Paroemiological argumentation in Italian and French journalistic discourse

Abstract

Proverbs are often used in argumentation to convey an epistemic or deontic point of view. While their argumentative potential has not failed to gain the attention of linguists, much remains to be done in terms of analyzing their pragmatic function in single argumentative contexts and languages. With a view to this desideratum, and embracing a contrastive perspective, I pose the question of the argumentative role of proverbs in Italian and French journalistic discourse. In a pragma-dialectical framework, I take the rhetorical perspective to pertain to argumentation as much as the dialectical one and show the potential of proverbs in both spheres. However, I then focus mainly the former perspective, showing how paroemiological argumentation can help mitigate the difference of opinion especially in the case of dissent and facilitate argumentative effectiveness thanks to protagonist-centered and antagonist-oriented strategies involving linguistic polyphony and non-directness.