Affect in Effect: Employing Pathos to Enhance Persuasion in Sermon Openings

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14410%2F18%3A00101124" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14410/18:00101124 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.esse2018brno.org/" target="_blank" >https://www.esse2018brno.org/</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

—

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Affect in Effect: Employing Pathos to Enhance Persuasion in Sermon Openings

Original language description

In comparison with other types of specialised persuasive discourse, the religious one is understood to be somewhat unique in the sense that it functionally employs all the three components of Aristotelian appeal, i.e. apart from logos and ethos also pathos (cf. Halmari &amp; Virtanen 2005: 5, who maintain that the emotional appeal to the audience “is not expected to be foregrounded in the so-called professional genres”). Pathos is generally mediated via affect and emotions; in religious discourse it is, among other things, effectively reinforced by the intentional juxtaposition of the factual (serious theological content, intertextual references to credible sources) on the one hand, and the affective (both positive and negative emotions) on the other. It follows that a whole scale of emotions may undoubtedly be ignited in religious discourse in general, including sentiment, compassion, excitement, sadness, fear, guilt, and the like; these serve to encourage the believers to strive for a godly life, to realise and accept spiritual truths, etc. The corpus-based paper will examine the manifestation of pathos utilized in scripted sermons, focusing on how affect can foster their persuasive power. Scrutinizing both rhetorical conventions and language practices of sermons, the paper will demonstrate that owing to the employment of various shades of affect, the message conveyed is more personal, appealing and readily accessible to the audience. As a result, the desired persuasive impact – the quintessential goal of religious discourse – is thus enhanced.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60203 - Linguistics

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA17-16195S" target="_blank" >GA17-16195S: Persuasion across English and Czech Specialized Discourses</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů