Semiotics and rhetoric

Abstract

In this paper, after showing that rhetoric studies the discursive procedures that allow the enunciator to produce effects of meaning that permit the enunciatee to believe what is said, I show that the different theories of discourse should inherit Rhetoric, taking into account centuries of studies already developed. By “inherit Rhetoric” I mean that it should be read in light of the theoretical problems currently addressed, and that the issues approached by rhetoric should be investigated from the perspective of the questions raised by modern theories. Following that, I examine the way French Semiotics has been addressing the so-called Rhetoric of Figures and Argumentative Rhetoric, in a process of theoretical incorporation of the tools of ancient rhetoricians. I show figures and arguments of mixture and of triage, figures of valence of intensity, figures of valence of extent, as well as implicative and concessive arguments.