A Pragmatic Theory of Rhetoric - Hardcover

Walter H. Beale

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809313006 ISBN 13: 9780809313006

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987

Synopsis

Walter H. Beale offersthe most coherent treatment of the aims and modes of discourse to be presented in more than a decade. His development of a semiotic “grammar of motives” that re­lates the problems of meaning in discourse both to linguistic structure and ways of construct­ing reality stands as a pro­vocative new theory of rhetoric sharply focused on writing.

He includes a comprehensive treatment of rhetoric, its classes and varieties, modes, and stra­tegies. In addition, he demon­strates the importance of the purpose, substance, and social context of discourse, at a time when scholarly attention has be­come preoccupied with process. He fortifies and extends the Aristotelian approach to rhetoric and discourse at a time when much theory and pedagogy have yielded to modernist assump­tions and methods. And finally, he develops a theoretical framework that illuminates the relationship between rhetoric, the language arts, and the hu­man sciences in general.

About this title

About the Author

Walter H. Beale is Professor of English at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and author of such books as Stylistic Options and Real Writing: Argumentation, Reflection, Information.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809313006
• ISBN 13: 9780809313006
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184