Title: Political Rhetoric and Persuasion：A Critical Analysis Model Explained

Abstract: Political discourse has been a key issue in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). With a focus on political rhetoric, Jonathan Charteris-Black has developed an interdisciplinary model which combines concepts and theories in the fields of rhetoric, psychology and conceptual metaphor studies so as to figure out how politicians tell political myths, create brands and realize leadership through linguistic devices. By tracking the two major publications by Charteris-Black (2011, 2014), the paper illustrates the structure and methods of this model with 23 examples drawn from political speeches given by both Chinese and English politicians. The research demonstrates the explanatory power of this model. It shows that political rhetoric is not only a choice of style, but more importantly an effective tool of persuasion. Furthermore, the use of different rhetorical devices mirrors certain socio-cultural background and, at the same time can be influenced by audience’s participation and cognition.

Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, political rhetoric, persuasion

Authors: Xiaoyu Zhang, PhD candidate, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macao, Macao, China; Meifang Zhang, Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macao, Macao, China.