This has been done by implementing two stages of procedures in this. Oct 17, 2012 the rhetorical limits of polysemy, celeste michelle condit. There is an almost constant practice of equivocation associated with rhetorical criticism, which makes it impossible to establish a single, stable meaning. One way to explain how a text may mean different things to different people. Barnet baskerville criticism ephemeral and enduring, karlyn kohrs campbell another shooting in cowtown, thomas w. In the human condition, as in polysemy, we acknowledge diverse but finite meanings 398. Oct 23, 2015 polysemy, according to leah ceccarelli, is the existence of determinate but nonsingular denotational meanings in a text 399. This framework requires that multiple meanings are intentionally constructed in the mind of a single. There are areas of overlap, as exemplified in thomas rostecks book. Bible and english classics but also some schoolbooks and childrens trade books. These perspectives fail to sufficiently recognize subversions potential in creating multiple meanings in rhetorical texts. Winner of the national communication association golden anniversary monograph award, 1999.
I work in reading education, and the phrase words with multiple meanings often pops up alongise homographs. And rhetorical criticism benefits from social science, which provides a more general and generalizable notion of what has been observed in the specific cases. Both metonymy and metaphor involve the substitution of one term for another. Topics addressed include problems of defining rhetoric, the relationship between rhetoric and epistemology, the rhetorical situation, reason and public morality, the nature of the audience, the role of discourse in social change, rhetoric in the mass media, and challenges to rhetorical theory from the margins. It employs aesthetic protocol analysis, a design where informants write about their responses and associations while they experience an aesthetic artifactin this case the first movement of edward elgars cello concerto. Condit, having multiple possible meanings, and polyvalent, having multiple possible evaluations fiske. Homonyms are illustrated from the various meanings of the word bear.
Their authors describe the nature of polysemy, the criteria for detecting it, and its manifestations across languages. The rhetorical limits of polysemy, celeste michelle condit. Homonymy is the relationship between words with identical forms but. Research in social sciences and technology ressat eissn. Owing to its origin in ancient greece and rome, english rhetorical theory frequently employs greek and latin words as terms of art. The framework of purposeful diachronic polysemy was used to analyze a depression awareness campaign entitled the hidden pain. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly. Polysemy is a term used in semantic and lexical analysis to describe a word with multiple meanings. Several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the polysemy of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the.
May 29, 2019 the analysis shows that examining the phenomena of cognitive linguistic meanings from the 30 microunit polysemy to the rhetorical criticism of the polysemous text opens up multiple interpretive possibilities that may go unnoticed. Zulicks landmarks in rhetorical theory and criticism. The cases of dobzhansky, schrodinger, and wilson chicago 2001. Argues that rhetorical scholars should recognize resistive reading, strategic ambiguity, and hermeneutic depth as three types of polysemy that support different. About fifty years ago, stephen ullmann wrote that polysemy is the pivot of semantic analysis. Benson rhetoric, society and the critical response, philip wander and steven jenkins rhetorical criticism as moral action, james f. Criticism is an argument that describes, interprets, or evaluates the messages to which people are exposed in public or collective ways. The glaring assumption that haunts advertising theory is the fallacy of a preexisting meaning within the advertising text. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is referred to by the name of. Argues that rhetorical scholars should recognize resistive reading, strategic ambiguity, and hermeneutic depth as three types of polysemy that support different scholarly purposes. Lucas, the rhetorical ancestry of the declaration of independence. I know you dont mean it a deeper dive into ambiguity and by.
Reflections on the role of rhetoric in public policy jstor. The routledge reader in rhetorical criticism 2012, hardcover. Different people experience the same text and come away with different statements of fact about that texts meaning. Although the debate over multiple meaning in texts is an extensive and well. Complicates assumptions about the critical judgment of polysemous texts and suggests that some types of polysemy are best identified through the adoption of a new critical. Since fiskes 1986 conceptualization of polysemy the debate over multiple meanings within a text has seen many different iterations. This book gives a very good overall picture of current issues in polysemy and of the diverse ways of approaching the topic. Polysemy, multiple meanings of a single word or phrase, sometimes results. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech 84 1998. This page explains commonly used rhetorical terms in alphabetical order. Therefore, to define or describe a joke in a particular way whether only in popular culture or legally to a certain extent fixes and limits our potential interpretations to a few, primary.
Although the specific focus is on rhetorical criticism, the essay applies to critical claims more generally. Polysemy in and of the science fiction film arrival 2016. May 20, 2019 the analysis shows that examining the phenomena of cognitive linguistic meanings from the 30 microunit polysemy to the rhetorical criticism of the polysemous text opens up multiple interpretive possibilities that may go unnoticed. An extensive introduction and epilogue by the editors thoughtfully examine the current state of the field and its future directions, focusing in particular on how theorists are negotiating the tensions between modernist. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism sciencegate. This analysis offers communication scholars information about the historical antecedents to contemporary debates about public sexual education content. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive sciences at large. While they agree about how to delimit the term, there are conflicting assumptions about who initiates polysemy, the social action it supports, and the power dynamics it endorses. The routledge reader in rhetorical criticism 1st edition. Sep 25, 2018 any text can be interpreted in multiple ways. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, leah ceccareli. The questions posed by rhetorical criticism are as varied as the messages analyzed.
Polysemy, multiple meanings of a single word or phrase, sometimes results from relations of metonymy. The rhetoric of tree diagrams in biological thought. The routledge reader in rhetorical criticism 2012, trade. The word polysemy comes from the greek for many signs. In deciding between polysemy or homonymy, it might be necessary to look at the history of the word to see if the two meanings.
Over the years, she has received the national communication associations golden monograph award for polysemy. It is difficult to say which analysis above most closely represents. Pdf polysemy in and of the science fiction film arrival 2016. Textual analysis and communication communication oxford. Jun 15, 2000 the theoretical essays in the book examine polysemy as an aspect of a broader theory of word meaning. Her book, shaping science with rhetoric, won the rhetoric society of americas book award and her essay polysemy. This seems like a sensible consequence of our relationship with the world. Jul 01, 2017 jokes, like all texts, are polysemic cecarrelli. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, the rhetoric society of americas book award for shaping science with rhetoric, and the american forensics associations daniel rohrer memorial outstanding research award for manufactured scientific controversy. The goal of textual analysis is not to find one true interpretationin contrast to traditional hermeneutic approaches to text exegesisbut to explain the variety of possible meanings inscribed in the text. Oct 09, 2015 this is a hard question, because the term is used to mean multiple things.
Reprinted in the routledge reader in rhetorical criticism, 2012. The adjective forms of the word include polysemous or polysemic. Com 711 1 com 711 rhetoricalcritical research methods unlv. Subversion is not immediately recognizable, especially. Polysemy and consciousness theories and practices of. It should therefore hold an important place on the shelves of any researcher in the fields of lexical semantics and word sense disambiguation, and will certainly be valued by many of our graduate students. Jun 05, 2009 several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the polysemy of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the same thing. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, which was published in the quarterly journal of speech in 1999, was recognized with a nca golden anniversary award.
Sep 09, 2019 polysemy is the association of one word with two or more distinct meanings, and a polyseme is a word or phrase with multiple meanings. I tend to define rhetorical criticism through a structural, semiotics perspective. Polysemy is thus distinct from homonymyor homophonywhich is an accidental similarity between two words. The analysis shows that examining the phenomena of cognitive linguistic meanings from the 30 microunit polysemy to the rhetorical criticism of the polysemous text opens up multiple interpretive possibilities that may go unnoticed. This is a rather common point of contrast in theory. European advances in consumer research volume 6, 2003 pages 3443.
Sillars and gronbeck 5 one way to define criticism succinctly would be as the systematic process of illuminating and evaluating products of human activity. Rhetorical criticism of ambigrams in advertising scholarworks. Her publications include shaping science with rhetoric. That message is then passed through a medium radio, books, phone, interpreter etc to. The idea of a word containing multiple meanings dates back to the stoics, who observed that a single concept can be expressed by several different words synonymy and that conversely, one word can carry different meanings polysemy ravin and leacock, 2000. About twothirds of the jokesincluding the ones that students thought were the funniestwere based on two words that sounded the same but differed in mean ing, while onethird of the jokes were based on words that had deepstructure or meaning relation ships.
Theories and practices of textual analysis a seminar blog. Theories and practices of textual analysis a seminar. Rhetorical criticism and cultural criticism are different intellectual practices. Vernacular dialogue and the rhetoricality of public opinion, gerard a.
Leah ceccarelli, professor, is a rhetorical critic and theorist. Contemporary rhetorical theory university of michigan. Michael leff, tradition and agency in humanistic rhetoric. The spectacular consumption of true african america culture. Although such words present few difficulties in everyday communication, they do pose nearintractable problems for linguists and lexicographers. Critical rhetorical methods part 1 research methods. This indispensable text brings together important essays on the themes, issues, and controversies that have shaped the development of rhetorical theory since the late 1960s. Polysemy is the capacity for a word or phrase to have multiple meanings, usually related by contiguity of meaning within a semantic field. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, the rhetoric society of americas book award for shaping science with rhetoric, and the american forensics associations daniel rohrer memorial outstanding research award for. Multiple meanings in rhetorical criticism, quarterly journal of speech 1998.
The analysis shows that the smiling face appeal was judged to be significantly happier than the other appeal. Knowledge claims in rhetorical criticism springerlink. Olson, professor of communication and womens studies chancellors distinguished teacher, university of pittsburgh, an inspired conversation between reflections on the activity of criticism and models of exemplary criticism, the routledge reader in rhetorical criticism provides a superb introduction to the key theoretical debates in. Purposeful polysemy in marketing communication university of. In their book film art, film scholars david bordwell and kristin thom. An interdisciplinary journal of rhetorical analysis. An analysis of the features of words that influence.
Several rhetoricians have recently called for an increased interest in the polysemy of the text, but ironically, they are not all talking about the same thing. Second, rhetorical criticism has called attention to the polysemy of language ceccarelli, 1998, its ability to have multiple voices and levels of meaning at once. Fifty years on, polysemy has become one of the hottest topics in linguistics and in the cognitive. While your average linguist might know to look up the work polysemy, i doubt the average school board member or reading teacher knows this word. Hollihan communication, social justice, and joyful commitment. Myth and multiple readings in environmental rhetoric. It is not formally divided into parts, but chapters dealing more speci. Then, i analyze highly circulated texts by representatives of the three major ideological positions on sex during the midtolate 19th century, a historical moment that. Rhetorical criticism and the rhetoric of science, western journal of communication 2002. Students will write a 56 page descriptive paper on their rhetorical artifact that explains various. Knowledge claims in rhetorical criticism journal of. Pdf the routledge reader in rhetorical criticism brian.
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