Syntactic Expression of Logical Topos in the Speeches of Russian Lawyers of the Late 19th and Early 20th Century

In the article, we make an attempt to relate logical topoi, rhetorical figures, and syntactic constructions. The research is based on the court speeches of Russian lawyers of late 19th and early 20th century. This period is considered to be the Golden Age of the Russian lawyer eloquence, thus the speeches delivered at that time by famous Russian lawyers in jury trials are of particular interest for the analysis. The speeches were chosen at random as the focus was not on the orators’ individual style but on their general strategies of syntactic expression of topoi. Although topoi have been an indispensable part of rhetorical invention since Antiquity, there still exists a discrepancy in their interpretation. In different time periods, they were regarded as the source of arguments, as clichés and even as themes that can be modified depending on orator’s objectives. In the article, we focus on the approach, which involves trichotomic classification, which includes logical topoi that are connected with logical operations. The most common topoi in lawyers speeches are those of time and place and genus and species . Within the framework of our study, they are analyzed in terms of logical operations and set theory, as well as structural schemes of sentences which were further connected with respective rhetorical figures (their functions being described for each case). The structural schemes’ analysis we used follow the principles described in Russian Grammar (1980). In the final part of the article, the results of the study are summarized. Logical operations typical for the topoi of time and place and genus and species are provided along with the most common syntactic schemes of sentences and rhetorical figures. We believe that this approach to the analysis of topoi can be beneficial both in theoretical and practical perspective and can be common to analyze the logical basis of lawyers’ argumentation, the major component of their eloquence.

syntax, topoi, logic, rhetoric, judicial oratory, argumentation theory, rhetorical figures

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