''A General Rhetoric'' is a 1970 book by the Belgian

semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

s known as Groupe µ. The first part of the book reformulates

classical rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...

within semiotics,Eco (1976) while the second part discusses the new concept of a ''general rhetoric'', which introduces rhetorical figures for storytelling, called ''figures of narration''. It became a classic of human sciences and has been translated in more than 20 languages.

Figures of narration

Groupe µ categorized the figures of narration are following Hjelmslev's sign model, and included in the analysis of each group the perspective of two fundamental aspects of

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintili ...

's classical rhetoric: the principle of deviation from a norm,Nöth (1990) pp.341,358 and the four fundamental operations for such of variation. Hjelmslev distinguished between the expression plane and the content plane, and then further between form and substance.Nöth (1990) Moreover, Hjelmslev's considered the "internal structure of language" to be a system of ''figurae'', which he considered, instead of the

sign A sign is an Physical object, object, quality (philosophy), quality, event, or Non-physical entity, entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to ...

, to be the ultimate semiotic unity.Hjelmslev 943/ref>Beaugrande (1991) His analysis distinguished between ''expression-figurae'' (or ''figurae of the expression plane'') and ''content-figurae'', and then within each between form and content.Groupe µ, section II.2.0 Groupe µ's essay discusses ''figures of the substance of expression '', ''figures of the form of expression'', and ''figures of form of content''. They avoid discussion the ''figures of the substance of content'', wondering if they are actually conceivable, and leave them to future works building a universal theory of semantics. For the figures of the substance of expression they make the examples of

diction Diction ( la, dictionem (nom. ), "a saying, expression, word"), in its original meaning, is a writer's or speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story.Crannell (1997) ''Glossary'', p. 406 In its common meanin ...

in speech and the

font In movable type, metal typesetting, a font is a particular #Characteristics, size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "Sort (typesetting), sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of ...

of a written text. Following a quote from Hjelmslev, they define variations in the substance of expression as variation in the modalities of the physical medium.Groupe µ, section II.2.1.1 ''Physical medium and substance'' For speech, they make examples of possible different modalities of enunciation of a text, like reading it with monotone diction, with emphatic diction, or singing it, which are all variations from the established "norm" of reading text "normally". For written text, whose substance is graphic, the modalities of variation of the substance of expression include

handwriting Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface A typeface (or font family) is ...

and fonts. In printing a book, it is possible to choose among several fonts: in the final results, the physical medium and substance will be the same, they will just have different modalities. Regarding the definition of ''form of expression'', one of the examples given is

syntactic play In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...

Editions

*1970, original French edition published by Larousse *1981, English translation by Paul B. Burrell and Edgar M. Slotkin. Johns Hopkins University Press *1982, paperback edition, published by Seuil (collection "Points").

Figures of narration

Editions

References

Further reading

Further reading