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POSTDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN DISCOURSE
SERIES EDITOR: JOHANNES ANGERMULLER
Persuasion in
Specialised Discourses
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
Martin Adam
Renata Povolná
Radek Vogel
Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse
Series Editor
Johannes Angermuller
Centre for Applied Linguistics
University of Warwick
Coventry, UK
Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse engages in the exchange between
discourse theory and analysis while putting emphasis on the intellectual
challenges in discourse research. Moving beyond disciplinary divisions in
today’s social sciences, the contributions deal with critical issues at the
intersections between language and society.
Edited by Johannes Angermuller together with members of
DiscourseNet, the series welcomes high-quality manuscripts in discourse
research from all disciplinary and geographical backgrounds. DiscourseNet
is an international and interdisciplinary network of researchers which is
open to discourse analysts and theorists from all backgrounds.
Editorial board
Cristina Arancibia
Aurora Fragonara
Péter Furkó
Jens Maesse
Eduardo Chávez Herrera
Benno Herzog
Michael Kranert
Jan Krasni
Yannik Porsché
Luciana Radut-Gaghi
Jan Zienkowski
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14534
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
Martin Adam • Renata Povolná
Radek Vogel
Persuasion in
Specialised
Discourses
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova Martin Adam
Department of English Language and Department of English Language and
Literature Literature
Masaryk University Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic Brno, Czech Republic
Renata Povolná Radek Vogel

Department of English Language and Department of English Language and
Literature Literature
Masaryk University Masaryk University
Brno, Czech Republic Brno, Czech Republic
The work on this book was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant 1716195S
Persuasion Across Czech and English Specialised Discourses.
Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse

ISBN 978-3-030-58162-6 ISBN 978-3-030-58163-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

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Preface
Persuasion is an important aspect of the social dynamics of human inter-

action, the study of which is indispensable for deepening our understand-
ing of how effective communication can be achieved in different cultural
and professional settings. Although persuasion is essentially multimodal
and can be fostered by different non-linguistic means, it is primarily
expressed by language behaviour which varies according to the intended
audience and the situational and socio-cultural context. The study of rhe-
torical strategies and language resources employed to make persuasive
attempts can be dated back to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece, yet
investigation into modern sites of persuasion within and across special-
ised discourses has only recently been addressed from a comparative per-
spective, and the issue of intercultural variation in the conveyance of
persuasion is still to be explored.
This book presents the results of research undertaken within the Czech
Science Foundation grant project 17-16195S Persuasion across English
and Czech specialised discourses. The research was conducted at the
Department of English Language and Literature of Masaryk University’s
Faculty of Education in the years 2017–2019. Within this research, per-
suasion is conceptualised as an inherently context-dependent and
audience- oriented phenomenon which may be enhanced by various
strategies and realised by a plethora of language means which vary and
change across discourses, cultures and time. The aim of this project was
v
vi Preface
to provide a contrastive analysis of persuasion understood as the strategic

use of language for the expression of persuasive intent which aims at
changing or strengthening the beliefs of others or affecting their behav-
iour in contemporary Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses. The
study of rhetorical strategies and linguistic means used to realise persua-
sive attempts was approached through the lenses of the three persuasive
appeals—ethos, logos and pathos—in an attempt to explore the relation-
ship between rhetorical function and language form and their depen-
dence on contextual factors.
The focus on English-medium specialised discourses is motivated by
the dominant role of English in international communication. As a
result of globalisation in today’s world, English-medium specialised dis-
courses address a multicultural global audience; it is therefore relevant to
explore whether this has affected the choice of rhetorical strategies and
related language means used to convey persuasion. At the same time,
English as an international language is no longer ‘owned’ by native
speakers only; it has been appropriated as a medium for intercultural
communication by speakers of various languages, who must accommo-
date themselves at least partially to the dominant Anglophone conven-
tions. It is thus essential to investigate whether this accommodation to
Anglophone norms has affected the conventions of non-Anglophone-
specialised discourses. The analysis of Czech specialised discourses
focuses on how they are influenced by dynamic social and political
developments in Czech society over the last three decades, paying par-
ticular attention to changes they have undergone under pressure from
English adopted as a lingua franca in most professional discourses. Since
there is little research contrasting persuasion in English specialised dis-
courses with Czech counterparts, this book aims to identify common
features of persuasive language in these discourses, explain how contex-
tual and genre-specific constraints affect variation and analyse social and
linguistic reasons for cross-cultural and cross-linguistic variation in the
realisation of persuasion.
The main research questions addressed in this study are as follows:
Preface vii
1. What are the common denominators of persuasion across specialised

discourses and linguacultural backgrounds?
2. What rhetorical strategies and linguistic means for conveying persua-
sion are specific to each of the selected genres of specialised discourses
under scrutiny?
3. In what ways does the conveyance of persuasion differ in English and
Czech specialised discourses?
For the purposes of this study combining corpus-based quantitative

analyses and contextualised qualitative analyses, the Corpus of English and
Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD), representing the target specialised
discourses, each represented by one prototypical genre, was compiled.
The choice of discourses under scrutiny—academic, business, technical
and religious—was motivated by their prominent persuasive character
and differing communicative contexts, providing sufficient grounds for
study of both similarities and differences in the strategies and linguistic
means used to convey persuasive purposes across specialised discourses
and linguacultural contexts.
This book is arranged as follows: the first, introductory chapter dis-
cusses various definitions and approaches to the study of persuasion,
reviews relevant previous research and outlines the analytical framework
used in this study. The second chapter presents the specialised discourses
under investigation and provides a contrastive analysis of persuasion
strategies pertaining to ethical, logical and pathetic appeals across the
target specialised discourses. Each of the subsequent four chapters
explores discourse-specific strategies and means for conveying persuasion
from an intercultural perspective, contrasting Anglophone and Czech
specialised discourses. Chapter 3 uses a metadiscourse framework to
study how interactional metadiscourse markers may enhance ethical,
logical and pathetic appeals in linguistics and economics research articles.
Chapter 4 explores the role of positively and negatively connotated lexis
in relation to overt and covert expression of persuasion in corporate
reports. Since religious discourse differs from the other three discourses
analysed in this study by the prominence it gives to pathetic appeal,
Chap. 5 is devoted to the persuasive force of humour in sermons. Aligning
with the metadiscourse framework, Chap. 6 considers the role of
viii Preface
interactional and interactive markers in enhancing persuasion in techni-

cal manuals. Chapter 7 discusses intercultural differences in the use of
persuasive language across the four specialised discourses and the two
linguacultural backgrounds and endeavours to give reasons for existing
divergences. The final chapter discusses the contribution of the intercul-
tural approach to the study of persuasion and outlines directions for
future research.
Finally, this book hopes to contribute to the extension of our knowl-
edge of the correlation between rhetorical function and language form
within the persuasive process in specialised discourses, as well as to indi-
cate reasons for variation in the ways persuasive attempts are made across
the Czech and Anglophone linguacultural backgrounds and academic,
business, religious and technical specialised discourses.
Brno, Czech Republic Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova

Contents
1 Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 1
2 Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business,

Religious and Technical Discourses 39
3 Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a

Means of Persuasion in Anglophone and Czech Linguistics
and Economics Research Articles121
4 Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of

Evaluative Lexical Means in Corporate Annual Reports159
5 Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour

to Enhance Persuasive Effect in Sermons197
6 Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of

Interpersonal Metadiscourse Markers in User Manuals229
ix
x Contents
7 Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised

Discourses263
8 Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World339
Index351
List of Figures
Fig. 3.1 Proportional weights of metadiscourse categories across the

ACAD sub-corpora 129
Fig. 4.1 Frequency of positive and negative lexical items in the sub-
corpora BUS-ENG-REV and BUS-ENG-LET—comparison 178
Fig. 8.1 Persuasive appeals across the academic, business, religious and
technical discourses 342
xi
List of Tables
Table 1.1 The composition of the CECSD corpus 13

Table 1.2 Rhetorical strategies in association with persuasive appeals 20
Table 2.1 Situational characteristics of the four specialised discourses 51
Table 2.2 Composition of the Academic sub-corpus 59
Table 2.3 Composition of the Business sub-corpus 60
Table 2.4 Persuasive strategies across the academic, business, religious
and technical discourses 103
Table 3.1 Stance and engagement categories across the ACAD
sub-corpora (frequency per 100,000 words) 129
Table 3.2 Self-mention markers across the ACAD sub-corpora
(frequency per 100,000 words) 131
Table 3.3 Top ten most frequent attitude markers across the ACAD
sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 136
Table 3.4 Top ten most frequent hedges across the ACAD sub-
corpora (per 100,000 words) 139
Table 3.5 Top ten most frequent boosters across the ACAD sub-
corpora (per 100,000 words) 141
Table 3.6 Reader-reference markers across the ACAD sub-corpora
(frequency per 100,000 words) 143
Table 3.7 Top ten appeals to shared knowledge across the ACAD
sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 146
Table 3.8 Directives across the ACAD sub-corpora (frequency per
100,000 words) 149
xiii
xiv List of Tables
Table 4.1 Wordlists with some of the first 50 items in BUS-ENG and
its sub-corpora BUS-ENG-LET and BUS-ENG-REV 166
Table 4.2 Words with positive connotations and potential persuasive
use in the BUS-ENG-LET sub-corpus compared with the
complete BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ 170
Table 4.3 Words with negative connotations in the BUS-ENG-LET
sub-corpus in comparison with the complete BUS-ENG
and BUS-CZ 176
Table 4.4 Attitude markers: comparison of equivalents in BUS-ENG
and BUS-CZ and their sub-corpora 183
Table 4.5 Hedges and boosters in cross-cultural and cross-linguistic
comparison185
Table 4.6 First- and second-person pronouns with their verbal
collocates conveying modality 186
Table 5.1 Humour items classification 220
Table 6.1 Metadiscourse markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per
100,000 words) 234
Table 6.2 Frame markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000
words)236
Table 6.3 Transitions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 238
Table 6.4 Endophoric markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per
100,000 words) 240
Table 6.5 Evidentials in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 242
Table 6.6 Code glosses in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 244
Table 6.7 Attitude markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000
words)246
Table 6.8 Hedges in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 248
Table 6.9 Boosters in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 250
Table 6.10 Self-mentions in the TECH sub-corpus (per 100,000 words)251
Table 6.11 Engagement markers in the TECH sub-corpus (per
100,000 words) 252
Table 6.12 Proportions of all directives in the TECH sub-corpus 253
Table 7.1 Variation in self-mention and reader reference across
ACAD-ENG and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 282
Table 7.2 Variation in non-assertion speech acts across ACAD-ENG
and ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 285
Table 7.3 Variation in epistemic markers across ACAD-ENG and
ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 288
List of Tables xv
Table 7.4 Variation in value markers across ACAD-ENG and

ACAD-CZ (per 100,000 words) 291
BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 294
Table 7.6 Personality in BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ—variation by
temporal reference (verb be)296
Table 7.7 Comparison of the use of non-assertion speech acts
between BUS-ENG and BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 297
Table 7.8 Variation in epistemic markers across BUS-ENG and
BUS-CZ (per 100,000 words) 299
Table 7.9 Constructions it + be + predicative adjective expressing
modality (per 100,000 words) 300
Table 7.10 Epistemic adverbs in the sub-corpora of annual reports (per
100,000 words) 301
Table 7.11 Markers of value: comparison of BNC and the BUS-ENG
and BUS-CZ sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 302
REL-ENG and REL-CZ (per 100,000 words) 305
Table 7.13 Variation in non-assertion speech acts across REL-ENG
and REL-CZ 308
Table 7.14 Evaluative adjectives in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000
words)311
Table 7.15 Attitude markers and appeals to shared knowledge in the
REL sub-corpus (per 100,000 words) 312
Table 7.16 Epistemic markers in the REL sub-corpus (per 100,000
words)314
TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 315
Table 7.18 Variation in the use of non-assertion speech acts across
TECH-ENG and TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 318
Table 7.19 Variation in epistemic markers across TECH-ENG and
TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 322
Table 7.20 Variation in value markers across TECH-ENG and
TECH-CZ (per 100,000 words) 325
Table 7.21 Variation in persuasive language across the ACAD, BUS,
REL and TECH sub-corpora (per 100,000 words) 327
1
Persuasion: Definition, Approaches,
Contexts
1.1 Introduction
Human communication is essentially goal-oriented. When interacting
with others, we consciously or subconsciously try to make them talk to
us, take part in what we do, share our opinion or preferences, believe
what we say or support our projects and actions. This implies that all
communication can be regarded as inevitably persuasive (Duffy &
Thorson, 2016; Miller, 2013). Recognising the persuasive intent of a
speaker or writer, however, may not always be easy, as persuasion may be
conveyed explicitly or implicitly via an array of strategies and audio-visual
and language means which vary across different situational and cultural
contexts. This book explores the rhetorical strategies and linguistic means
used to convey persuasion across specialised discourses pertaining to dif-
ferent spheres of social interaction. In this it draws on previous work (e.g.
Dillard & Pfau, 2002; Dillard & Shen, 2013; Halmari & Virtanen,
2005; Lunsford, Wilson, & Eberly, 2009; Orts Llopis, Breeze, & Gotti,
2017; Pelclová & Lu, 2018), endeavouring to map the common denomi-
nators of persuasion across genres and discourses as well as the context-
specific manifestations of persuasion in various professional and public
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

O. Dontcheva-Navratilova et al., Persuasion in Specialised Discourses, Postdisciplinary
Studies in Discourse, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58163-3_1
2 O. Dontcheva-Navratilova
settings. Moreover, this study addresses the issue of variation in persua-

sive strategies and persuasive language across different linguacultural
backgrounds, a dimension which has not yet received systematic treat-
ment in persuasion research. The purpose of this book is to fill this gap by
adopting a doubly contrastive perspective to the study of persuasion as it
analyses rhetorical strategies and linguistic means instrumental in the
build-up of persuasive discourse in four specialised discourses (academic,
business, religious and technical) and two languages (English and Czech).
Anchored in the functional approach to language and adopting an
intercultural rhetoric perspective (Connor, 2004, 2008), this volume
conceptualises persuasion as an essentially context-sensitive phenomenon
emerging in the process of complex social interaction and reflecting
meaning negotiations “within and between cultures” (McIntosh, Connor,
& Gokpinar-Shelton, 2017, p. 13). The analytical methods applied in
this book comprise qualitative analyses of rhetorical strategies essential to
the study of persuasion complemented by corpus-based quantitative
analyses of specific linguistic realisations of persuasion; this multifaceted
approach combining bottom-up and the top-down perspectives provides
a solid basis for exploring how two languages and cultures articulate per-
suasion across different contexts and genres.
1.2 Persuasion: Definitions and Approaches

Persuasion has attracted the attention of scholars exploring human inter-
action from antiquity to the present day. Undertaken from various per-
spectives, such as rhetoric, communication studies, psychology, sociology,
political science and linguistics, research into persuasion has striven to
identify the constitutive features of persuasive communication and to
understand how persuasive strategies and persuasive language are used to
shape human interaction. The following brief review of approaches to
persuasion aims to highlight the features of persuasion central for this
research.
The study of persuasive rhetoric is essentially anchored in the Classical
Rhetoric model proposed by Aristotle in the fourth century BC (Perloff,
2010, p. 27). The Aristotelian model comprises three persuasive appeals,
which Kinneavy (1971) associates with the key components of the act of
communication—the speaker, the message and the audience (cf.
Killingsworth, 2005, p. 26). Within this model, the persuasive intention
is seen as conveyed by a combination of three closely interwoven rhetori-
cal appeals—(i) ethos, the ethical appeal related to credibility and attrac-
tiveness of the speaker’s character mediated by the voice of the persuader,
(ii) pathos, the emotional appeal to the feelings, attitudes and values of
the audience and (iii) logos, the logical appeal to the rationality of the
audience based on evidence and reference to the real world. Although
Aristotle implicitly assumed that persuasion may stem from the audience
(Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 7), Modern Rhetoric has questioned the
analytical potential of the Aristotelian triad, claiming that it overesti-
mates the importance of logical proofs and views the speaker-audience
relationship as unidirectional and manipulative (Ede & Lunsford, 1984;
Hogan, 2013; Mulholland, 1994). Revising the classical model, the
Modern Rhetoric approach conceives persuasion as a dialogic, dynamic
and interpretative process in which the audience plays a decisive role and
acknowledges that when engaging in persuasive communication, the
speaker may assume various roles to address multiple audiences (cf. Bell’s,
1997, audience design framework). Persuasion is thus regarded as part of
the more general notion of argumentation (e.g. Hogan, 2013; van
Emeren, 1986), which, according to Perelman (1982), “covers the whole
range of discourse that aims at persuasion and conviction, whatever the
audience addressed and whatever the subject-matter” (p. 5).
In this book, the anticipated audience reaction to different types of
persuasive appeal is analysed within Sperber et al.’s (2010) epistemic trust
and vigilance framework, which accounts for the way in which informa-
tion is processed in human communication. This approach is based on
the assumption that when communicating, the participants are striving
to achieve two goals: to be understood and to make their audience think
or act according to what is to be understood, although the audience may
comprehend the message without believing it. The assessment of the
trustworthiness of what is communicated is assumed to be carried out on
the basis of two types of epistemic vigilance processes: (a) assessment of
the reliability of the speaker (cf. ethos) and (b) assessment of the reliabil-
ity of the content conveyed (cf. logos). Thus the speaker is expected to
represent him/herself as a reliable source of information by constructing

an existentially coherent image of him/herself (Duranti, 2006) and by
establishing his/her relationship with the audience and his/her ideologi-
cal position in discourse as continuous. Appealing to the emotions of the
audience (cf. pathos) is seen here as a reinforcement device instrumental
in enhancing both the speaker’s credibility and the reliability of the
message.
The dialogic character of persuasion is also scrutinised by communica-
tion scholars (e.g. Perloff, 2010; Simons & Jones, 2011), who have
defined persuasion as “a symbolic process in which communicators try to
convince other people to change their attitudes or behaviours regarding
an issue through the transmission of a message in an atmosphere of free
choice” (Perloff, 2010, p. 12). While focusing on the culture-dependent
and interactive character of the process, this strand in persuasion research
brings to the fore the cognitive (cf. Pelclová & Lu, 2018) and psychologi-
cal (O’Keefe, 2002) dimensions of the phenomenon and draws on several
theoretical frameworks for its analysis, such as Habermas’s Theory of
Communicative Action (1984), which is centred on communicative
rationality and speaker credibility, the Reasoned Action Theory (Yzer,
2013), which regards persuasion as a belief-based behaviour change, and
Appraisal Theories (Dillard & Seo, 2013), which establish a link between
a specific type of cognition and emotive response. Of major importance
for this study is the delimitation of persuasion from various forms of
covert influencing, namely coercion, propaganda and manipulation, also
scrutinised within the Critical Discourse Analysis framework (e.g. van
Dijk, 2006; Wodak & Krzyzanowski, 2008), mainly in the context of
political and medial discourse. The key difference resides in the power
balance between the participants and the choice of whether to resist or
succumb to persuasion; as an active participant in the persuasive process
the audience “are free to believe or act as they please” (van Dijk, 2006,
p. 361), depending on whether or not they accept the arguments of the
persuader (Mulholland, 1994; O’Keefe, 2002), while in the case of
manipulation and propaganda the speaker is in control of the message
and the recipients are typically assigned the passive role of victims whose
only option is to believe or act as they are told (Dillard & Pfau, 2002; van
Dijk, 2006). Despite this, however, Perloff (2010) claims that all kinds of
persuasive communication are “better viewed as lying along a continuum

of social influence” (p. 19).
Language is the key symbolic means for the conveyance of persuasion.
In social interaction language has the power not only to establish per-
sonal relationships and create mental representations of the reality reflect-
ing a participant’s beliefs, values, purposes and intentions, it is also a
powerful tool for constructing ‘discourse worlds’ (cf. Chilton, 2004) in
which individuals and groups are assigned identities and roles, and values
associated with actions and events are redefined from the points of view
of different discourse participants (cf. Fairclough, 1989; van Dijk, 2008).
The legitimisation of the persuader’s ideological position and the attempt
to alter the audience’s attitude and behaviour are rarely performed explic-
itly, which is why from a linguistics perspective, persuasion tends to be
seen as a type of indirect speech act (Jucker, 1997) which varies along the
overtness-covertness continuum, thus continually involving the audience
in decoding implied meanings (cf. Östman, 2005; Pelclová & Lu, 2018,
p. 3). Pragmatically oriented linguistic investigations have commonly
associated persuasion with politeness strategies and face work (Brown &
Levinson, 1987; Goffman, 1967; Leech, 1983; Watts, 2003), emphasis-
ing their crucial role in the management of the relations of power and
solidarity between participants in the interaction.
Persuasive language has been the focus of numerous studies endeav-
ouring to identify the linguistic manifestations of persuasive discourse in
different genres and contexts (e.g. Biber & Zhang, 2018; Cheung, 2008;
Crawford Camiciottoli, 2018; Goering, Connor, Nagelhout, & Steinberg,
2008; Halmari & Virtanen, 2005; Hyland, 2008; Pelclová & Lu, 2018;
Wodak & Krzyzanowski, 2008). These studies have typically adopted a
discourse analytical approach to the investigation of the interactive and
dialogic nature of persuasion and the social and situational dependency
of the choice of language means for the conveyance of the intended mes-
sage. In the last two decades, the essentially qualitative discourse analyti-
cal approach has been complemented by corpus-based methods providing
evidence of various forms of lexico-grammatical patterning conveying
persuasive intentions across different contexts.
A key aspect of the study of persuasion is the analysis of linguistic indi-
cators of evaluation (Hunston & Thompson, 1999), also termed appraisal
(Martin & White, 2005), stance (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, &
Finegan, 1999; Hyland, 1998), modality (Palmer, 1986) and voice
(Hyland & Sancho Guinda, 2012). Hunston and Thompson (1999, p. 6)
consider three main functions of evaluation, which correlate with the
ideational, interactional and textual meanings within the Hallidayan
(1994) functional approach to language, that is (a) expressing the speak-
er’s/writer’s opinion and reflecting the value system of that person and
their community, (b) constructing and maintaining relations between the
writer and reader and (c) organising discourse. The persuasive force of
evaluation stems from its potential to convey power and ideology and
classify social actors (cf. van Leeuwen, 1996), which may be enhanced by
the persuasive effect of metaphorical language. Recent research (Biber,
Egbert, & Zhang, 2018; Biber & Zhang, 2018) has indicated that spe-
cific types of registers or genres may be characterised by their preference
for grammatical stance, that is overt indication of evaluation, or lexical
evaluation, that is less explicit conveyance of evaluation, thus classifying
persuasive discourse as relying on either ‘Opinion Persuasion’ or
‘Informational Persuasion’. This book will partake in exploring “the pos-
sibility that stance and evaluation represent two complementary linguis-
tic strategies for expressing speaker/writer attitudes, value judgements
and epistemic assessments” (Biber & Zhang, 2018, p. 119).
The array of concepts that have emerged in persuasion research and the
various definitions of this complex phenomenon suggest that persuasion
is best explored from a multidisciplinary perspective. This is the approach
adopted in this book, which sets out to analyse context-dependent and
audience-oriented rhetorical strategies and linguistic indicators of persua-
sion across specialised discourses and linguacultural backgrounds from
the viewpoints of contrastive rhetoric, discourse analysis, pragmatics,
sociolinguistics and stylistics. Since the combination of rhetorical appeals
and the choice of linguistic realisations of persuasion tend to vary across
different contexts, a discussion of the concept ‘specialised discourse’ is
now in order.
1.3 Specialised Discourse

Specialised discourse, a concept introduced by Prague Linguistic School
research on functional styles in the first part of the twentieth century, is
currently defined as the specialist use of language in contexts typical of a
specialised discourse community “stretching across the academic, the
professional, the technical and the occupational areas of knowledge and
practice” (Gotti, 2008, p. 24; cf. Candlin & Gotti, 2007; Gil-Salom &
Soler-Monreal, 2014). Alternative terms that cover much the same
ground are ‘specialised languages’ (Bhatia, Sanchez Hernandez, & Peréz-
Peredes, 2011) and ‘language for professional communication’ (Bhatia &
Bremner, 2017). Specialised discourse communities are seen here as a
type of ‘small culture’ (cf. Atkinson, 2004; Holliday, 1999), a concept
akin to ‘disciplinary culture’ (Mauranen, 1993), referring to a social
grouping whose cohesive behaviour is defined by unique norms and prac-
tices, such as particular interaction patterns and socialisation rituals.
Small cultures are not confined to a national environment only; they can
cut across national cultures (i.e. ‘big cultures’) and extend their boundar-
ies to encompass international communities, or in the case of English-
medium discourse, even global specialised discourse communities.
A specialised discourse community shares a semiotic potential (Hasan,
1989, p. 99) comprising not only background knowledge, communica-
tive intentions and goals, but also a set of genres and rhetorical conven-
tions. This semiotic potential functions as a ‘filter mechanism’ (Fetzer,
2004, p. 10) allowing members of the discourse community to identify
meanings, communicative acts, rhetorical strategies and language choices
as fitting or diverging from the established norms and conventions. As a
result, persuasion in specialised discourses is related to the use of rhetori-
cal strategies and language means established in the practice of the profes-
sional discourse community (Swales, 1990), or, as Hyland (2008) puts it,
“texts are persuasive only when they employ rhetorical conventions that
colleagues find convincing” (p. 1).
Research into specialised discourse and professional communication
has been carried out in three main areas of study: (i) Language for Specific
Purposes (LSP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which are rooted
in language pedagogy, (ii) register analysis, genre analysis and (critical)

discourse analysis, which are associated with social constructivism and
(iii) Professional Communication, which draws on communication theo-
ries (cf. Bhatia & Bremner, 2017, p. xviii). This book draws primarily on
the first two strands, as it focuses on particular linguistics features, rhe-
torical conventions and discourse practices used by target specialised dis-
course communities.
The concepts of ‘register’ and ‘genre’ are central to the study of special-
ised discourse (cf. Connor & Upton, 2004; Orts Llopis et al., 2017;
Swales, 1990, 2004; Trosborg, 1997, 2000), as they refer to situationally
defined varieties of language use associated with a particular communica-
tive purpose. However, these concepts differ in that registers are identi-
fied on the basis of pervasive linguistic features serving a specific function
in a context of use, while genres are defined as recurrent social practices
realised by texts typically displaying a particular rhetorical structure and
distinctive linguistic features associated with specific rhetorical moves (cf.
Biber & Conrad, 2009; Swales, 1990). Thus a specialised discourse com-
munity uses a particular register and a set of genres to achieve group-
specific communicative purposes.
Holding that genres are linked to a distinctive way of ‘packaging infor-
mation’ in conformity with norms, values, ideology and rhetorical con-
ventions established within a specialised discourse community (cf.
Trosborg, 2000), this study adopts a genre perspective to the study of
specialised discourse. It conceives genres as “dynamic rhetorical forms
that are developed from actors’ responses to recurrent situations” which
“change over time in response to their user’s sociocognitive needs”
(Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1994, p. 4) and vary across disciplines and
linguacultural contexts. This variation may lead to genre hybridity
(Bhatia, 2002) reflecting mixed communicative purposes or interplay
between culture-specific epistemological and rhetorical conventions. By
analysing four specialised discourses (academic, business, religious and
technical), each represented by one genre (research articles, corporate
reports, sermons and user manuals), across two linguacultural contexts
(Anglophone and Czech), this study endeavours to contribute to the
research into variation in rhetorical strategies and lexico-grammatical
features instrumental to the construal of persuasion in the target special-

ised discourses.
1.4 Intercultural Variation

Variation across disciplinary and professional settings in specialised dis-
course interacts with variation across linguacultural contexts, associated
with national, ‘big’ or ‘received’ cultures (cf. Atkinson, 2004). The cul-
tural identity pertaining to a national specialised discourse community is
construed via an interplay of several factors comprising the language,
common values, social and cultural background and the epistemological
and literacy tradition in which discourse community members have been
socialised. However, with the increasing globalisation of specialised dis-
courses the boundaries between national discourse communities are
becoming fluid and individuals may assume more complex cultural
identities.
The view that rhetorical patterns are culture- and language-specific can
be traced back to Kaplan (1966), who investigated the written discourse
of students of English as a Second Language (ESL), focusing on cultural
and linguistic differences. Since then, contrastive rhetoric (cf. Connor,
1996) has produced numerous studies into divergences in rhetorical pat-
terns used by native and non-native speakers of English, especially in the
domain of academia, which constitute a valuable contribution to the
teaching of academic writing. These studies have categorised writing cul-
tures as ‘linear’ versus ‘digressive’ (Kaplan, 1966), ‘reader-responsible’
versus ‘writer-responsible’ (Hinds, 1987) and ‘form-oriented’ versus
‘content-oriented’ (Clyne, 1987) and have indicated the existence of
culture-specific tendencies concerning various aspects of academic writ-
ing, such as the construal of authorial presence (e.g. Fløttum, Dahl, &
Kinn, 2006; Lorés-Sanz, 2011; Mur-Dueñas, 2007; Sheldon, 2009;
Vassileva, 1998; Yakhontova, 2006), citation practices (e.g. Bloch & Chi,
1995; Mur-Dueñas, 2009; Shaw, 2003; Šinkūnienė, 2017) and the
expression of epistemic modality (e.g. Vold, 2006; Warchał, 2015).
However, in the last two decades contrastive rhetoric has been criticised
for overestimating cultural differences and implying a cultural dichotomy
between the East and the West (Connor, 2008; cf. Atkinson, 2004; Li,
2008). As a result the ‘static’ model of cross-cultural research has been
gradually transformed into a more dynamic model showing awareness of
the social construction of meaning in the process of interaction and the
need to include variables related to small cultures and multiple cultures
in the study of specialised discourse. This new model, which introduces
ethnographic approaches to complement discourse, genre and corpus
analysis as research methods, has been termed ‘intercultural rhetoric’ to
highlight a change in perspective to the study of written interaction
between people with different cultural backgrounds at a time when writ-
ers and audiences are characterised by increasing linguistic and cultural
diversity (Connor, 2008).
This book adopts the intercultural rhetoric approach to the analysis of
Anglophone and Czech specialised discourses, assuming that neither the
value systems in different linguistically and culturally defined communi-
ties nor the functional needs in different fields and their corresponding
genres are fully identical. Combined with the differing structural proper-
ties of English and Czech, this yields a wide variety of analogies and
contrasts. It should be mentioned, however, that with intense globalisa-
tion, especially in the academic, business and technical domains, Czech
writers who are striving to publish in English for an international audi-
ence have to make strategic choices in order to resolve the tension between
the Czech and the Anglophone discourse conventions. The resulting
changes in their English-medium discourse may gradually affect their
Czech-medium writing, giving rise to hybridising forms and perhaps
eventually resulting in a shift in the conventions of Czech specialised dis-
courses (cf. Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2014).
Previous research contrasting target Anglophone and Czech special-
ised discourses seems to be confined to investigations into academic dis-
course. Several studies (e.g. Chamonikolasová, 2005; Čmejrková, 1996;
Dontcheva-Navratilova, 2013, 2018) have evidenced divergences
between the Anglophone and Czech discourse conventions concerning
primarily ways in which they approach discourse organisation and writer-
reader interaction. For instance, Čmejrková and Daneš (1997) describe
the composition and arrangement of Czech academic texts as difficult to
survey due to a frequent lack of clear topic formulation, rare occurrence
of subheadings and sparse use of metadiscourse. Persuasiveness seems to

be associated with conceptual and terminological clarity rather than with
interactive negotiation of meaning with the reader. The tendency to
background authorial presence concurs with the use of impersonal struc-
tures and, in the case of personal structures, exclusive first-person plural
forms. This writer-oriented, implicit and less structured narrative style of
writing may reflect the high value attributed to scholarly knowledge and
the small size of the Czech academic discourse community, where all
members typically know each other and relations are based on solidarity
and avoidance of tension (Čmejrková & Daneš, 1997).
This stands in striking contrast with the highly competitive interaction
of the potentially global English-speaking academic discourse commu-
nity, whose members strive to find a gap in a research territory densely
packed with occupied ‘niches’ (Duszak, 1997). When addressing their
culturally heterogeneous depersonalised readership, Anglophone
researchers tend to abide by established disciplinary and genre conven-
tions by opting for ‘explicit’ indication of discourse structure and presen-
tation of ideas, clear statement of research topic, purposes and aims and
extensive use of metadiscourse facilitating the reader’s path through the
text (e.g. Hyland, 2002a, 2005; Thompson, 2001). While in the past the
so-called scientific paradigm favoured a “rational argument supported by
evidence, caution and restraint” (Bennett, 2009, p. 52) and the avoidance
of explicit reference to human agency (Hyland, 2001), recent research
has evidenced an increase in the use of self-promotional pronouns
(Harwood, 2005) for “maintaining the writer-reader relationship and
allowing the writer an authorial voice” (Flowerdew, 2012, p. 4). Thus
persuasion in Anglophone academic discourse is typically enhanced by a
reader-friendly attitude and a higher level of dialogicity conveyed by atti-
tudinal markers (e.g. hedges, boosters, personal intrusions) modelling the
level of commitment to claims and appealing to the reader in seeking
agreement with the viewpoint advanced by the author.
It is, of course, not safe to claim that the divergences between the
Anglophone academic discourse and its Czech counterpart may be
regarded as representative of all specialised discourses under investiga-
tion. Nevertheless, when we take into consideration the
context-dependent constraints and the specific communicative purposes

that pertain to each specialised discourse, they indicate some tendencies
that are worth exploring further.
1.5 The Present Study

This study explores variation in persuasive strategies and linguistic means
used for their realisation across four specialised discourses (academic,
business, religious and technical) and two languages (English and Czech).
This doubly contrastive perspective is intended to reveal the impact of
different sets of contextual parameters on ways in which persuasive inten-
tions are conveyed so as to affect the intended audience.
1.5.1 The CECSD Corpus
The research reported in this book was carried out on The Corpus of
English and Czech Specialised Discourses (CECSD), a specialised corpus
representing the target specialised discourses. The use of specialised cor-
pora is considered appropriate for contrastive studies of specialised dis-
courses as they “allow for more top-down, qualitative,
contextually-informed analyses than those carried out using general
corpora” (Flowerdew, 2004, p. 18).
The corpus is designed in agreement with the methodological frame-
work proposed by Connor and Moreno (2005) and Moreno and Suárez
(2008) for identifying recurrent differences in the use of rhetorical
resources in academic texts across languages and cultures based on the
concept of tertium comparationis. Thus the CECSD is compiled so as to
assure the maximum possible equivalence between the English-medium
and Czech-medium parts of the corpus in terms of selected textual data
(fields, topics, genres represented, number of texts and wordcount).
Equivalence at all these levels is a precondition for drawing reliable and
valid conclusions about similarities and differences in rhetorical strategies
and linguistic means conveying persuasion across specialised discourses
and linguacultural contexts.
The corpus was built and compiled using the software SketchEngine
(Kilgarriff, Rychly, Smrz, & Tugwell, 2004). It was automatically tagged
and lemmatised by the SketchEngine corpus tool, which was also used for
searching the corpus and for making concordances and wordlists. The
texts in the corpora were also processed manually for fine-grained contex-
tualised analysis.
The CECSD corpus comprises four sub-corpora, each representing one
of the target-specialised discourses, which are further subdivided into two
sub-corpora—one comprising Anglophone texts and the other Czech
texts. Each of the four specialised discourses is represented by one proto-
typical genre: academic discourse by research articles, business discourse
by corporate reports, religious discourse by sermons and technical dis-
course by user manuals. The precise composition of the corpus in terms
of number of texts and wordcount in each sub-corpus is summarised in
Table 1.1.
The file headers quoted in the examples throughout this book indicate
linearly the specialised discourse type (ACAD for academic, BUS for
business, REL for religious and TECH for technical discourse), the lan-
guage of the document (ENG for English or CZ for Czech), additional
discourse-specific criteria (e.g. LING for linguistics and ECON for eco-
nomics within the academic sub-corpus) and the document number
within the sub-corpus. Thus ACAD-ENG-ECON-01 indicates the first
research article within the set of economics research articles by Anglophone
scholars included in the academic sub-corpus of the CECSD corpus.
Further details about the sub-corpora will be provided in Chap. 2.
Table 1.1 The composition of the CECSD corpus

English Czech
Specialised sub-corpus sub-corpus
discourse Genres Texts Words Texts Words Wordcount
Academic Research 30 214,000 30 110,000 324,000
articles
Business Corporate 60 115,000 60 100,000 215,000
reports
Religious Sermons 50 115,000 50 75,000 190,000
Technical User manuals 20 205,000 20 100,000 305,000
Total 160 649,000 160 385,000 1,034,000
As to text selection, in all the sub-corpora each text is authored by a

different individual or organisation, thus assuring a relatively solid repre-
sentativeness of the sample for the purposes of rhetorical analysis.
Considering the intercultural dimension of the analysis, it is important to
note that all authors are considered to be native speakers of the language
in which the text is written. In the case of sermons and research articles,
this assumption is informed by their name and affiliation; in the case of
corporate reports and user manuals, it is informed by the nationality of
the owner and the country in which the company publishing the corpo-
rate report or the producer of the technical device is based. Obviously,
since these are published texts, their language may have been subjected to
editing and censorship by journal referees, corporate management, reli-
gious authorities or a team of technical writers, so they may bear features
which were not originally intended by the author. The sermons and the
research articles are single-authored, while the user manuals and corpo-
rate reports have institutional authorship, which necessarily implies dif-
ferent constraints on authorial positioning in these sets of texts. The
number of texts in the sub-corpora representing the four specialised dis-
courses differs, which reflects the specificity of the selected genres and an
effort to guarantee a relatively balanced representativeness of all four spe-
cialised discourses. The wordcount of the English-medium and the
Czech-medium components within the academic, business, religious and
technical sub-corpora also differs, due to the fact that Anglophone texts
are typically longer in all specialised discourses analysed in this book. In
agreement with the common procedure in contrastive corpus-based
research, the difference in wordcount between the sub-corpora was neu-
tralised by normalisation to occurrences per 100,000 words. Despite
these differences, we believe that the corpus provides a well-balanced
sample of texts representing the four genres that can serve as a basis for
analysis of persuasion in the academic, business, religious and technical
specialised discourses.
1.5.2 Defining Persuasion
Taking into consideration the cognitive and psychological dimension of

the audience-oriented persuasive process, persuasion is defined here as a
communicative act which takes place between a persuader (i.e. a person
or organisation performing the act of persuasion aimed at a particular
person or group of people) and a persuadee (i.e. a person or larger audi-
ence who is explicitly or implicitly targeted by the persuaders and their
persuasive acts) within which the persuaders make a persuasive effort in
order to change, affect or strengthen the beliefs and/or behaviour of the
persuadees, including those who already agree with the persuaders (cf.
Virtanen & Halmari, 2005, p. 5). According to Miller (1980), the per-
suasive effect can take the form of shaping, reinforcing and changing
responses, thus reflecting a cline from a more subtle to a stronger impact
on the audience. However, investigations into the effect of persuasive
discourse should be based on rigorous quantifiable scrutiny of audience
reactions (Jucker, 1997). This is why the focus here is on the intended
speaker meaning and persuasive attempts, while the study of the ‘perlo-
cutionary effect’ of persuasive acts, that is whether the persuasive effort is
successful or not, is outside the scope of this investigation and is not
regarded as a defining factor for assigning persuasiveness to a text.
There is no strong consensus among scholars on what the best criteria
for assigning persuasiveness to a text are (Jaklová, 2002, p. 169). In agree-
ment with Virtanen and Halmari (2005), in this book a text will be iden-
tified as persuasive if its “persuasive intention can be taken for granted”
(Jucker, 1997, p. 123), that is if the communicative intention of the
speaker or writer is to influence and evaluate social actors, actions and
events and to change or affect the beliefs and actions of the listeners or
readers (cf. Jakobson’s (1960) conative function of language). The identi-
fication of persuasiveness in discourse is thus related to genre-specific
communicative intentions and the persuader’s institutional and profes-
sional identity (Ivanič, 1998; van de Mieroop, 2007), as social norms,
roles and conventions not only restrain people’s behaviour, but also set
expectations towards what is perceived as persuasive.
1.5.3 C
ontextual Factors Shaping Persuasive
Interaction in the Four Specialised Discourses
Persuasion is an inherently context-dependent process. Consequently, an

exploration of discourse-specific persuasion inevitably begins with an
analysis of the situational and linguacultural context of the specialised
discourses under investigation. This study applies an adapted version of
Biber and Conrad’s (2009) framework for the description of contextual
factors affecting interaction in specialised discourses and draws on Bell’s
(1997) participants framework for the analysis of speaker and audience
roles. This framework comprises the following variables, including closed-
set and open-set parameters:
Situational Parameters
1. Spatial setting—public/private, local/global interaction, (not) shared

deictic centre
2. Temporal setting—simultaneous or split time of encoding and decod-
ing the message
3. Domain—area of knowledge addressed by the specialised discourse
Discourse Participants
1. Addresser—roles that the persuader enacts

2. Addressee
3. Audience
4. Social roles of the participants (including status and power)
5. Extent of shared professional and cultural knowledge (high/
medium/low)
Communicative Purposes
1. General purpose
2. Specific purpose
3. Attitude of the participants towards the discourse and the message

(purported to be based on fact, speculative, imaginative, sym-
bolic, mixed)
Communicative Conventions
1. Genre
2. Medium (written/spoken), channel and type of transmission
3. Level of interactiveness (high/medium/low)
4. Norms and conventions related to discourse production and
interpretation
The situational parameters identify the domain of knowledge to which

the specialised discourse pertains and specify the relationship between the
participants in the communication with regard to the spatial and tempo-
ral setting of the communicative event. Variation along the spatial and
temporal setting occurs according to whether the participants share the
deictic centre, or the deictic centre is ‘split’, that is the time and place of
text production and text interpretation differ (Fowler, 1986, p. 87).
The roles of the discourse participants—the writer and the readers—
are of crucial importance for understanding the persuasive process. When
approached from the perspective of Bell’s (1997) participant framework,
the standings of the participants may be defined according to their pro-
fessional expertise, institutional role, affiliation to a specific specialised
discourse community, status of addressed or ratified participants in the
interaction and the intentional pragmatic choices of the interlocutors.
According to Goffman (1981) and Bell (1997), depending on what he/
she seeks to achieve, a writer may fulfil more than one role within his/her
own person by taking up different footings in relation to his/her own
remarks so as to show greater or lesser involvement with what he/she says.
The roles available to a writer are those of animator, that is the person
who actually utters the words, author, that is the person who has created
the text and selected the point of view and the style, and principal, that is
the party to whose position, stand and beliefs the words attest. The audi-
ence roles are also multiple, comprising the specific reader whom the
writer addresses, the more general audience acknowledged as recipient of

the text, and, finally, potential non-ratified and unintended receivers (cf.
Bell, 1997).
Within the genre analysis framework, the ‘communicative purpose’ is
regarded as the key criterion for assigning genre membership (cf. Askehave
& Swales, 2001; Bhatia, 1993, 2002; Martin, 1985; Swales, 1990, 2004).
Genre-specific communicative purposes are inherently related to the
spectrum of speech acts intended to establish, maintain or change insti-
tutional, professional and social relations (Trosborg, 1997), which may
comprise assertive and non-assertion speech acts (cf. Kissine, 2016).
While adopting Searle’s (1975) taxonomy of speech acts, this study
focuses on non-conventional speech acts which aim at changing the
addressee’s cognitive state, rather than on institutional speech acts, which
depend on normative conditions (Strawson, 1964). Since non-assertion
speech acts imply a direct interpersonal appeal to the audience, they are
considered instrumental in the construal of persuasive attempts. The
communicative intentions of the persuader can also be approached from
the perspective of the Gricean (1975) Cooperative Principle, which con-
siders presumptions that speakers exploit and listeners construe about
utterances (Bach, 2005). The degree to which persuaders adhere to, vio-
late or flout the maxims of quantity (compliance with the required level
of informativeness), quality (adherence to facts and information sup-
ported by evidence), relevance (focus on the topic) and manner (clear
discourse organisation) affects the perception of trustworthiness and
credibility that the audience derives from the discourse. The specific way
of expression of communicative purposes is also affected by formality and
politeness considerations (Brown & Levinson, 1987), as positive and
negative politeness strategies have the potential to bind the persuader and
the persuadee as in-group members while preserving appropriate distance
between them and granting a freedom of choice.
Genres also display communicative conventions, comprising the insti-
tutional, professional, social and cultural norms of interaction and inter-
pretation, which predetermine the persuasive strategies that participants
find convincing when interpreting the discourse (Duranti, 1985, p. 221)
by drawing on mental models available in the knowledge shared by mem-
bers of the discourse community. Thus persuasion in academic, business,
religious and technical discourses may be seen as associated with a set of

culturally and professionally recognisable constructs elaborated by recur-
rent repetition of social and institutional actions associated with a spe-
cific genre.
A comparative analysis of the impact of situational factors on the com-
municative process in academic, business, religious and technical dis-
courses will be presented in Chap. 2 as a starting point for identification
of persuasive intentions in the texts representing the four specialised dis-
courses and analysis of the rhetorical strategies persuaders employ in their
persuasive attempts.
1.5.4 P
ersuasive Strategies and Persuasive Language:
Ethos, Pathos and Logos
Persuasive intention may be conveyed by various rhetorical strategies and

their linguistic manifestations, whose persuasive potential and force vary
along several dimensions. The area of knowledge or practice (i.e. the par-
ticular specialised discourse) and the specific topic at hand are key factors
influencing the selection of persuasive strategies and language means. As
mentioned above, the options persuaders have at their disposal are con-
strained by genre (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990), understood here as a
dynamic concept relating discourse to particular types of social occasion
affecting discourse production and interpretation on the basis of intertex-
tuality and interdiscursivity (Bhatia et al., 2011; Fairclough, 1995;
Kristeva, 1969). Further factors influencing the persuader’s choices are
the footing of the speaker (Goffman, 1981) and the audience or multiple
audiences (Bell, 1997) at which the persuasive effort is directed. Finally,
persuasive discourse is shaped by the linguacultural background of the
persuader and the audience.
The analysis of persuasive strategies in this book is approached from
the perspective of the three rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and pathos,
the prominence of which vary across specialised discourses. Thus, for
instance, the emotional appeal is not foregrounded in most specialised
discourses; if present, it tends to be covert, while the construal of the
identity and voice of the persuader and the appeal to rational
argumentation tend to be made overtly. However, in religious discourse

(one of the four specialised discourses in this book), the emotional appeal
is an important aspect of the construal of persuasiveness. In addition,
some rhetorical strategies and language means may partake in the
enhancement of two persuasive appeals simultaneously, as, for example,
when reference to objective credibility boosters (e.g. qualifications and
achievements of persuaders) contribute equally to logos (facts, logical
argument) and ethos (credibility, trustworthiness), or when sharing a per-
sonal experience or a narrative of belonging enhances both the ethical
(credibility, benevolence to share) and emotional appeals (expressive eval-
uation, positive communion) (cf. Scotto di Carlo, 2015). Such associa-
tions between persuasive appeals are here termed ethos-logos and
ethos-pathos interface respectively.
Considering the differing communicative contexts of the four dis-
courses analysed in this book and drawing on previous studies based on
rhetorical analysis of specialised discourse (e.g. Higgins & Walker, 2012;
Huber & Pable, 2019; Savolainen, 2014; Walton, 1997, 2008), Table 1.2
presents only the main persuasive strategies investigated in this study,
listed under the primary appeal they are employed to express.
Table 1.2 Rhetorical strategies in association with persuasive appeals

Ethos Logos Pathos
Reference to authority Reference to statistics/ Humour, irony, satire
Reference to expert opinion facts Anecdotes
Reference to expertise Experimental proof Expressive evaluation
Sharing personal experience Proof by Expressing praise
Showing involvement exemplification/ Expressing gratitude
Providing credentials testing Expressing (dis)
Claiming common ground Providing evidence agreement
Narrative of belonging Proof by quantity Appeal to fear
Narrative of achievements Problem solving Appeal to force
Direct appeal to the Cause-effect Appeal to empathy/pity
audience justification Appeal to hope
Legitimisation of values/ Logical reasoning Evoking positive/
beliefs Claiming time/place negative emotions
Sense of community relevance
Trustworthy personal values
The strategies associated with ethos aim at enhancing the credibility

and trustworthiness of the persuader; these are related to his/her compe-
tence, that is the possession of reliable information, community member-
ship, that is the assumption of values shared with and beliefs similar to
those of the persuadees, and benevolence, that is the intent to impart this
information to the audience. The build-up of the ethical appeal is illus-
trated in Example 1, where the writer builds commonality with the audi-
ence by using the inclusive pronoun we to refer to the writer of the
research article and readers positioned as interested colleagues partaking
in similar research and sharing similar beliefs and experiences. In addi-
tion, the tentative expression of opinions and claims hedged by modals,
a comparative structure and lexical choice (e.g. rather than … entirely
different, we could envisage, we may hypothesise, are likely to be) modulates
the level of reliability of the information conveyed and seem to allow the
reader a choice between being convinced by the writer’s argument or
consideration of alternative interpretations.
1. Rather than conceiving these two examples as entirely different types of

mismatch, we may consider them as representing opposing points on a
continuum of mock politeness, from a contextual external mismatch to a
co-textual internal mismatch. Towards the centre of such a continuum, we
could envisage the communication of mismatch through meta-
communicative cues, as reported for both mock impoliteness (e.g. Haugh,
2010:2108) and irony (e.g. Attardo, 2000b). Indeed, Culpeper (2011)
further specifies two categories of internal mismatch: multimodal mis-
matches in which verbal oral and visual elements may convey conflicting
messages and verbal formula mismatches and we may hypothesise that
the multimodal mismatches are likely to be positioned in a more central
position on the continuum. (ACAD-ENG-LING-12)
Logos is empowered by the presentation of a rational, relevant and

valid argument supported by reliable evidence or proof and by the coher-
ence, clarity and integrity of the discourse. The persuasive force of factual
evidence based on quantitative data related to a specific temporal frame is
illustrated in Example 2, which is taken from the business sub-corpus. By
referring to the correlation between inflation and domestic prices the
persuader tries to convince shareholders that under the current monetary

policy conditions are favourable for the company’s activities (stable,
accommodative, supportive). Persuasiveness is further enhanced by explicit
logical connectors (however, despite) to assist readers in decoding the steps
of the reasoning chain, so leading them to the intended discourse
interpretation.
2. Inflation was lower at 2.6% in 4Q 2015 (3Q 2015: 3.3%) due to the
lower domestic fuel prices. However, this was partly offset by the higher
inflation for food and cigarettes. Despite the continuous volatility in
international financial markets, interest rates in the domestic money mar-
ket have remained stable with the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) contin-
ued to be maintained at 3.25% since its last revision on 10 July 2014.
The current stance of monetary policy remains accommodative and is
supportive of current economic activity. (BUS-ENG-04)
Pathos-related strategies appeal to the emotions of persuadees; they

often rely on evaluative statements, personal involvement, humour and
vivid imagery to stir positive and negative emotions in order to secure the
sympathy of the audience for the cause at hand. Thus the use of questions
to address persuadees directly and stress the high points of the message,
complemented by the frequent occurrence of evaluative lexis (e.g. peace,
sin, untold miracles, sadly), appeals to the emotions of the audience and
invites them to share the ideological perspective promoted by the per-
suader, which in the case of sermons is the Christian doctrine (Example 3).
3. How did people receive Him? He came preaching peace and repentance
from sin. He performed untold miracles of healing the blind, the lame,
and every disease. But how did they respond? The Bible gives us the answer.
Sadly, nothing has changed….man is still responding as they did at His
birth. (REL-ENG-07)
Persuasive attempts related to ethos, logos and pathos are realised by a

variety of language means. The set of linguistic features central to this
research includes:
• personal structures: exclusive personal pronouns and other self-

mention devices (I, my, me, we, our, us, one, the writer/author)
• reader-reference resources (we, us, our, you, the reader)
• non-assertion speech acts: directives, questions and exclamations indi-
cating direct appeal to the audience (e.g. Position the TV up to 15 cm
away from the wall; How does this trend relate to civil violence?; Those
who reject the Savior condemn themselves!)
• evaluative lexis (e.g. sustainable growth, good quality, novel, valuable,
profit, risk, sin, evil, destruction, danger)
• stance and linking adverbials (e.g. surprisingly, sadly, obviously, how-
ever, consequently, moreover)
• citations and less explicit types of intertextual reference
• figurative language (e.g. metaphor, hyperbole, pun)
Since the contexts of the different specialised discourses and genres

favour a specific set of rhetorical strategies and linguistic features, it is
likely that the conveyance of persuasive intents across the four specialised
discourses will vary to some extent. The purpose of this study is to explore
the interplay between the context of the genre and specialised discourse
on the one hand the linguacultural background of the persuaders and the
persuadees on the other, and its impact on the choice of rhetorical strate-
gies and linguistic means instrumental to the build-up of persuasive
discourse.
1.5.5 Research Purposes and Analytical Approach
As stated above, the main aims of this study are (1) to identify common
denominators of persuasion across specialised discourses and linguacul-
tural backgrounds; (2) to describe rhetorical strategies and linguistic
means for conveying persuasion specific to the academic, business, reli-
gious and technical discourses, and to explain how linguacultural and
genre-specific constraints affect variation in persuasion across specialised
discourses; and (3) to explore and explain divergences in how persuasion
is realised in the four English- and Czech-specialised discourses. These
research purposes motivated the choice of analytical framework, which is
rooted in the functional approach to language and applies insights from

sociolinguistics, intercultural rhetoric and genre analysis.
The analysis uses qualitative and quantitative methods, as these are
considered complementary to an adequate analysis of language data
(Hunston, 2007). The primacy of qualitative analysis reflects the context-
dependent interactive nature of persuasion, which cannot be accounted
for on the basis of quantification. The texts were processed manually for
the investigation of ethos-, logos- and pathos-related rhetorical strategies,
while a qualitative study of the functions of linguistic realisations of per-
suasion was complemented by quantitative analysis for identification of
the prominence of relevant linguistic means in the different sub-corpora
and performance of a comparative analysis aimed at identifying variation
in persuasive language across specialised discourses and linguacultural
backgrounds.
The majority of the persuasive language resources indicated above as
central to this investigation (self-mentions, reader reference, non-
assertion speech acts, stance and linking adverbials and citations) func-
tion as metadiscourse markers (Hyland, 2005), that is linguistic resources
for intersubjective positioning, signalling how the writer projects him/
herself into the text to evaluate and show involvement with the proposi-
tional content and the intended audience. It is therefore natural that this
study adopts Hyland’s interpersonal model of metadiscourse as an ana-
lytical tool for analysis of the linguistic manifestations of persuasion. It is
important to stress that the interpersonal model posits that “all metadis-
course is interpersonal in that it takes account of the reader’s knowledge,
textual experiences and processing needs and that it provides writers with
an armoury of rhetorical appeals to achieve this” (Hyland, 2005, p. 41).
Metadiscourse resources have been usefully grouped into two broad
categories—interactional and interactive (Hyland & Tse, 2004;
Thompson, 2001)—according to the functions they fulfil. Interactional
metadiscourse markers involve the reader in the argument and express
the writer’s evaluation and commitment to the information conveyed;
they may be seen as pertaining to Halliday’s (1994) interpersonal meta-
function. Interactional metadiscourse markers have been further subdi-
vided into those expressing stance, defined as an attitudinal dimension
referring to the ways writers represent themselves and express their
judgements, opinions and commitments, and those expressing engage-

ment, defined as an alignment dimension allowing writers to acknowl-
edge the presence of their readers, pull them along with their argument,
focus their attention and guide them to intended interpretations (Hyland,
2005, p. 176).
Stance, casting the author’s voice into the text, may be expressed by the
following categories of markers:
• self-mentions, usually realised by exclusive personal pronouns (I/we)

and possessives (my/our)
• attitude markers (valuable, significant, important)
• hedges (generally, perhaps, might)
• boosters (the fact that, surely, indeed), which together with hedges
model the level of commitment to statements and claims
Engagement markers, indicating direct appeal to the audience,

comprise:
• reader reference, commonly realised by first-person inclusive pronouns

and possessives (we/us/our) and second-person pronouns and posses-
sives (you/your)
• appeals to shared knowledge (of course, obviously, familiar)
• directives (assume, select, see)
• questions (why is this important?)
• asides, which usually take the form of typically parenthetical remarks
(although I consider these less significant)
It should be noted that Czech is a synthetic language and as such differs

from English, which is essentially analytical. A feature reflecting the spec-
ificity of the Czech language is the non-realisation of the pronominal
subject in non-emphatic utterances; as a result self-mentions and reader
reference are typically realised by verb forms with endings marked for
singular or plural first- or second-person reference. Another difference
between the two languages lies in the realisation of directive speech acts;
while in English one of the structures expressing directives is the predica-
tive adjective (Hyland, 2002b), in Czech the same function may be
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This statement would certainly indicate a liberal attitude towards
education. Fox himself makes no further comment on what the
nature of the school was to be. His interest in these schools, it is
asserted, never flagged, and many visits were made in behalf of their
prosperity.[32]
Fourth, the popular idea that has at times [Sidenote: But
prevailed, that Quakers objected to giving an classical
education such as was enjoyed by other sects, was education not the
first essential for
probably founded on a misunderstanding of certain ministers]
statements made by Fox with regard to education.
Let us examine some of these statements, and seek to learn his
intended meaning.
I saw that to be a true believer was another thing than they

looked on it to be; and I saw that being bred at Oxford or
Cambridge did not qualify or fit a man to be a minister of
Christ; what then should I follow such for? So neither these,
nor any of the dissenting peoples could I join with, but was a
stranger to all, relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ.[33]
I was to bring people off from Jewish ceremonies and from
heathenish fables, and from men’s inventions and worldly
doctrines, by which they blew the people about this way and
the other way, from sect to sect; and from all their beggarly
rudiments, with their schools and colleges for making
ministers of Christ, who are indeed ministers of their own
making but not of Christ; ...[34]
They could not know the spiritual meaning of Moses; the
prophets and John’s words, nor see their paths and travels,
much less see through them, and to the end of them into the
kingdom, unless they had the spirit of Jesus; nor could they
know the words of Christ and of his apostles without his Spirit.
[35]
Then we came to Durham, where was a man come from

London to set up a college there, to make ministers of Christ,
as they said. I went, with some others, to reason with him and
to let him see that to teach men Hebrew, Greek and Latin,
and the seven arts, which were all but the teachings of the
natural man, was not the way to make them ministers of
Christ.[36]
These statements represent a small selection from many similar

ones, and may be fairly taken as indicative of his position concerning
this one point. They are the most drastic prohibitory statements
made on the subject in all of his works. But even here we fail to find
either (1) a condemnation of general or ordinary education or (2) a
wholesale condemnation of classical education; indeed we read no
objection to a minister’s possessing a knowledge of classical
authors, such as was the case of both Penn and Barclay, provided
he possess also the “light.” His statements may be summarized as
follows:
[Sidenote:
1. Classical training is inadequate as a Summary of
preparation for ministers of the gospel. educational
statements]
2. Divine guidance is the one requisite for
their preparation.
3. There is no objection to the classical learning if it be
added to the qualification under (2).
Fifth, their conception of the scope of education [Sidenote:

did not limit it to their own people alone, but Education not
extended it rather to all peoples, Negroes and limited to Friends]
Indians, the rich and the poor. This is made
perfectly plain in his address sent to the Governor of the Barbados in
1671.
Consider, Friends, it is no transgression for a master of a

family to instruct his family himself, or for some others to do it
in his behalf; but rather it is a very great duty incumbent upon
them.... We declare that we esteem it a duty incumbent on us
to pray with and for those in and belonging to our families; ...
and to teach, instruct and admonish them; ... now Negroes,
Tawnies and Indians make up a very great part of the families
in this island; for whom an account will be required by him
who comes to judge both quick and dead, at the great day of
judgment, when every one shall be rewarded according to the
deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether
they be evil.[37]
The effect of the above statements must tend to convince even the
skeptical that any statement or belief, to the effect that the founder of
Quakerism was opposed to education, is chiefly a myth based on
either ignorance or gross misunderstanding.
SUMMARY
The origin of the Quakers and the organization and discipline of
the Society are due almost entirely to the influence which first came
from the founder, George Fox. He extended his belief in his native
country and even into foreign countries by (1) preaching, (2) letters,
(3) extensive travels on his own part, and (4) through the agency of
many capable men whom he attracted to his service. For this service
the leading of the inner light was deemed the only preparation which
was absolutely necessary. The society experienced a rapid growth in
numbers and, due to the policy of its founder, laid great stress on the
moral and practical education of their youth. A great similarity existed
between the beliefs of Quakers and those of the Mennonites, both of
which came to form a large part of the population of the colony of
Pennsylvania. The Mennonite beliefs are thought, by some special
students of their history, to have been the determining influence in
forming those of Friends; but this is not clearly proven. It is pointed
out, by certain references to utterances of George Fox, which to a
great extent formed the basis for Quaker practices, that the common
belief in their objection to education is erroneous. The system of
moral education was exacting and full of sweeping prohibitions, and,
in those respects, according to modern ideals, quite inadequate.
CHAPTER II
MEETING ORGANIZATION: ITS CONNECTION
WITH EDUCATION
The organization of meetings in the Society of [Sidenote: An

Friends was based almost entirely on the organization
recommendation of its founder, and still obtains developed]
without many variations from the type which was
thus early begun. The organization thus planned was not developed
completely at one time, but depended rather on the growth of the
society in this or that section of the country. Meetings, as at first
established, were not so specialized in their functions as they came
to be later; there were those for worship and sufferings, the latter
becoming in due time a specialized part of the yearly meeting, and
for taking action in regard to poor members. The time was further
occupied in disciplining those members who were not faithful to the
doctrines of the church.
It is of particular importance for us to understand [Sidenote: The
the ordinary arrangement of the meetings and their place of
relation to each other, since it was by virtue of this organization in
the establishment
organization of the church that its schools were set of schools]
up. Perhaps no other factor played so important a
part in the success which was met with in setting up schools, as that
through the organization of the meetings all localities were kept in
closer touch with each other than would otherwise have been
possible at that time. As it was, the local meetings were literally
forced to listen to the school-proposition, even though they were in
the backwoods of America, or inhabited the Barbados. The chief
means of communication established were church letters, travelling
ministers, representatives from the constituent meetings, and reports
of general meetings which were distributed to all those belonging
thereunto.[38]
Originally the purpose of the church organization [Sidenote:
seems to have been twofold. It was realized that Purposes of the
among those who became members some would organization]
be less constant in their behavior than others;
hence some sort of oversight was necessary to keep each and every
one in line. In the second place, there were many adherents in
limited circumstances and the Quakers’ belief made it imperative that
these people be taken care of in the best manner possible.[39]
Realizing the existence of these conditions among members, it was
clear to Fox that a definitely organized meeting was necessary
whereby (1) the necessary assistance could be extended to those in
need, (2) discipline could be enforced for the maintenance of the
religious life of the organization, and (3) new meetings could be
officially established when and where they became necessary.
The earliest mention that is made of a meeting [Sidenote: Early
established for these purposes is in the case of meetings
established]
Balby, in Yorkshire, in 1658.[40] This statement is
not exactly accurate, it seems, for we have also mention made of a
general meeting, or what came to be known as a yearly meeting, as
early as 1654 when one was held at Swannington in Leicestershire.
[41] The meeting at Balby seems to have been of considerable
importance and is frequently mentioned as one of the stopping
places of George Fox. He recounts a meeting held at that place in
1660 “in a great orchard of John Killam’s where it was supposed
some thousands of people and Friends were gathered together.”[42]
The business of the yearly meeting seems to have been to devote
some time to the affairs of the church; at any rate, this idea is
expressed by Fox in writing of a similar meeting held at Skipton in
1660.[43] The characteristic of these meetings, that is always
mentioned, is that they were attended by representatives from
various towns and counties. The yearly meeting is still a
representative body.
The smaller meetings for worship were, of [Sidenote:
course, the first established. Aside from the Meetings develop
question of worship, however, the development of from larger to the
smaller]
the organization was from the larger unit to the
smaller. We have noted above the beginning of the general or yearly
meeting. As the sect grew in numbers, and the labor of caring for
these, sometimes in a physical sense and again in the religious,
increased, it became necessary to have a finer organization, the
smaller units of which would reach the smallest communities. By
1665 there were established (1) the yearly and (2) the quarterly
meetings, and in 1666 Fox recommended the establishment of a
smaller unit, the monthly meeting, saying:
Then I was moved of the Lord to recommend the setting up

of five monthly meetings of men and women in the City of
London (besides the women’s meetings and the quarterly
meetings) to take care of God’s glory, and to admonish and
exhort such as walked disorderly or carelessly, and not
according to the truth. For whereas Friends had had only
quarterly meetings, now truth was spread, and Friends were
grown more numerous, I was moved to recommend the
setting up of monthly meetings throughout the nation. And the
Lord opened to me what I must do, and how the men’s and
the women’s monthly and quarterly meetings should be
ordered and established in this and other nations; and that I
should write to those where I did not come, to do the same.
[44]
Immediately after this, there is mentioned the [Sidenote:

establishment of monthly meetings in Essex, Number of
Suffolk and Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, monthly meetings
set up]
Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire
and many others.[45] Three years later (1669) he reports fourteen
monthly meetings in the county of York.[46] The rapid increase in the
number of meetings and the extent of territory covered by them is a
fair indication of the phenomenal growth of the society.
Following his resolve and subsequent exertions toward setting up
of monthly meetings, during which he made very extensive
campaigns, there came the great step which was taken to organize
all under the general leadership of a yearly meeting, that of London.
This was accomplished in 1672.[47] This general meeting of
ministers drew up a resolution or minute to this effect:
[Sidenote: London
It is concluded agreed and assented to by Yearly Meeting
Friends present that for the better ordering, established]
managing and regulating of the public affairs of
Friends relating to the Truth and the service thereof, there be
a general meeting of Friends held at London once a year, in
the week called Whitsun-week, to consist of six Friends for
the City of London, three for the city of Bristol, two for the city
of Colchester and one or two from each of the counties of
England and Wales respectively.[48]
The meeting convened in the year following, in accordance with

the above resolution. Many of the duties performed by the General
Meeting of Ministers were transferred to the representatives of the
various meetings. The ministers, though in fact subject to the
approval or disapproval of monthly meetings, did not relinquish their
oversight of each other.
The smallest unit in the organization was the [Sidenote: The
particular or preparative meeting. This meeting is preparative
not mentioned in all localities, though it is clear meeting the
smallest unit]
from Fox’s statements that he recognized this as a
part of the organization, for in a letter of 1669 he writes concerning
the representatives of the quarterly meetings that,
none that are raw or weak and are not able to give a
testimony of the affairs of the church and Truth, may go on
behalf of the particular meetings to the quarterly meetings, but
may be nursed up in your monthly meetings.[49]
This statement is given here merely for the [Sidenote: Details
purpose of pointing out how completely the ideas of of organization
Fox were embodied in even the smallest unit of worked Fox]
out by
church organization. There is adequate proof of
their existence in all sections occupied by the Quakers in
Pennsylvania, and of their great importance in carrying out the
details both of relief work for the poor, and in the establishment of
schools.[50]
There have been noted different phases of the development of the
meeting organization. When finally it was complete in all its parts,
there existed a hierarchy of meetings, the lower and smaller units of
which were subject to and under the direction of the higher. This
resultant organization may be made somewhat clearer by means of
a diagrammatical representation.
The above diagram represents the relation of the [Sidenote:

Functions of
various kinds of meetings in the organization of the yearly meeting]
Society of Friends. The yearly meeting (Fig. 1, Y) is
the general head of the entire organization. Its functions are of a
general directive nature and its influence of very wide extent. For
example, it will be shown a little later that the Yearly Meeting of
London issued, very early, certain communications concerning
education which were sent to each meeting belonging to the London
Yearly Meeting. In the same manner it exercised its influence along
other lines than education. There is no special virtue in the number
of meetings represented above; for example, the three Q’s do not
mean that each and every yearly meeting had three quarterly
meetings under its care. The number is not specified. In the case of
the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting there are at present nine quarterly
meetings and two half-yearly meetings.[51] The same variation is
also true in the number of monthly meetings in a quarter, Caln
Quarterly having only one monthly meeting, while Western Quarterly
has six.[52] The same is true as to the number of preparative
meetings.
The quarterly meeting is representative of the [Sidenote:
monthly meetings which comprise it. Its functions Functions of the
are chiefly directive and advisory, though it may quarterly meeting]
often occur that a bad case of discipline may be
turned over to it by the monthly meeting. In the case of school
regulations, its chief concern was to pass on the recommendations
of the yearly meeting to the monthly meetings and to repeat them
frequently, that the lower meetings might be stirred up to action.[53] It
was also through the quarterly meetings that the reports on the
conditions of schools in the monthly meetings were collected and
sent to the yearly meeting. It was also quite customary for the
monthly units to pass any of their decisions on a matter up to the
quarterly unit for its formal approval or disapproval. Especially is this
marked in educational affairs, and particularly in the Philadelphia
Quarter.[54] This is most marked in the earliest years after
establishment, and is due, no doubt, to a lack at that time of a very
close differentiation in the functions of the meetings.
The monthly meetings are primarily the business [Sidenote:
units of the organization. Before them come all Monthly meeting
cases of care for the poor, apprenticing of children, the business unit]
enforcement of discipline, establishment of
schools, requests for permission to marry, to remove to a new
location and still many others. They may settle some of these finally,
or they may act in connection with their superior meeting as
mentioned above.
The preparative meeting is the smallest [Sidenote:
organization unit and has its finger on the pulse of Function of the
preparative
the local community at all times.[55] Officially it acts meeting]
as the agent of the monthly meeting in carrying out
the details of any piece of work that must be done, and which the
monthly meeting is willing to delegate thus far.[56] Thus in the case of
Horsham, for instance, the business of the schools in the scope of
the preparative meeting is turned over to it and their organization
and maintenance are under the care of its school committee.[57] The
preparative meeting is at all times cognizant of breaches of discipline
among its members and responsible to report such to the monthly
meeting for settlement. One might go to great length to enumerate
and explain all the detailed duties of each of these branches of the
organization, but it is believed sufficient has been said of them, to
make their action in educational matters intelligible.
We have noted, somewhat briefly to be sure, the organization and
interrelation of the meetings in the Society of Friends. It is now
necessary to point out what connection existed between this
organization and the program put forward for the establishment of
schools. This will be done by the presentation of certain extracts
from meeting records which seem in all cases to have been
responsible for kindling an interest in education in near and distant
meetings, and keeping that interest alive by virtue of many advices
until some material results were forthcoming. The selections
presented are not continuous; they are chosen because they are
representative and illustrative of the point in question.
The Yearly Meeting of London was established [Sidenote:
(see page 17) in 1672. Consistent with the purpose Attention of yearly
of its establishment, as then stated, it began at meeting to
education in
once to busy itself with certain important problems 1690]
of the church. Among the first that received a
considerable amount of attention was the education of the youths of
members in the society, which was, of course, soon extended to
include others. For instance, in 1690, there is given out this
educational advice.
And, dear Friends, it is our Christian and earnest advice

and counsel to all Friends concerned (so far as they are able
or may be capable) to provide schoolmasters and mistresses
who are faithful Friends, to teach and instruct their children,
and not to send them to such schools where they are taught
the corrupt ways, manners and fashions of the world and of
the Heathen in their authors and manners of the heathenish
gods and goddesses....[58]
And again in the year following we find the following advice:

[Sidenote: 1691]
We are glad to hear that care is taken in
some places, according to former advices, for the providing of
schoolmasters and mistresses who are faithful Friends to
instruct Friends’ children in such method as Truth allows. And
we desire that Friends may go on in the care to provide such
education and schools, for the advantage of their children and
posterity.[59]
More specific instructions follow in 1695.

[Sidenote: 1695]
And it is desired ... to take special care for the
good education and order of Friends’ children in God’s holy
fear, ... and also to see that schools and schoolmasters who
are faithful Friends, and well qualified, be placed and
encouraged in all counties, cities and great towns, or places
where they may be needed; and that such schoolmasters, as
much as may be, sometimes correspond with one another for
their help and improvement in such good and easy methods
as are agreeable to the Truth and the children’s advantage
and benefit; and that care be taken that poor Friends’ children
may freely partake of such education, in order to
apprenticeship.[60]
At a much later date, 1745, very similar instructions are found

among those issued.
[Sidenote: and
And, dear Friends, though frequently and 1745]
repeated advices have been given from this
meeting, respective of the education of our youth in sobriety,
godliness and Christian virtues; yet, this being a matter of
very great moment for the welfare of the present and future
generations, we think it our incumbent duty again to
recommend an especial care therein.... We also recommend
to schoolmasters and mistresses, to educate the children
committed to their charge, in the frequent reading of those
sacred writings and such other good books as tend to their
instruction in true Christianity; whereby their minds are in
danger of being corrupted and led aside from the way of truth
and holiness.[61]
A casual reading of the above statements, or any of numerous

others like them, will suffice to point out to what great extent they are
similar to the statements of Fox and other Quakers who were
interested in education.[62] For convenience, the content of these
extracts from the yearly meeting minutes may be summarized in
something like the following:
1. To educate morally, according to Friends’ standards.

2. To train the individual in some practical employment.
They are accompanied by: [Sidenote: A

summary of
important points
1. Select schools. in the extracts]
2. Teachers of approved morality.
3. Selected subject matter.
4. Apprenticeship training.
5. Schools to be in all communities, the stronger assisting
the weaker.[63]
The influence of these fundamental ideas about [Sidenote:

education is clearly reflected in the type of schools Exemplified in
that were first set up in England. Those schools set up]
recommended by Fox at Waltham and Shacklewell
in 1667, for both boys and girls, represent the first attempt.[64] At a
later date, 1702, Clerkenwell was established under the oversight of
London and Middlesex Quarterly Meetings, and in the latter part of
the century the Ackworth School, founded by John Fothergill in 1779.
[65] In all the schools established, of which those mentioned are
representative, there is always found this primary emphasis on moral
and useful training.[66]
The great influence of English Quaker education [Sidenote:
on that in America was made secure by virtue of Influence exerted
the very intimate relation between the meetings in by means of
ministers, epistles
both countries; this relation being constantly and tracts]
maintained through the traveling ministers, and
tracts and epistles sent out by the yearly meetings. The same
alertness, characteristic of London Yearly Meeting in these affairs,
was likewise assumed by the Burlington and Philadelphia Meetings,
from whence came numerous advices. As concrete evidence of this
close relation existing, and the consequent communications, a few
extracts thereof are inserted.
There was brought to this meeting (Middletown Monthly)

the last London printed epistle, which was read, containing
sundry weighty advices and exhortations with some
comfortable account of the prosperity of the Truth in divers
places, as also the extracts of our last yearly meeting
(Philadelphia) wherein is recommended amongst other things,
a half collection for the next year, and some proposals
concerning the settling of schools in the country....[67]
That these letters of advice were not mere formalities but were
really seriously considered and acted upon favorably or unfavorably,
as in the first case below, is shown adequately in the following:
This meeting taking into consideration the proposals of last

yearly meeting concerning the settling of schools in the
country, are of the opinion that the method proposed will not
answer for the Friends who live remote from each other in the
country....[68]
In the case of Darby Monthly Meeting, later in the [Sidenote: Had

century, there is an instance in which the definite results]
recommendations of the yearly meeting (1778) are
followed most minutely in the reorganization.
In consideration of improving our school, agreeable to the

recommendations of the last Yearly Meeting in 1778, and
subsequent advices down to this time having been spread in
this meeting and so and several remarks made thereon,
pointing out the advantages which may arise therefrom to the
present rising and succeeding ages, and the loss sustained
for the want thereof, tending to animate a desire to pursue the
interesting prospect. It is therefore now agreed that in future
five Friends be appointed and called the overseers of the
Darby School, three of whom shall be deemed a sufficient
number to transact any business within their appointment,
viz.: to have the oversight of and visit the school, examine the
progress the scholars make in their learning, remark thereon
as appears to them necessary; inspect the teachers’ conduct,
and from time to time as occasion may be, with the
approbation of the meeting, agree with and employ a teacher
or teachers, and on sufficient cause appearing, discharge any
such teacher or teachers, as also any unruly scholars who
cannot be brought to submission to the rules and orders of
the school; hear and determine upon all differences relative to
the school which may arise between any teacher and
employer, take into consideration and endeavor out after
some eligible plan for raising a fund for the benefit of the
school and as way shall open for it, pursue the same
accordingly, and every matter and thing tending to promote a
settlement for a school agreeable to the recommendations
before cited; and as some of our deceased brothers have
made donations to this meeting for the benevolent purpose of
schooling children of the poor, therefore, the aforesaid
overseers are hereby empowered and directed to receive and
collect from the trustees thereof for the time being, the
interest arising from the said donations, dispose thereof
agreeable to the intentions of the Donors, and when
necessary, advise and assist the trustees in taking better
securities for the principal, and as future donations may be
made for the benefit of the school, the overseers are directed
to extend care therein, as the same shall become necessary,
and keep fair minutes of all moneys received and expended
and other matters of importance which come before them, to
be produced in this meeting when called for, and preceding
the quarterly meeting in the 8th month annually make to this
meeting a clear statement of the amount received, expended
and remaining in hand and outstanding and of the capital
under their care; what donations made within the year past
and for what purposes; and of such other matters as they may
judge needful to enable this meeting to transmit the true
estate of the school to the Quarterly Meeting, and as a
fundamental of their proceedings they transcribe a copy of
their minutes, together with such other writings as are
necessary for their government in what is now constituted
their cares.[69]
A committee was accordingly appointed and directed to choose

their officers, that their business might be begun at once and
properly performed.
In addition to the advices sent out in the form of [Sidenote: Works
letters from the yearly sessions, the meeting also of Penn, Barclay,
furthered regularly the distribution of books, tracts Sewell, Turford,
and others
and pamphlets, usually the expression of distributed]
prominent Friends, such as, for example, Penn’s
Advice to His Children, Barclay’s Apology, Sewell’s History of
Quakers, Barclay’s Catechism, Turford’s Grounds of a Holy Life, and
many others of similar nature. Works of this kind were frequently
sent over in lots, sometimes for free distribution, or to be sold to
members; as witness the following:
Joseph Kirkbride and Walter Faucit, having been lately in

London upon the service of Truth, did subscribe for 100 of
Barclay’s Apologies on behalf of this yearly meeting, which
the said meeting approves of; and agreed that Samuel
Carpenter pay for them out of the yearly meeting stock and
distribute them to each meeting according to their proportion
of books that they usually receive, that so they may be given
away by the several meetings for the service of truth.[70]
Sam Nixon informs the meeting that he brought from last
quarterly meeting ten small books, entitled Reflections and
Maxims, wrote by William Penn and printed for the use of
schools, which he desired us to take the care of and to apply
to the use intended as occasion may require.[71]
Produced at this meeting, 6 Barclay’s Apologies, 12
Richard Davis’ Journals, 7 Daniel Stanton’s Journals, 4 Hugh
Turford’s Grounds of a Holy Life, 8 Barclay’s Catechisms; 37
books under care of Thos. Pickering, Thos. Watson, and
Robert Kirkbride—to lend to the poor or others, as they think
useful.[72]
The foregoing presentation of conditions within the church

organization, their method of interaction, has been made so that the
reader may understand that whatever activities may be later noted
among the Quakers in Pennsylvania in connection with the
establishment of schools, were intimately connected with and were
in fact the result of the English influence.
SUMMARY
The form of organization of the meeting in the Society of Friends
was due to the needs then existing, and was planned, even to the
smallest unit, by the founder of the society. The chief purposes of the
organization, when first begun, were (1) moral and religious
discipline of members, (2) assistance to the poor among their
number, and (3) to protect themselves against the oppression of
outsiders (function of the meeting on sufferings). The functions of the
higher meeting (yearly) were chiefly advisory in character, while
those of the lower meetings (preparative) were to work out the
details. Educationally, the yearly meeting exercised an influence very
early by its frequent recommendations and the literature sent to the
smaller individual meetings. This rôle was likewise assumed by the
Burlington and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.[73] This close
relationship between the meetings of different order and the
educational influence is in part shown by extracts taken from the
meeting records.
CHAPTER III
EDUCATIONAL IDEALS OF QUAKER LEADERS
Any institution one may name has its adverse [Sidenote:

critics. The basis of their criticism is often ill- Criticism
inevitable;
defined; it is sometimes fact, sometimes beneficial]
imagination; it may spring from a knowledge of
truth, or possibly from ignorance.
Quakerism has had many critics and the effect of [Sidenote: Some
wise criticism may be seen in some of the changes criticism based on
from the old to the modern Quakerism. Much of misunderstanding
]
that which was unjust and without foundation of
fact, failed to have any effect whatever. But though [Sidenote: Certain
the effect on the institution may have been nil, it doctrines]
occurs in some cases that the criticism still lives in
the popular mind and is accorded a good degree of authenticity. By
those better informed it may not be so considered. It is with one of
these criticisms, concerning the attitude of Quakers toward
education, that we are chiefly concerned in this chapter. Due chiefly
to a misinterpretation of the doctrine of inner light and its application,
which was mentioned in the first chapter, there arose an erroneous
conception of the Quakers’ attitude towards education. This
conception is not always constant; it varies now to this side, now to
that, but does not cease to persist. In order that this criticism may be
put as clearly as possible before the reader, use is made here of a
quotation from the works of S. H. Cox, at one time a member of
Friends, who expresses with clearness the opinion of a very
considerable group of critics.
[Sidenote: The
But there is one feature of the system of criticism offered
Friends which deserves a recognition here—its by S. H. Cox]
inimical regard to classical and scientific
learning. I do not say that all Friends are thus hostile, or that
they are all alike hostile to liberal learning but I charge this
hostility on the system. That such is its character, appears
from the denunciation, the indiscriminate proscription of
Barclay, and that not in a few places in his book. It appears in
the general hostility of Friends to all colleges and seminaries
where the elevated branches are thoroughly taught. Not one
young Friend out of five hundred, even in this free country,
ever obtains a liberal education in fact or in name; certainly
never becomes graduated in the arts at any chartered
institution, and where an instance occurs, it is always
attended with special difficulties. They have no college of
liberal science in the world! Some, I know, of the suspected
worldly sort in Philadelphia have proposed and would have
forwarded so excellent an object, but they were always awed
into despondency by the unlettered, all-knowing light within.
And in this, their obsequiousness was quite consistent, for if
schools, academies, and universities are all in their nature
wrong, and as such forbidden of God, it is certainly right to
desist totally and at once from the prosecution of their cause!
Incidental evils they will always include, but the system is not
chargeable with these, unless in its nature it approves and
fosters them. There will always be, perhaps, hypocrites at the
communion table but christianity does not make them, and
the purest ministry of the gospel will often become a savor of
death unto death, but sinners themselves and not such a
ministry are to blame for the consequence. And so the best
organized system of intellectual education that the world has
seen has often presented the appalling spectacle of profligate
and wicked students perverting its privileges. But what of
that? Shall we burn our colleges? Why not our primary school
houses too? What beneficient institution, what bounty of the
blessed God is not perverted and abused in this naughty
world....[74]
I cannot leave this matter without remarking the power of
education especially with Friends. Their mode of education is
the making and the keeping and the secret of their sect. They
subdue the infant conscience with the direct rays of the
inward light. They identify all divinity and right in the
associations of their children with the light within and its
friendly fruits. Here the spell commences that grows with their
growth and strengthens with their strength. Investigation is
much akin to skepticism and is devoutly precluded—but what
worse skepticism it is to suppose that investigation could raze
the foundation of our faith. They must take everything for
granted or see it in the light. They must wear a ridiculous cut
and color of clothes, such as are orthodox or common to the
clanship and use the plain language and act like Friends, and
then if they feel awkward or foolish, if their garb appears
ridiculous to themselves, if their manner expose them to
jeering and affront, if they are insolently struck (as I have
often) in the street by worthless boys and cursed as a
“Quaker,” if their effeminate holy whine is profanely mocked,
as it often is by saucy passengers, and if a thousand other
inconveniences accrue, especially if they are sometimes
asked for one good reason for such singularity in gratuitous
opposition to mankind, they must just bear it all for
righteousness sake, not be afraid of the cross, but remember
early Friends how much more they endured in the same
cause. Now much of this which they call a guarded education,
is just the worst kind of sorcery. It is a fascination and
religious tyrannizing over the blighted attributes of mind. It is a
system exactly calculated to prostrate every noble,
courageous and manly sentiment, and to transmute a fine
ingenuous boy into a sorry, sly, and often simulating creature
in the form of a man.[75]
It is not necessary to discuss directly the views [Sidenote:

set forth in the above quotation, as they are stated Contrast Cox’s
clearly enough in the author’s own language. statements above
with those of early
However, in the following pages, there will be Quakers in regard
presented the views on education of as many to education]
prominent Friends as space will permit, that in so

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Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020

Cover illustration: Kiyoshi Takahase Segundo / Alamy Stock Photo

Persuasion is an important aspect of the social dynamics of human inter-

to provide a contrastive analysis of persuasion understood as the strategic

1. What are the common denominators of persuasion across specialised

For the purposes of this study combining corpus-based quantitative

interactional and interactive markers in enhancing persuasion in techni-

Brno, Czech Republic Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova

1 Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 1

2 Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business,

3 Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a

4 Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of

5 Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour

6 Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of

7 Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised

8 Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World339

Fig. 3.1 Proportional weights of metadiscourse categories across the

Table 1.1 The composition of the CECSD corpus 13

Table 7.4 Variation in value markers across ACAD-ENG and

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1

settings. Moreover, this study addresses the issue of variation in persua-

1.2 Persuasion: Definitions and Approaches

represent him/herself as a reliable source of information by constructing

persuasive communication are “better viewed as lying along a continuum

1.3 Specialised Discourse

in language pedagogy, (ii) register analysis, genre analysis and (critical)

features instrumental to the construal of persuasion in the target special-

1.4 Intercultural Variation

of subheadings and sparse use of metadiscourse. Persuasiveness seems to

context-­dependent constraints and the specific communicative purposes

1.5 The Present Study

1.5.1 The CECSD Corpus

Table 1.1 The composition of the CECSD corpus

As to text selection, in all the sub-corpora each text is authored by a

1.5.2 Defining Persuasion

Taking into consideration the cognitive and psychological dimension of

Persuasion is an inherently context-dependent process. Consequently, an

1. Spatial setting—public/private, local/global interaction, (not) shared

1. Addresser—roles that the persuader enacts

3. Attitude of the participants towards the discourse and the message

The situational parameters identify the domain of knowledge to which

writer addresses, the more general audience acknowledged as recipient of

religious and technical discourses may be seen as associated with a set of

Brno, Czech Republic Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova

1 Persuasion: Definition, Approaches, Contexts 1

2 Persuasive Strategies Across the Academic, Business,

3 Persuasion in Academic Discourse: Metadiscourse as a

4 Persuasion in Business Discourse: Strategic Use of

5 Persuasion in Religious Discourse: Employing Humour

6 Persuasion in Technical Discourse: The Role of

7 Cross-Cultural Variation in Persuasion Across Specialised

8 Persuasion and Specialised Discourse in a Changing World339

Table 1.1 The composition of the CECSD corpus 13

1.2 Persuasion: Definitions and Approaches

1.3 Specialised Discourse

1.4 Intercultural Variation

context-dependent constraints and the specific communicative purposes

1.5 The Present Study

1.5.1 The CECSD Corpus

1.5.2 Defining Persuasion

• personal structures: exclusive personal pronouns and other self-

1.5.5 Research Purposes and Analytical Approach