2。2。7 Parallelism and Its Function 11

2。2。8 Hyperbole and Its 源Q于W优E尔A论S文R网wwW.yOueRw.com 原文+QQ75201,8766 Function 12

2。2。9 Pun and Its Function 13

2。2。10 Parody and Its Function 14

2。2。11 Understatement and Its Function 15

2。3 Persuasive Effects of Rhetorical Devices 16

3。 Ideologies of News Reports about the 2016 American Presidential Election in The Washington Post 17

3。1 The Revelation of American Values and Social Consciousness 17

3。2 The Meaning for Readers 17

4。 Conclusion 18

References 19

1。 Introduction

1。1 The Persuasive Nature of Rhetoric

With the rapid progress of informational era, people are surrounded by all kinds of news and can get amount of information they need easily at any time, which has a great influence on forming people’s values。 Generally speaking, people always believe that what has been reported in the newspaper is true and objective。 However, this is not the case。 In fact, news reports are the descriptions of the outer objective world through news writers’ inner subjective processing。 During this process, the apparent use of the rhetoric is one of the most distinctive features。 

Rhetoric is a complicated and controversial concept with the history of more than 2000 years。 The rise of rhetoric was from the ancient Greece and Roman and at that time nearly the whole society payed great attention to the study of rhetoric。 Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient Greece, once said “Rhetoric is the faculty of observing all the available means of persuasion in any particular situation” (Hogan, 1984)。 As the change of the times, people’s understanding of rhetoric has been constantly changing, but these various notions have something core in common that rhetoric indicates the purpose of persuade。 In other words, the nature of rhetoric is persuasive。 In order to further develop such rhetorical theory, contemporary rhetoricians such as Burke and Weaver also show their own views to confirm it。 Burke (1950) in his book A Rhetoric of Motives describes rhetoric as “the persuasive use of language as symbolic means of inducing cooperation and forming attitudes in symbolizing things”。 Weaver (1953) defines “rhetoric is persuasive speech in the service of truth, which attracts by showing in the contexts of reality and human values”。 Most rhetoricians share the common viewpoint that rhetoric improves the persuasiveness of language。

Actually, in daily life when expressing opinions people always use rhetoric intentionally or unintentionally to affect others’ ideas, feelings or behaviors with the ultimate purpose of persuading others to accept their views and values。 The same case also applies to news reports (Bell, 1991)。 A successful news report must attract people’s attention and one of the important ways is to use rhetoric。 But each news writer or news press has its own focus or standpoint。 The use of rhetoric provides a means for persuading readers to accept their thoughts and at the same time keeping interest。 Relatively, in order to achieve persuasiveness, the use of rhetoric is necessary。 Persuasiveness refers to the power to convince, induce and influence, so with the help of rhetoric news writers can imperceptibly achieve their persuasive intention。 In this sense, the relationship between rhetoric and persuasiveness is inseparable。

Therefore, the rhetoric of news reports not only aims at informing and delivering information but also plays a significant role in persuading readers to accept its values。 If people have a better understanding of rhetoric’s persuasive nature, personal and social values can be more easily revealed。