Rhetoric, argumentation and discourse under perspective

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a retrospective study of rhetorical argumentation theories. We aim the reconstruction of the critical paths followed since the classical world, to contemporary research in the field of discourse analysis. We initially discuss classical rhetoric and then we present the principles of the New Rhetoric, by Chaïm Perelman, and argumentation in discourse, by Ruth Amossy. After identifying and correlating the main aspects of each theoretical basis, we concluded that the New Rhetoric is a philosophical model whose categories have practical difficulties of operation, due to its high degree of abstraction. Thus, to articulate the philosophical assumptions of Perelman and the contributions of discourse analysis, Amossy promotes a remarkable advance in argumentation studies, providing the researcher with a theoretical and methodological framework that enables the realization of a linguistic-discursive analysis of various persuasive corpora.