English 472: Rhetorical Studies, Fall 2005

Kenneth Burke

Definition of Key Terms and Concepts

Rhetoric
Burkean rhetoric is defined as "the use of words by human agents to form attitudes or to introduce in other human agents." Rhetoric is "rooted in an essential function of language itself,...the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols." Includes spoken and written discourse.

Consubstantial
We form selves or identities through various properties or substances, including physical objects, occupations, friends, activities, beliefs and values. Occurs when two entities are united in substance through common ideas, attitudes, possessions or properties.

Identification
Used synonymously with consubstantial. It is the key to persuasion. As we share substances, we come to identify with others. As we speak each other's language, we become consubstantial.

Division
Also called "alienation" or "dissociation", this is the notion that human beings are inevitably isolated and divided from each other as a result of their separate physical bodies.

Form
"An arousing and fulfillment of desires" or "the creation of an appetite in the mind of the auditor, and the adequate satisfying of that appetite."

Dramatism
Burke uses this "critical metaphor" to explain human motivation through the analysis of drama. It is "a technique of analysis of language and of thought as basically modes of action rather than a means of conveying information."

Symbolicity
The neurological aspect of the human being that corresponds to action that is concerned more with mental processes.

Pentad
A tool or method of analysis used to discover the motivation in symbolic action. It is a critical instrument designed to reduce statements of motives to the most fundamental level. Act, Scene, Agent, Agency, Purpose (and later, attitude)

Ratio
The term used to describe the consubstantial relationships between the elements of the pentad. There are ten ratios.

Terministic screen
The terms or vocabulary we use as a result of our occupations constitute a kind of screen that directs our attention to particular aspects of reality rather than others.

Human being
Being bodies that learn language thereby becoming wordlings, humans are the symbol-making, symbol-using, symbol-misusing animal, inventor of the negative, separated from our natural condition by instruments of our own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy, acquiring foreknowledge of death, and rotten with perfection.

Identification

  1. Identity or consubstantiation is the quality of sharing attributes.
  2. Identification is key to persuasion.
  3. Identification has several functions.
    Identification occurs through common goals/background.
    Identification occurs through common enmity/challenge.
    Identification occurs through unconscious association.
  4. Division, or lack of identification, is the natural state of separate human beings.

a. The human experience is inherently individual, and thus divisive.

b. Rhetoric is intended to replace division with identification.

Unconscious motivation occurs when identification is made without awareness or willful intent.

C. Self as Audience

1. Rhetoric can be addressed to the self according to Burke's definition.

2. By "cultivating certain ideas and images" one can "be his[/her] own audience."

D. Scope of Rhetoric

1. Burke's rhetoric encompasses both traditional and non- traditional forms of discourse.

2. Rhetoric includes both the verbal and non-verbal.

3. Rhetoric is confined to that which is "designed to elicit a 'response' of some sort."

4. "Wherever there is persuasion there is rhetoric, wherever there is meaning there is persuasion."

E. Functions of Rhetoric

1. Rhetoric always "defines situations for individuals," helping to form attitudes.

2. Rhetoric deals with problems, encouraging acceptance of the unchangeable and justifying action about the changeable.

3. Rhetoric gives commands or instructions of some kind, helping to determine actions to be taken.

F. Rhetorical Form

1. There are three major types of form, or processes of producing effects.

a. Conventional form is the expected method(s) used to craft rhetoric.

b. Repetitive form is the use of redundancy to "embody a fixed character or identity."

c. Progressive form is that which guides the audience to "anticipate or desire certain developments."

(1). Syllogistic progression is the sequential articulation of a formally presumed argument.

(2). Qualitative progression is the sequential articulation of an unanticipated argument.

2. There are also several minor rhetorical forms, such as the metaphor, paradox, reversal, contraction, expansion, and series.

II. Dramatism (181)

A. Basic Tenets

1. The theory is designed to discover human motives for acts via inquiry into words.

2. This view claims that thoughts and ideas are never free from the language used to frame them.

3. Dramatism is to be taken literally and not metaphorically, for it provides a literal statement about reality.

B. Action versus motion

1. Human nature determines the nature of action.

a. Biological actions are derivative of human animality, acquiring characteristics from human physical processes (breathing, eating, et al.)

b. Neurological actions are derivative of human symbolicity, acquiring characteristics from human mental processes (education, commerce, religion, et al.)

2. Three conditions are required for human action.

a. Freedom is required for action, as involuntary motion is merely reaction.

(1). Freedom to choose requires adequate knowledge of the act's consequences.

(2). Complete freedom is never possible, because complete knowledge of the consequences of acts can never be truly known.

b. Will is also necessary for action, as an unwilled event does not involve choice.

c. Motion is the final requirement for action, as an unreal, symbolic event certainly cannot be deemed an action.

C. Pentad (184)

1. Function of the Pentad

a. It is used as a method of analysis to ascertain the motivation in symbolic action.

b. It is a critical statement designed to reduce motives to the most fundamental level.

2. Terms of the Pentad

a. Act describes what took place in thought and deed.

b. Agent describes entity who performed the act.

c. Agency describes the means or instruments the agent employs.

d. Scene describes the background for the act, the situation in which it occurred.

e. Purpose describes the exigence which drives the agent to perform the particular act.

f. Attitude, the term Burke added after the word "pentad" has become fixed and popular, describes the manner in which the agent performed.

3. Pentadic ratios

a. Pentadic ratios describe relationships between elements of the pentad.

b. Pentadic ratios can be used to determine the appropriateness of certain components of rhetoric.

(1). Ratios suggest a relationship of propriety, suitability, or requirement among the elements.

(2). An examination of all the ratios aids the critic in discovering which term in the pentad receives the greatest attention by the rhetor.

V. Definition of the human being (197)

A. Human beings possess the use of a symbol system separate form animals and are neurological as well as biological in nature. B. Human beings are separated or alienated from our natural condition by instruments of our own making. C. Human beings have foreknowledge of their own death.

Contact: K.Heenan@asu.edu |© 2005