Abstract
Using insights from conversation analysis, the article analyses aphorisms from 20 different writers demonstrating how these combine common rhetorical formats. It then proposes a simple framework that allows for aphorisms to be analysed further and in terms of two continua: whether they are convex or concave, and whether they are creative or destructive. The framework supplements content-based approaches with a structural account of how aphorisms may be organized and deployed. This offers a new approach for studying leaders’ rhetoric and introduces a more detailed analysis of two speeches acknowledged as powerful pieces of oratory: Marcus Antonius’ address inJulius Caesar, and Churchill’s first speech as Prime Minister. Discussion of these speeches is informed by consideration of two contextual features that influence the impact of aphorisms: setting and sequence.
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