Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31724/rihjj.45.2.10
Apophastic Constructions in Croatian at the Intersection between Rhetoric and Syntax
Tanja Gradečak
orcid.org/0000-0001-6328-6120
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Barbara Kružić
orcid.org/0000-0001-7828-6983
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Alma Vančura
orcid.org/0000-0002-3853-2681
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku
Abstract
By analysing various rhetorical figures, it may be established that their efficiency is based on the interaction of several linguistic levels, from the phonological to the syntactic one. Precisely their symbolic constructional structure, as proposed by Langacker (1987), which connects the phonological and semantic poles may be the reason for their universality and usage value resistant the passage of time.
In our analysis of political and public discourse in general one of the rhetorical figures showed as particularly successful in its rhetorical function of persuasion is apophasis or praeteritio (Šakrić 2008). It has a form of negating the content of the utterance while it actually attracts the attention of the listener by creating the concept which is, at the first glance, to be negated. Apophastic structures are most frequently used with the purpose of defamation or indirect praise of individuals or phenomena and relies on raising the interest of listeners by creating specific expectations on the basis of the obviously negated content.
Corpus analysis of typical apophastic constructions in Croatian in examples from political and media discourse in the hrWaC corpus showed that e.g. dependent object clauses after verbs of speaking frequently serve as a method of introducing a specific concept or content, which is, superficially viewed, to be negated by a following contrast or exclusive clause. Our corpus search on a randomly chosen hundred sentences containing the construction “Ne želim reći da…, ali/nego/no…” (‘I don’t want to say that…, but/still/however…’) established that even 26% of examples had a typical apophastic function of introducing specific claims in a roundabout way, i.e. by negating them:
Pritom ne želim reći da ona laže, nego samo to da imamo isključivo njezinu stranu priče.
By this I don’t want to say that she’s lying, but that we have only her side of the story.
Adopting the constructional nature of linguistic expressions, we shall analyse in more detail a typical syntactic structure of apophastic constructions with the focus on praeteritio examples and the role of complex sentences in creating the desired rhetorical and cognitive effects.
Keywords
rhetoric; syntax; apophasis; multiple sentences; cognitive linguistic; framing
Hrčak ID:
229790
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2019.
Visits: 2.248 *