Linguistic and rhetorical features of televangelism as persuasive discourse

• Main Author: Suarez, Rhodora P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2004
• Subjects: Persuasion (Rhetoric); Discourse analysis; Television in religion; Evangelists; Television advertising > Language; Applied Linguistics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/72; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1071/viewcontent/CDTG003838_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The study was an attempt to examine the linguistic and rhetorical features that make televangelism a type of persuasive discourse. Data were obtained from five religious sects in the Philippines, namely, Ang Dating Daan, El Shaddai, Igleisa ni Cristo, Jesus is Lord Church, and Pentecostal Missionary Church of Christ. On the basis of the data, following are the findings of the present study. First, persuasion in Philippine televangelism can be described in terms of their macrostructure. The analysis revealed five macrostructure patterns which include the Claim + Support, Claim + Support + Sub-claim + Support, Claim + Support + Warrant, Claim + Sub-claim + Support + Warrant, and Claim + Support + Warrant + Support. The Claim + Support obtained the highest frequency, while the Claim + Support + Warrant, Claim + Sub-claim + Support + Warrant, Claim + Support + Sub-claim + Support and Claim + Support + Warrant + Support occupies the second, third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively. Two of the obligatory moves are the Claim and Support moves, while the Warrant move is optional. Second, in terms of linguistic features, persuasion is realized in Philippine televangelism via the widespread use of first person plural pronouns, simple attitudinal adjectives, direct reference type of repetition and causal conjunctions in internal location. In terms of speech acts, the findings revealed the propensity of representatives, most particularly, assertion, information and descriptive examples. Directives account also in the persuasive function of Philippine televangelism with the imperative type as the most prevalent. Across organizational moves, there is a widespread use of all these linguistic features in the Support move. Claim and warrant occupy the second and third positions, respectively. Third, persuasion is further realized in terms of paralinguistic features, specifically suprasegmentals, i.e. intonation, pitch, stress and length. Of the two types of intonation contour, the falling intonation ascribed to imperatives obtained the highest occurrence, while the rising intonation was prevalent in non-sentence-final intonation. In terms of pitch, high pitch was prevalent in imperatives, while low pitch was pervasive in formulaic expression. There is a widespread use of stress in conjunctions, while lengthening is frequently ascribed to fillers. Across organizational moves, these paralinguistic features were prevalent in the Support move. Claim and Warrant moves occupied the second and third positions, respectively. Fourth, the persuasiveness of Philippine televangelism is further definable in terms of the rhetorical features such as the logos, ethos and pathos corresponding to the rational, credibility and affective appeals, respectively. Of the 14 rational appeal categories, authority is the most widely employed category. As to the credibility appeal categories, first hand experience ranks first in terms of occurrence. In terms of the affective appeal categories, there is a widespread use of emotion in audiences situation. Intercoder agreement proved the validity of the classification of the rhetorical appeal categories.