Persuasion Ch 5
Langer's Approach to Language Use
-Concepts vs conceptions -Discursive vs presentational -Signification, denotation, connotation
Examples of extensional devices
-Indexing: categorizing by adding specific info -Dating: setting up a timeframe of judgment -Etc.: can never tell whole story w/o noun or event -Quotation Marks: to indicate words used in "own way"
Burke's approach to language use
-identification develops through the linguistic sharing of what he called sub-stances (which literally means beneath places) -persuasion via identification works because we all share sub-stances and experience guilt
Two parts to metaphors & descriptions
1. Tenor: more familiar; subject of metaphor 2. Vehicle: less familiar, teaching of ways to think of tenor differently; transmission of meaning Ex: drowning (V) in money (T)
The perspectives through which we should read messages?
1. word/symbols not spoken 2. Context in/from which they are spoken 3. Actions that are or are not taken or approved of 4. The other signifiers in the message (visuals, colors, music)
Signal response
Act as though signal is true representation of the territory (ex- dog hiding from lighting @ sign of thunder)
Semiotic Theory
All texts convey meaning through signs or signifiers (presence or absence of restaurant host for ex.)
Denotation
Dictionary definition; shared like a concept, rid of emotion
A good metaphor does what?
Enables the vehicle to be readily "mapped" back to the tenor on several dimensions
How we use extensional devices to decode persuasion?
Help us ensure maps in our heads more closely resemble the territory to which we refer
Presentational meaning
Hits all at once, immediate (ex- photos, logos, fonts)
How do signifiers interact with one another?
In meaningful but subtle relationships, or sign systems, which make up the "language" or "code" of the text
Signs
Indicate presence of event, feeling, or object; more literal
____ is also source of guilt
Innate need to achieve perfection
____ helped to create culture
Language
Most widely used type of symbol?
Language or words
What is the most powerful and persuasive of all figures of speech and the most likely to require truly artistic language creativity?
Metaphor
Connotation
More emotional, individual, conceptual
How do we refer to maps and react to them?
Peripherally & emotionally, not logically
Territories
Physically exist in the world; realities
"Pecking order"
Principle of hierarchy that contributes to guilt
Signification
Sign accompanies concept/thing
Discursive meaning
Smaller, unveils symbols over time (ex- unfolding of a plot in a drama, slogans, jingles)
Semantics
Study of language and meaning
Semiotics
Study of symbols
Extensional Devices
Techniques for neutralizing or defusing the emotional connotations that often accompany words by adding info that makes my meaning clear to you & others
Signifieds
Things (events, rules, etc.( to which the signifiers refer
How are faulty maps expressed?
Through language, often using metaphors
Symbols
Vehicles for the conception of objects (ex- sign language); more deep & complex
Since words stand for or represent things, ideas, and feelings, we also tend to react to words...
as if they are actually the things they only represent
All human communication and hence persuasion relies on ____ and ____
concepts and conceptions
We all cary thousands of _____ that represent nonexistent, incorrect, or false territories
maps
Language appeals made by most persuaders, advocates, and propagandists are only ____, or ____ ____
maps, inner perceptions (like connotations)
Concepts are ____, while conceptions are ____
shared, individual
One reason we can infer much from how a person uses words/symbols to persuade is that the making of symbols is....
so highly ego-involving
"Language is ____ ____" -Burke
symbolic action
Word/symbols that name what something is leads to...
the idea of what something is not
Language can tell us a lot about ____
the persuader's motives
The world of marketing provides many examples of ____
the persuasive power in language choice ("up to", "as much as", etc)
The map is not ____ _____
the territory (esp in the case of stereotypes)
Job of persuaders is to call attention to...
those sub-stances or basic beliefs
Metaphors can also be ____
visual