Term in the theory and criticism of rhetoric
Terministic screen is a term in the theory and criticism of rhetoric. It involves the acknowledgment of a language system that determines an individual's perception and symbolic action in the world.
| Part of a series on |
| Rhetoric |
|---|
 |
Terministic screen is a term in the theory and criticism of rhetoric. It involves the acknowledgment of a language system that determines an individual's perception and symbolic action in the world.
Kenneth Burke develops the terministic screen in his book of essays called Language as Symbolic Action in 1966. He defines the concept as "a screen composed of terms through which humans perceive the world, and that direct attention away from some interpretations and toward others". [1] Burke offers the metaphor to explain why people interpret messages differently, based on the construction of symbols, meanings, and, therefore, reality. [2] Words convey a particular meaning, conjuring images and ideas that induce support toward beliefs or opinions. Receivers interpret the intended message through a metaphorical screen of their own vocabulary and perspective to the world. [3] Certain terms may grab attention and lead to a particular conclusion. [4] "Language reflects, selects, and deflects as a way of shaping the symbol systems that allow us to cope with the world". [5]
Burke describes two different types of terministic screens: scientistic and dramatistic. Scientistic begins with a definition of a term; it describes the term as what it is or what it is not, putting the term in black and white. When defining, the essential function is either attitudinal or hortatory. In other words, the focus is on expressions or commands. When terms are treated as hortatory, they are developed. Burke comments on why he uses developed rather than another word. "I say 'developed'; I do not say 'originating'. The ultimate origins of language seem to me as mysterious as the origins of the universe itself. One must view it, I feel, simply as the 'given' ". [6] The dramatistic approach concerns action: thou shalt or thou shalt not. [7] This screen directs the audience toward action based on interpretation of a term. Via terministic screens, the audience will be able to associate with the term or dissociate from it. [8]
"Social constructionism is a metaphor that attempts to capture the way Burke viewed the nature of the world and the function of language therein." Symbols, terms, and language build our view of life. Social constructionism allows us to look at Burke's theory in terms we recognize and are comfortable with. [9]
When a person says gender, most people, based on their individual beliefs, normally think of male or female. However, some could think of intersex individuals. If someone says they think of male, female, and intersex, more would be reflected about the person based on their terminology. Still others would recognize gender as different from biological sex, and say they think of man, woman, and other genders. Another example occurs within the abortion controversy. A pro-choice advocate would most likely use the word "fetus" but opponents of legal abortion would use the word "baby", because the term stirs more realistic and relatable images and has a bearing on the legal status. Using the word "baby" versus "fetus" defines reality differently (scientistic) and guides people to act in a certain way (dramatistic) solely based on term selection that may be unconscious. [10]
Words are absolute for thought and action. In other words, language is needed to perform thought and action. One can not think without language, and therefore can not act without language and thought.[ citation needed ] In his "Definition of Man" Burke refers to man as the "symbol using animal" because of man's capacity to use a complex web of symbol systems (language) for meaning making. [11] [ clarification needed ] [12] According to Burke, individuals create terministic screens consciously and unconsciously, as they perceive the world and share perspectives. Burke contends these screens set up a network of beliefs through which all ideas will be interpreted. Communication scholar Paul Stob contends that the language we use is thus not just a direct reflection of our intelligence, but also of perception and culture. David Blakesley posits that the terministic screen enables the further understanding of rhetorical perspectives. In each of these ways, the terministic screen allows for concepts to be interpreted in different ways by different people and contribute to the complexity of meaning.
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. All communication is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas, or visual images and are used to convey other ideas and beliefs. For example, a red octagon is a common symbol for "STOP"; on maps, blue lines often represent rivers; and a red rose often symbolizes love and compassion. Numerals are symbols for numbers; letters of an alphabet may be symbols for certain phonemes; and personal names are symbols representing individuals.
Synecdoche is a type of metonymy; it is a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something is used to refer to the whole, or vice versa. The term is derived from Ancient Greek συνεκδοχή (sunekdokhḗ) 'simultaneous understanding'.
Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to humans' particular use of shared language to create common symbols and meanings, for use in both intra- and interpersonal communication. According to Macionis, symbolic interactionism is "a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals". In other words, it is a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worlds shape individual behaviors. It is a framework that helps understand how society is preserved and created through repeated interactions between individuals. The interpretation process that occurs between interactions helps create and recreate meaning. It is the shared understanding and interpretations of meaning that affect the interaction between individuals. Individuals act on the premise of a shared understanding of meaning within their social context. Thus, interaction and behavior is framed through the shared meaning that objects and concepts have attached to them. From this view, people live in both natural and symbolic environments.
George Herbert Mead was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago. He was one of the key figures in the development of pragmatism. He is regarded as one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, and was an important influence on what has come to be referred to as the Chicago School of Sociology.
Rhetorical criticism analyzes the symbolic artifacts of discourse—the words, phrases, images, gestures, performances, texts, films, etc. that people use to communicate. Rhetorical analysis shows how the artifacts work, how well they work, and how the artifacts, as discourse, inform and instruct, entertain and arouse, and convince and persuade the audience; as such, discourse includes the possibility of morally improving the reader, the viewer, and the listener. Rhetorical criticism studies and analyzes the purpose of the words, sights, and sounds that are the symbolic artifacts used for communications among people.
Kenneth Duva Burke was an American literary theorist, as well as poet, essayist, and novelist, who wrote on 20th-century philosophy, aesthetics, criticism, and rhetorical theory. As a literary theorist, Burke was best known for his analyses based on the nature of knowledge. Further, he was one of the first individuals to stray from more traditional rhetoric and view literature as "symbolic action."
Consubstantiality, a term derived from Latin: consubstantialitas, denotes identity of substance or essence in spite of difference in aspect.
Owing to its origin in ancient Greece and Rome, English rhetorical theory frequently employs Greek and Latin words as terms of art. This page explains commonly used rhetorical terms in alphabetical order. The brief definitions here are intended to serve as a quick reference rather than an in-depth discussion. For more information, click the terms.
For writing communication, Identification is a key term for the discussion of rhetoric in Kenneth Burke′s A Rhetoric of Motives. Burke himself states that "identification" is more important for the work than persuasion, traditionally associated with rhetoric.
The dramatistic pentad forms the core structure of dramatism, a method for examining motivations that the renowned literary critic Kenneth Burke developed. Dramatism recommends the use of a metalinguistic approach to stories about human action that investigates the roles and uses of five rhetorical elements common to all narratives, each of which is related to a question. These five rhetorical elements form the "dramatistic pentad". Burke argues that an evaluation of the relative emphasis that is given to each of the five elements by a human drama enables a determination of the motive for the behaviour of its characters. A character's stress on one element over the others suggests their world view.
Dramatism, a communication studies theory, was developed by Kenneth Burke as a tool for analyzing human relationships through the use of language. Burke viewed dramatism from the lens of logology, which studies how people's ways of speaking shape their attitudes towards the world. According to this theory, the world is a stage where all the people present are actors and their actions parallel a drama. Burke then correlates dramatism with motivation, saying that people are "motivated" to behave in response to certain situations, similar to how actors in a play are motivated to behave or function. Burke discusses two important ideas – that life is drama, and the ultimate motive of rhetoric is the purging of guilt. Burke recognized guilt as the base of human emotions and motivations for action. As cited in "A Note on Burke on "Motive"", the author recognized the importance of "motive" in Burke's work. In "Kenneth Burke's concept of motives in rhetorical theory", the authors mentioned that Burke believes that guilt, "combined with other constructs, describes the totality of the compelling force within an event which explains why the event took place."
Definition of Man, also known as the Definition of Human, originated from a summary essay of Kenneth Burke (1897–1993) which he included in his 1966 work, Language as Symbolic Action. Burke's work in communication has spanned many fields and focuses primarily on rhetoric. He is also known for his theory of Dramatism, wherein he characterizes life to not just reflect or be like a drama but rather that life is drama.
The "rhetoric of social intervention" (RSI) model is a systemic communication theory of how human beings symbolically constitute, maintain, and change social systems. The RSI model was developed in the writings of communication theorist William R. Brown. The model provides a framework for analyzing and interpreting social system change and its side effects from a communication perspective. It also suggests a methodology for acting as an intervener to encourage and/or discourage social system change. The model offers an alternative approach to understanding social system change by its emphasis on communication as the driver of change in contrast to models that focus on social, political, economic, and technological forces as catalysts for change. The RSI model is envisioned as three communication subsystems that function as starting points for interpreting or enacting social system change. The subsystems, known as attention, power, and need, form the RSI model framework. This entry describes the assumptive foundations of the RSI model. Then it discusses the attention, power, and need patterns of communication that that model identifies as points for generating social system change and continuity.
Modern rhetoric has gone through many changes since the age of ancient Rome and Greece to fit the societal demands of the time. Kenneth Burke, who is largely credited for defining the notion of modern rhetoric, described modern rhetoric as
"rooted in an essential function of language itself, a function that is wholly realistic, and is continually born anew; the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols."
Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature and Method is a book by Kenneth Burke, published in 1966 by the University of California Press. As indicated by the title, the book, Burke's 16th published work, consists of “many of Burke's essays which have appeared in widely diverse periodicals” and has thus been regarded as one of the most significant resources for studying and comprehending Burke’s ideas.
A condensation symbol is "a name, word, phrase, or maxim which stirs vivid impressions involving the listener's most basic values and readies the listener for action," as defined by political scientist Doris Graber. Short words or phrases such as "my country," "old glory" "American Dream," "family values," are all condensation symbols because they conjure a specific image within the listener and carry "intense emotional and effective power." Often used to further the meaning of a symbol or phrase, the condensation symbol has a semantic meaning, but through long-term use, it has acquired other connotations that further its symbolic meaning. Doris Graber identified three main characteristics of condensation symbols, as they:
Constitutive rhetoric is a theory of discourse devised by James Boyd White about the capacity of language or symbols to create a collective identity for an audience, especially by means of condensation symbols, literature, and narratives. Such discourse often demands that action be taken to reinforce the identity and the beliefs of that identity. White explains that it denotes "the art of constituting character, community and culture in language."
Marie Hochmuth Nichols (1908–1978) was an influential rhetorical critic.
In theology, logology deals with the verbal nature of doctrines in suggesting a further possibility that there may be analogies between "logology" and theology. According to literary theorist Kenneth Burke, logology works through the forms of religious language and its functions in the political sphere when rhetoric acts as a symbolic action. If it is true that language is symbolic, then speech is the result of man acting as a symbol-using animal, making it necessary to understand that logology can also be defined as the study of "words about words".
Identification is a key theme in the works of Kenneth Burke as part of the New Rhetoric movement. Contemporary rhetoric focuses on cultural contexts and general structures of rhetoric structures. Burke was a notable contemporary U.S. rhetorician who made major contributions to the rhetoric of identification. James A. Herrick describes one of Burke's foundational ideas with identification is that “rhetoric makes human unity possible, that language use is symbolic action, and that rhetoric is symbolic inducement.” For Burke, words were Terministic screens through which people see the world and interact with each other. Herrick, further explains that identification in rhetoric is crucial to persuasion, and thus to cooperation, consensus, compromise, and action. Burke believed that the most serious human problem was to be alienated or separated, and rhetoric was to be that problem's only solution. Much of his work was based on bringing people back together. However, Burke argues that “Identification is affirmed with earnestness precisely because there is division; Identification is compensatory to division.” Rhetoric's goal, in regards to identification, is to bring people together of whom have been separated by estrangement or opposition. Those who feel isolated or separate from others may identify joint interests with others or become part of an institution -- "‘Belonging’ in this sense is rhetoric."