Rhetorical devices

A rhetorical device (or means of discourse) is a linguistic-literary method and method of oratory (rhetoric) used by the writer or speaker to persuade his or her recipients (the listeners or readers) and arouse their emotions. Rhetorical devices can be central to a speech or article and their purpose is to attract the attention of the target audience, identify them with the message or motivate them to act. Discourse devices emphasise and clarify the message or enable the speaker (the addressee, the presenter) to mask and conceal undesirable parts.

Rhetoric is the art of speaking, i.e. the art of persuasion, and rhetorical devices are the types of speech used to compose a successful speech that achieves its goals. However, today (contrary to Aristotle's definition) the term rhetorical means is no longer understood to refer to the logical content of the speech itself, but only to the linguistic means used by the writer to persuade his addressees without adding any actual content.

The analysis of ways of speaking and means of discourse began in ancient times and is known from the writings of the Greek Aristotle and the orator Isocrates. In the last fifty years or so, a branch of discourse research (critical linguistics) has developed in science that examines the means of discourse, identifies trends and sorts and analyses current and past political and news media discourse on the basis of the distinction between rhetorical means.

Among the modes and means of speech that can be used for propaganda, for statesmanlike (political) purposes and for purposes of advertising or ideological persuasion (ideological or religious), there are different types of speech methods that are intended to gain the attention and trust of the recipient who listens, reads or sees what is presented to them.