 Attitude, 128 adverbs, 303, 304 markers, 25, 66, 77, 100, 127, 128, 130, 134–137, 152, 162, 163, 183, 234, 235, 245, 247, 249, 278, 291–293, 301–304, 312, 316, 321, 324, 325, 347 Audience, v, vi, 3–5, 10, 12, 15–19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 47–50, 54–56, 58, 64, 69, 75, 83–91, 93, 96, 97, 100–102, 107–109, 124, 126, 133, 134, 148, 152, 160, 161, 188, 190,

200–202, 205–208, 212–218, 222, 223, 229–232, 234, 235, 243, 245, 254, 256, 257, 264–266, 269, 274–278, 281, 282, 305–311, 313, 314, 317, 320, 321, 323, 324, 333, 339, 340, 342–344, 347, 349 Authority, 14, 44, 47, 48, 64, 65, 68–69, 88, 89, 98, 101, 109, 122, 150, 186, 264, 268, 269, 282, 306, 307, 342, 343 B

Booster, 11, 20, 25, 66, 67, 74, 78, 95, 123, 128, 130, 137–143, 153, 162, 183–186, 192, 198, 234, 235, 247, 249–250, 254, 257, 258, 281, 287–290, 300, 303, 321–324, 331, 332, 347

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3

351

352 Index

102, 107–110, 127, 128, 169, 201, 263–334, 339–349 technical, vii, viii, 2, 7, 8, 12–14, 19, 23, 39–110, 229–258, 263, 266–333, 339–344, 346, 349

C

CEO’s statement, 45, 60, 160 Corporate report, see Annual report Credibility, 3, 4, 18, 20, 21, 45, 50, 56, 64–69, 73, 75–78, 82, 83, 88–89, 92, 94, 95, 100, 101, 107–109, 121–123, 125, 127, 130–134, 137, 142, 152, 160, 167, 186, 192, 201, 216, 229, 243, 247, 252, 256, 257, 265, 267, 269, 276, 280–282, 294, 297, 305, 312, 313, 319, 331, 341–343, 348 D

Directives, 23, 25, 56, 70, 85, 86, 94, 95, 97–100, 102, 107, 128, 130, 148–153, 163, 198, 237, 246, 250, 252–257, 264, 270, 277, 278, 280, 281, 284–287, 294, 297, 298, 303, 309, 310, 317–319, 321, 326, 329, 330, 332, 345–347 Discourse academic, vii, viii, 2, 7, 8, 10–14, 18, 19, 26, 39–110, 121–153, 263, 265–333, 339–344, 346, 349 business, vii, viii, 2, 8, 12–14, 18, 19, 23, 39–110, 159–193, 263, 266–333, 339–344, 349 religious, vii, viii, 2, 8, 12–14, 19, 20, 23, 39–110, 197–224, 230, 263, 266–333, 339–344, 346, 349 specialised, v–viii, 1, 2, 6–14, 16–20, 23, 24, 28, 39, 40, 50–57, 63, 82, 84, 86, 101,

E

Engagement, 25, 45, 59, 63, 65, 69, 70, 73, 76, 82, 84, 86–87, 102, 108, 121, 127–130, 143, 145, 148, 153, 160, 163, 167, 189–192, 229, 234, 235, 250, 252–258, 276, 286, 297, 302, 303, 305, 343, 346 Ethos, vi, 3, 19–24, 39, 46, 63, 64, 74, 82, 93–97, 126, 128, 152, 153, 160, 163, 167, 175, 189, 191, 192, 209, 214–216, 219, 222, 229, 232, 270, 271, 274, 294, 303, 311, 312, 333 Evaluative lexis, 22, 23, 26, 27, 46, 73, 77, 78, 80, 82, 91–93, 102, 107–110, 134, 160–179, 181, 183, 191, 192, 230, 264, 281, 287–294, 298–305, 310–314, 321–326, 331–333, 345–347 H

Hedge, 11, 25, 66, 67, 74, 78, 107, 128, 130, 132, 133, 137–143, 145, 153, 163, 174, 183–186, 192, 198, 234, 235, 247–249, 258, 281, 287–290, 299–301, 303, 314, 321–323, 331, 332, 347 Humour, 200

 Index  I

Imperatives, 50, 70, 86, 95, 97, 148, 149, 253–256, 258, 278, 285, 286, 297, 310, 316–319, 322, 323, 329 Intertextuality, 19, 218, 230, 276 L

Logos, vi, 3, 19–24, 39, 63, 70–71, 74, 78–80, 87–88, 93, 96–99, 126, 128, 152, 153, 160, 163, 188, 192, 219, 229, 232, 270, 294, 312, 333 M

Metadiscourse, vii, 11, 24, 26, 27, 63, 67, 68, 70, 85, 93, 94, 96, 121–153, 229–258, 303 P

Pathos, vi, 3, 4, 19–24, 40, 63, 72–74, 76, 80, 90, 93, 99–101, 126, 128, 152, 153, 160, 163, 188–191, 201, 202, 215, 216, 219, 221, 229, 232, 243, 270, 271, 274, 275, 294, 333 Personal pronouns, 23, 25, 66, 69, 84, 130, 131, 133, 134, 161, 167, 290, 294, 295, 304 structures, 11, 23, 83–84, 109, 230, 264, 281, 294, 306, 307, 314, 316, 345 Persuasion, v–viii, 1–28, 39–44, 46, 48, 50, 56, 57, 61, 63, 64, 71–74, 76, 80–82, 85, 86,

353

90–94, 102, 107–110, 121–153, 159–193, 197–224, 229–258, 263–334, 339–349 Persuasive effect, 6, 15, 81, 88, 173, 174, 197–224, 250, 306, 317, 321, 325, 349 force, 6, 21, 68, 85, 95, 128, 137, 140, 143, 164, 168, 169, 172–180, 198, 202, 205, 206, 212, 230, 233, 244, 247, 248, 257, 258, 274, 278, 286, 304, 314, 320, 323, 324, 330, 346 means, 95, 179–182, 188, 198, 349 potential, 19, 148, 153, 159–165, 168–180, 223, 304 principle, 71, 74, 101, 109, 122, 128, 151, 238, 245, 255, 257, 270, 281, 348 resources, 127, 266, 284, 301, 331 strategy, 2, 12, 18–23, 28, 39–110, 121–126, 152, 153, 167, 197, 198, 201–221, 232, 257, 263, 266–280, 308, 329, 330, 333, 334, 339–341, 343, 344, 348 Q

Questions, 128 R

Reader reference, 23–25, 45, 94, 102, 128, 130, 143–146, 187, 255, 257, 264, 277, 278, 280–284, 294–296, 303, 305–307, 314–317, 326, 328, 329, 332, 333, 345–347

354 Index

Research article, vii, 8, 13, 14, 21, 39, 42–43, 50, 55–59, 63, 64, 68, 73, 108, 109, 121–153, 183, 240, 265, 266, 268–270, 279, 282–288, 290, 292, 294, 327, 329, 332, 340–342, 344, 346 S

Self-mention, 23–25, 59, 64, 65, 74–76, 102, 127, 128, 130–135, 153, 160, 162, 163, 165, 167, 183, 186, 191, 198, 209, 234, 235, 245, 249, 251–252, 264, 265, 267, 277, 280–284, 294–296, 303–307, 314–317, 326–328, 332, 345 Sermon, vii, 8, 13, 14, 22, 39, 46–48, 50, 54–57, 61, 62, 82–93, 102, 108, 109, 197–224, 265, 274–276, 279, 280, 305–314, 327, 329–332, 340–342, 344–346 Speech acts directives, 23, 25, 56, 86, 94, 163, 264, 280, 284, 309, 310, 317, 326, 345

exclamations, 23, 85, 215, 326, 330, 345, 346 questions, 23, 163, 215, 264, 284, 308, 320, 321, 330, 345, 346 Stance, 6, 22–25, 63, 66, 73–76, 78, 82, 84, 92, 93, 127, 129, 130, 134, 135, 137, 142, 143, 145, 147, 151, 153, 161–163, 181–187, 191, 192, 229, 230, 247, 249, 257, 258, 275, 283, 293, 298, 301, 303–305, 323, 325 U

User manual, 8, 14, 39, 49–50, 54, 56, 57, 62, 63, 93, 94, 96–99, 107–109, 229–258, 277–279, 314, 316, 317, 320, 321, 324, 325, 328–332, 340–342, 345, 346 V

Value markers, 264, 291, 303, 324–326, 331, 332, 346, 347