Applied Linguistics

Assignment submitted to Assist . Prof. Ali Muhsin (PhD )

By : Anmar Ahmed Kadhom
Write articles about the following:
●Persuasion and poetics
● Literary stylistics
● Language and persuasion
● Critical discourse analysis

1 – Persuasion and Poetics

Persuasion as a part of applied linguistics that is used in literary works

can be found in the language of literature by many ways . The author may
use language to indicate unreality under the heading of fiction for certain
purpose , to persuade the reader by something . To get the reader for
many areas , enjoying , lose selves in the events and learning some truths
about the real world in which the readers do live . So language in poetry
and literature in general is used to create alternatives to the real world and
to persuade the readers by alternatives .

In poetry the writher has many concepts to persuade the reader by

something . The writer use words precisely and in certain order under the
heading of rhetoric . By using the rhetorical principles the writer can
determine the readers attitudes and the writer can also change the reader
decisions according to the events and its place in the literary work . For
example , if a writer mentions a family members with some details about
their names and origins , he tries to tell and persuade the readers that
there will be latter increasingly fantastic scenes and this style can be
found in novels and the long poems .

To be persuasive , the poetic language must be resist . The power of

resistance must be emerged against any weak translation for the literary
texts because the precise translation and wording keep the real effect of
the poetic phrase . Some translations change the resonance and rhythm of
the original and also differ in meaning . The subtle translation must
lending itself to the values and ideas of new generations , and different
individuals and cultures .

In general the persuasion language depending here on reflecting and

constructing our individuals and social identities , it embodies or
criticizes the values of the society from which it comes . Here applied
linguistics after reading a poetic texts can persuade us , essentially
depending on our education and our experiences because these texts
mainly built thoughts that one can get information about from daily life or
the academic knowledge .

2 . Literary Stylistics

Literary stylistics is a matter of shifting from linguistic analysis to

applied linguistics and this shifting happens when linguistic choices are
linked to their effects upon the reader and some attempt is made at an
explanation . Literary stylistics to be applied linguistics face other
challenge because it involves no practical decision making . It's mean to
take a role in applied linguistics clarifies as an important resource for the
analysis of powerful and persuasive uses of language in general .

Literary stylistics have many areas to pass to applied linguistics . The

first entry , is the fact that in literature , the wording reflects a literal
meaning and a literary meaning , the later comes with features can be
emerged by using the literary analysis as another name for the stylistic
analyses . By using the stylistic analysis , one can differentiate between
the literal meaning and the literary language which has three aspects :

1 . Its frequent deviation from the norms of more everyday language use .
2 . Its patterning of linguistic units to create rhythms , rhymes , and
parallel constructions .
3 . The ways in which the form of the words chosen seems to augment or
intensify the meaning .

These features as a clear credibility for the literary stylistics can be

representing in repetitions of words , sounds , structures and the marks of
weakness as ( woe ) . These features and their representing can establish
the subject matter of the poems or any other literary works . So literary
stylistics is not as clear and simple as to be represented by using
dictionaries .

The features of the literary stylistics can be found out of the literary
works . They are used in the language of prayer , song and rhetoric ,
which , like literature can comfort and strengthen , inspire and identify .
In a social scope one can use such styles of language to persuasive and
emotive uses for example in commercial , political , or interpersonal
communication .

The language here depends on the forms of language uses and their
social and psychological power. It comes with such analysis that is used
to address and uncover manipulation , and to empower those who are
being manipulated .

3 . Language and Persuasion

Firstly , we can say that persuasion is a matter of truth and believing in

something . Language can be used literally or in literature to tell truth .
Our persuasion can be taken away from truth by distorting facts , or to
persuade people to take a particular stance towards them . Language in
literature in the matter of persuasive power have two sides a clear and
dark . Clear side concerns with manipulating our feelings and thoughts
though in ways which we are willing , even eager , to accept .

The dark side represents by controlling and influencing our ideas in

the service of some vested political or commercial interest . The literary
language concepts differ in these fields from the literary works . Here
language use presents lying , untrue facts , unlike like literary fiction .
Here language is used to deceive us about the real world . In false way
one can persuade you in something by using language to influence and
mislead . The danger of influencing and misleading must be resisted
because the modern societies are assailed at every turn by carefully
crafted words seeking to attract the people attention , win their support
and change behaviors . The dark side is performed by corporations ,
advertisers , politicians , journalists , pressure groups , scientists ,
celebrities , shop assistants and telephone operators . The dark side means
have two main goals :

1 . Displaying for the society members what they do , even if such doing
is just an illusion .

2 . Telling the society members why they are good for society and for the
world in general .

The responsibility of what is being said in the use of the literary

language in modern communication like the advertises is confusion for
the public discourses because there are many voices entangled in modern
communication , each one , when questioned , passing on responsibility.
This multiplicity of voices and inability to recognize as if the certain
opinion was represented by the actors or models and by the management
or shareholder , is a mean of misleading for the people to make matters
more complicated as an attempt to run away from the responsibility .
The power of words can be summarized as the decisions of the
individuals and the organizations to manipulate these words in such a
way to effect the audience . So the use of words in a certain way has sent
hidden message in a certain way to create a manner or a reflection inside
the reader , listener and the viewer . Using the words in this way is one of
the persuasion techniques that can enhance our ability to make the
rational informed judgments on which decision making depends .

4 . Critical discourse analysis

In any pattern of communication there is a selecting and omission of

some information and this representing for example through the work of
the editors of the paper who must do three missions :

A . They must choose what they will report

B . The area and the place in the paper that the information will have
C . The most important part in the editor work is choosing some facts in
preference to others . This stage can be known as the area of the critical
discourse analysis in selecting the information .

Critical discourse analysis plays another role which is related by

presenting already known facts in a different way . This aims to
influence on the reader's attitude . We have two examples from the
advertisement and literature . The food item can be truthfully described
90 % fat – free , not 10 % fat to be more attractive . The literary text
states '' what's done is done '' to show or to sign to something which may
be remorseful lament . So the central core in the critical discourse
analysis is in precise analysis of such detail that a real contribution can be
made to people's capacity to read and listen critically , and to resist being
manipulated by what is said . The analysis of such language and its
effects is known as critical linguistics or , and the direct description of
the critical discourse analysis ( CDA ) when this language is placed in a
larger social context and seen as part of a process of social change .

Presenting the facts as opinions and this technique is used mainly by the
politicians speech and the media . Facts as opinions aims to guide the
reader to a certain opinion and do not aim to reflect the real feeling of the
reader . This happens by manipulating of vocabulary , for example
using regime for government , terrorist for combatant and murder for
killing . The other technique . one can find here especially in the media is
the choices of vocabulary include reference to some countries by name
and others by their inhabitants and many certain uses and manipulation of
words to create a certain effect in the reader , viewer or listener . This is
not related only by choosing certain words to present the truth , but also
by choosing certain grammatical devices to show how the news writer
thinks people ought to feel rather than how they actually do feel .

Presenting persistent patterns of grammatical choice like passivization

and nominalization which are allowing a speaker or writer not to
mention the agent ( the person responsible for something ) . The former
means , the favouring of passive constructions over active ones , while
the later occurs when actions and processes are referred to by nouns as
though they , rather than the people doing them . Both nominalization and
passivization can make an action seem both inevitable and impersonal ,
for example '' Redundancies will be announced '' rather than '' the owners
will be firing people '' .

CDA can be notable in many areas :

1 . Political matters .
2 . New scientific research and its technological applications in areas such
as : medicine , food production and information technology .
3 . Non – specialists legitimately wish to make informed decisions about
the impact of the scientific research on individual lives , social
developments , and the environment . They are also aware of vested
commercial and political interests in particular lines of research , and a
consequent blurring of the traditional lines between objective scientific
and commercial persuasive discourse .
4 . Obfuscation and false clarity when they are used by specialists whose
work is of great social importance are confronted with the need to
communicate their specialized knowledge to the outside world .

Norm Fairclough described CDA as conversationalization and the

creation of synthetic personality . This tendency for communication
however complex or significant or however unequal the encounter , to be
presented in the register of casual conversation , as though the
relationship between the participants were equal and intimate . This
presents the opposite danger from obfuscation and the danger can be
summarized in :

1 . It may make matters simple and imprecise which need more attention .
2 . It also fails to mark in any way those areas of human intercourse , such
as the law and scientific enquiry , which legitimately demand both
indicators of their power and greater attention to detail .
There is however , a potential problem with CDA analyses which has
been noted by several applied linguists . This is that they risk attributing
too much intentionality to the writer and too much passivity to the reader.
Most texts are both constructed and interpreted in many different ways .