Model for Rhetorical Action
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| 🔗 DOI | 10.64393/balagha.model.rhetorical.action |
| Date | 16 August 2026 |
Introduction
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric's Model for Rhetorical Action explains a rhetorical action as a process through which a communicator employs an identifiable linguistic operation - a rhetorical device - that establishes or activates a shared cognitive relationship between the communicator and the addressee, to produce a pragmatic (i.e. rhetorical) effect.
The Model provides the epistemological and theoretical foundation for the Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric's approach to the identification and analysis of rhetorical devices.
The Four Levels of Rhetorical Action
The Model for Rhetorical Action recognises four analytically distinct, sequential levels of every rhetorical action:
- The Communicator Intent Level - the pragmatic effect that the communicator wishes to invoke in the addressee, where one is intended.
- The Linguistic Operation Level – the linguistic operation executed by the communicator through language, to achieve the Communicator Intent.
- The Cognitive Relationship Level – the shared cognitive relationship established or activated between the communicator and the addressee through the communicator's execution of the Linguistic Operation, and the addressee's reception of it.
- The Pragmatic Effect Level – the rhetorical effect invoked in the addressee through the Cognitive Relationship that the communicator established through the execution of the Linguistic Operation.
1. The Communicator Intent Level
The Communicator Intent Level concerns the pragmatic effect that the communicator wishes to invoke in the addressee, where one is intended. It represents the purpose that precedes and motivates the communicator's selection of a particular way of expressing something. Communicator intent is therefore concerned with what the communicator seeks to achieve through the rhetorical action, rather than with the linguistic operation subsequently selected to pursue that intent or the effect that the rhetorical action ultimately produces.
2. The Linguistic Operation Level
The Linguistic Operation Level concerns what the communicator does with language in performing the rhetorical action. At this level, the communicator executes an identifiable linguistic operation, such as comparison, deletion, repetition, contrast, or semantic transfer, that establishes or activates a shared cognitive relationship between the communicator and an addressee to produce a pragmatic (i.e. rhetorical) effect in the addressee. The Linguistic Operation Level describes the operation performed through language, rather than why the communicator performs it or what pragmatic effect it ultimately produces.
Rhetorical Devices within the Model
Within the Model for Rhetorical Action, a rhetorical device is an identifiable linguistic operation that establishes or activates a shared cognitive relationship between a communicator and an addressee to produce a pragmatic (i.e. rhetorical) effect in the addressee. While the communicator is the agent of the rhetorical action as a whole, the rhetorical device is the instrument of the Linguistic Operation Level of the Model for Rhetorical Action.
3. The Cognitive Relationship Level
The Cognitive Relationship Level concerns the shared cognitive relationship established or activated between the communicator and the addressee through the linguistic operation and the addressee's reception of it. The linguistic operation invites the addressee to recognise a particular relationship between concepts, meanings, expressions, assumptions, or other elements of the discourse. This relationship provides the cognitive connection through which the linguistic operation can acquire rhetorical significance for the addressee.
4. The Pragmatic Effect Level
The Pragmatic Effect Level concerns the rhetorical effect invoked in the addressee through the cognitive relationship established or activated by the linguistic operation. Such effects may include, for example, emphasis, intensification, praise, rebuke, astonishment, humour, emotional force, or other context-dependent responses. The pragmatic effect is the downstream consequence of the linguistic operation and may not correspond exactly with the communicator's original intent; a single linguistic operation may also produce more than one pragmatic effect.
The Model also illustrates the exceptional communicative power of rhetoric. From the initiation of the communicator's intent, to the selection of a context-appropriate linguistic operation and its execution, to the establishment of many possible cognitive relationships between communicator and addressee, to the multitude of pragmatic effects in the addressee - the effective use of one linguistic operation causes an exponential step-up magnification of communicative power as it progresses and amplifies through each level.
Worked Example
Consider, for example, when the communicator intends to explain how brave Ahmed is. The communicator could say an ordinary statement such as, "Ahmed is brave" (Aḥmad shujāʿun). This would be a truthful and correct statement. However, if the communicator had the intent of intensifying the addressee's perception of Ahmed's bravery, a Simile such as, "Ahmed is like a lion in bravery" (Aḥmad kal-asad fī al-shajāʿa) could be used. In this linguistic operation, Ahmed's bravery is stated to be similar to a lion's bravery.
This linguistic operation of explicit comparison establishes a cognitive relationship between the communicator and the addressee. The relationship depends on a crucial shared understanding: that lions are exceptionally brave. The relationship causes the addressee to equate Ahmed's bravery with a lion's bravery. If all the links in the chain have worked, the communicator will have evoked a heightened impression of Ahmed's bravery in the mind of the addressee.
The four-level Model for Rhetorical Action can be applied to any rhetorical action. As an example, in Metaphor, the linguistic operation is semantic transfer from one word to another, the cognitive relationship is projection of attributes from one semantic domain to another, and the rhetorical effect may be emphasis, compression, or emotional force - which may or may not have been the communicator's intent.
Analytical Significance
From the rhetorical critic's point of view, the Model also exposes each discrete level for independent analysis. The distinction between these four levels is necessary because rhetorical analysis otherwise collapses these levels into one, causing confusion and disagreement amongst critics. Multiple linguistic operations and rhetorical devices may establish a relationship between communicator and addressee. The resulting pragmatic effects may or may not correspond with the communicator's original intent. A rhetorical device that performs a linguistic operation is not identical to the relationship it creates, nor to the pragmatic effect it produces, which in turn may not be the effect that was intended.
Relationship with the Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric
Built upon the theoretical foundation provided by the Model for Rhetorical Action, the Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric primarily catalogues rhetorical devices at the Linguistic Operation Level through a linguistic operation typology, as described in the Design Principles of the Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric. Rhetorical device descriptions include possible pragmatic effects. A separate page describes common Rhetorical Relationships. The Principles for Identifying Arabic Rhetorical Devices operationalise the four-level Model for practical rhetorical analysis.
The relationship between the theoretical Model and the identification framework is shown below:
| Model for Rhetorical Action level | Identification consequence |
|---|---|
| Communicator intent | Excluded from direct analysis (Principle 1) *See note below |
| Linguistic operation | Evaluated in Step 1 ("Identification of a hallmark linguistic operation") and Step 2 ("Substitution with non-rhetoric equivalent") |
| Cognitive relationship | Evaluated in Step 3 ("Identification of positive contextual indicators of rhetorical usage") |
| Pragmatic effect | Evaluated in Step 4 ("Evidence of possible rhetorical effect") |
* A note on communicator intent: Communicator intent occupies a distinctive position within the Model for Rhetorical Action. Theoretically, communicator intent is relevant to explaining rhetorical action, but it is not a necessary condition for rhetorical action to occur: an identifiable linguistic operation may function rhetorically for an addressee even where the communicator did not consciously intend that rhetorical action. Analytically, communicator intent cannot ordinarily be established post hoc from linguistic evidence alone and is therefore excluded from direct analysis. Where a rhetorical interpretation is supported by the identifiable linguistic operation and its contextual relationship with the addressee, the absence of demonstrable communicator intent does not preclude its identification as a rhetorical event.
Page History
- 2026-08-16 - Page created Model for Rhetorical Action by promoting the Model for Rhetorical Action section from Design Principles of the Encyclopedia of Arabic Rhetoric to an independent document.
