Thread View: bit.listserv.rhetoric
1 messages
1 total messages
Started by Gary Hatch
Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:58
Re: Tropes vs Topoi
Author: Gary Hatch
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:58
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1993 17:58
26 lines
1977 bytes
1977 bytes
Just to add a brief note to Russ Hunt's point that tropes cannot help but be rhetorical since they are a deliberate departure from the "local norm of the text." This is the very point that Group Mu make in *The General Rhetoric*. They claim that there is a "degree zero" for what is recognized as the linguistic norm for a given discourse community. They are careful to point out that this degree zero is not frozen or universal: it is specific to a particular context. What would be a trope or deviation for one community would not necessarily be a trope for another. How then does metaphor differ from definition? How is "My love is a rose" different from "My love is a woman"? Grammatically they are the same. Each places an object within a class. The difference rhetorically is that according to what is recognized as a linguistic norm, the love interest of a human is not *really* a rose, so we look for a figurative or tropical meaning. Gary Hatch Brigham Young University English Department 3146 JKHB Provo, UT 84602 (801) 378-2402 gary_hatch@byu.edu
Thread Navigation
This is a paginated view of messages in the thread with full content displayed inline.
Messages are displayed in chronological order, with the original post highlighted in green.
Use pagination controls to navigate through all messages in large threads.
Back to All Threads