Inception: How the Unsaid May Become Public Knowledge

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Abstract

The paper uses H.P. Grice’s concept of conversational implicature, and concepts based on Gricean thinking, in a rhetorical analysis of several passages in President George W. Bush’s speeches prior to the invasion of Iraq. It is suggested that the passages in question, along with many others, were apt to suggest to audiences something that Bush never asserted and ostensibly denied, namely that he believed Saddam Hussein to have been complicit in the 9/11 terrorist acts. Three types of suggestive mechanism are analyzed. They are offered as examples of rhetorical devices used in political communication that may create a kind of “public knowledge” that has not been asserted, supported with reasons, or reflected upon.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRhetoric, Discourse and Knowledge
EditorsMaria Załęska, Urszula Okulska
Number of pages12
Place of PublicationFrankfurt am Main
PublisherPeter Lang
Publication date1 Nov 2016
Pages275-286
ISBN (Print)9783631668160
ISBN (Electronic)9783631698761
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2016
SeriesStudies in Language, Culture and Society
Volume9
ISSN2195-7479

Keywords

  • Faculty of Humanities
  • Conversational implicature
  • political communication
  • George W. Bush
  • suggestion
  • Saddam
  • 9/11
  • fuzzy reference
  • sentence collocation

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