ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the application of the Mixed Game Model (MGM) of language to the topic of rhetoric in an attempt to review and explore its implications. It reviews the dialogic mixed-game theory as conceptualized by Edda Weigand prior to exploring its implications for persuasion (including social concerns such as respect and politeness) and for argumentation, two often distinct branches of modern rhetoric studies that are brought together in the MGM. The MGM model, as advanced by Weigand, can be said to have three primary constitutive principles: the principles of action, dialogue, and coherence. The chapter also reviews the concept of audience in rhetorical theory, focusing on the implications of a dialogic rhetoric for understanding the relationship between rhetor and audience. Through this discussion, it examines self-interest and social concern, along with issues relating to negotiation, power, politeness, and respect, within the frame of the MGM.
