ABSTRACT

Rhetorical analysis is concerned with ways of finding and interpreting persuasive strategies in language. The language of politics particularly is in the focus of rhetorical analysts as it 'is both the result of rhetorical creativity and the object of rhetorical analysis'. In ancient Greece, rhetoric was viewed as a crucial discipline, the 'queen of all subjects'. In his famous treatise, Aristotle identified rhetoric as an essential part of the ethical discipline politics. This chapter discusses the traditional approaches to rhetorical analysis with a focus on Aristotelian concepts, which were a basis for all later frameworks. It introduces contemporary approaches to rhetorical analysis and provides an overview of linguistic and discourse approaches. Thereafter, methods of analysing rhetorical devices are explored, such as logical structure analysis of argumentation, the semantics of arguments and fallacious argumentation. Finally, the chapter sketches some figures of speech, especially metaphors.