Prospectus

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Argumentative and Rhetorical Practices: strategic maneuvering with truth

Course
2019-2020

Admission requirements

No specific formal requirements other than general requirements for the MA, but basic knowledge of pragmatics and/or argumentation theory is necessary.

Description

In the pragmatics literature some version of Grice’s ‘cooperation principle’ is often presupposed. It is assumed that communication breaks down if the participants are not doing their best to make their own intention understood and to understand the other’s intention. In real life, however, we encounter many instances of communication in which the speaker does not seem to be fully cooperative in the sense that he does not want his real intention to be understood. Such forms of non-cooperative language use range from relatively innocent phenomena as ‘white lies’, humour, advertising techniques and ‘nudging’, via the use of framing devices and fallacies (that may be less or more serious), to full blown cases of lying, manipulation, propaganda and deceit.

In this course, we approach the topic of non-cooperative language use (with a focus on lying) from two perspectives. First we study the ‘Gricean’ pragmatics literature, especially (parts of) recent monographs by Meibauer (2015) and Dynel (2018). Second, we look at Pragma-Dialectical Argumentation Theory, as summed up by Van Eemeren (2010), and its concept of ‘strategic maneuvering’. After a study of the general literature in the first part, the participants each write a paper about a specific instance of non-cooperation ‘from the wild’. A discussion of these case studies constitutes the core of the second part of the course. General questions to be addressed include: is it possible to lie by implicature or by withholding information? What is the difference between lying and related concepts such as deception, manipulation and bullshit? Is strategic maneuvering a form of manipulation? Are fallacies necessarily deceptive or manipulative? To what extent does the evaluation of a strategic maneuver, or even an outright lie, depend on the context?

Course objectives

After having completed this course, you will be able to

  • explain how pragmatics and argumentation theories deal with non-cooperative language use, in particular lying and misleading;

  • analyze actual instances of non-cooperative language use using different analytical models, in particular Gricean pragmatics and pragma-dialectical argumentation theory;

  • compose a paper on this topic that could in principle be submitted to a scientific journal.

Timetable

Rooster MA - semester 2

Mode of instruction

Seminar/Research

Course Load

  • Total course load = 280 hours

  • Classes (12 x 3 hours) = 36 hours

  • Class preparation (12 x 8 hours) = 96 hours

  • Research and writing paper = 120 hours

  • Peer review process = 28 hours

Assessment method

Assessment

  • The research paper is graded and needs to be minimally 5.5.

  • Oral presentations in class as well as contributions to the discussion board and to the peer review process all need to be sufficient.

Weighing

Read the text above.

Resit

Only the paper can be re-taken.

Exam review

How and when a review of the written paper will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the results, a review of the written paper will have to be organised.

Blackboard

Yes

Reading list

All literature will be available on-line.

Registration

Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable

Contact

For information about the content of this course please contact Roosmaryn Pigram.

For practical matters you may contact the secretarial office of the Opleiding Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur/Neerlandistiek. It is the Onderwijsadministratie P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102C. Tel. 071 5272 2144. E-mail. osz-oa-eyckhof@hum.leidenuniv.nl.