Attempts to provide increased understanding of the nature and function of mystical preaching as a distinctive form of discourse by investigating the sermons of the medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart (1260-ca. 1327, 1329). (MH)

Explores a type of inference which rests on "rules of communication" as differentiated from inferences resting on logical, semantical, or institutional rules. (MH)

Suggests that citizen band radio communication involving code names and coded language offers an opportunity for participation without personal commitment. (MH)

Considers the impact of commentary on television viewer's perception and appreciation of sports events. (MH)

Reports the development of a Verbal Systems Analysis procedure for investigating significant form in verbal communications through a process which operationalizes two of the central concepts of form in Kenneth Burke's theory of symbolic action. (MH)

Examines Jimmy Carter's addresses to the American people focusing on the symbolic form of his language, the conceptions of the audience, and the ethical dimensions of his words. (MH)

Recounts a seeming "prophecy" made during George Washington's youth by the Reverend Samuel Davies, the prominent Presbyterian proponent of the Great Awakening. Investigates how American eulogists drew upon this "prophecy" to give validity and vitality to George Washington's legend. (MH)

Open-system words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) can function as exponents of a clause relation and be predictive of the organization of written discourse while closed-system words (a, the, and, because, etc.) cannot. Supporting criteria are presented. (DAG)

Uses conversational analysis to investigate how people accomplish a specific enactment of their everyday lives. (MH)

Investigates the relevance of a Gricean model for accounting for coherent discourse in courts of law. Identifies 19 rules of discourse congruent with Grice's Cooperative Principle in transcripts of eight trials. However, finds courts must coerce participants to be cooperative. Concludes that Grice's theory does not account adequately for coherent…

Discusses how utopian talk about cable television as a dramatic new technology swept through the policy arena in the 1970s. Analyzes this talk as a discursive practice to demonstrate both the value of discourse analysis and some contradictions of the policy process. Shows how discourse thus helped shape an institution that it failed to describe.…

Discusses how the question of the insufficiency of rational language may open the door to the possibility of a legitimization of rhetorical language. Argues for an interpretation of language, based on the German philosopher Novalis, who affirmed that language is a game, language does not occur for the determination of beings, and the tongue speaks…

Examines Henry Johnstone's (a former editor of "Philosophy and Rhetoric") ironic play on the different uses of the terms "rational,""argument," and "explanation," when he discusses two of his favorite philosophical topics, rhetoric and argument. (NKA)

Analyzes the discourse of news programs on U.S. network television to show that, through a particular set of linguistic choices, major socioeconomic developments are ascribed to individuals, while politics and economics appear to function as logical entities in isolation from each other. (JD)