Presupposing Redefinitions

In: T. Herman & S. Oswald (eds.), Rhetoric and cognition (pp. 249-278). Bern, Peter Lang, 2014

29 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2014

Date Written: September 10, 2014

Abstract

Redefinitions are crucial communicative moves in argumentation. The commonly accepted meaning of a word is replaced by a new one, which is used to refer to a new concept or fragment of reality. The value judgment commonly associated with the old meaning often survives the redefinition, and can be used by the speaker to influence the interlocutor’s assessment of the new referent. These moves can be extremely dangerous when left implicit and used to introduce ambiguity and take advantage of the equivocation between the accepted definition and the new one. On this view, the concept used to classify reality is different from the one applied for evaluating it. Stevenson analyzed the argumentative use of redefinitions describing persuasive definitions. They are definitions aimed at altering the descriptive content of a word (its denotation) leaving unaltered its emotive meaning. However, Stevenson did not provide any criteria to assess when and why these moves are fallacious. The purpose of this research is to inquire into redefinitions by distinguishing between the propositional, the pragmatic, and the argumentative level. Redefinitions are analyzed as dialogical moves or speech acts used to reach a value judgment. When left implicit, redefinitions may be unduly presumed to be accepted or acceptable. As a consequence, the interlocutor is led to accept unwanted conclusions, or to fulfill the burden of proving that such definition is not commonly accepted.

Keywords: Interpretation, argumentation, pragmatics, definition, presupposition

Suggested Citation

Macagno, Fabrizio, Presupposing Redefinitions (September 10, 2014). In: T. Herman & S. Oswald (eds.), Rhetoric and cognition (pp. 249-278). Bern, Peter Lang, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2494341

Fabrizio Macagno (Contact Author)

Universidade Nova de Lisboa ( email )

Av. Berna 26 I&D Building, office 4.02
Lisbon, 1069-061
Portugal

HOME PAGE: http://fabriziomacagno.altervista.org/

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