Glossary of Rhetoric Terms - D

D

• Data. Stephen Toulmin. Initial evidence supporting a claim.

• Deconstruction. Analyzing communication artifacts by scrutinizing their meaning and related assumptions, with the goal of determining the social and systemic connotations behind their structure.

• Deduction. Moving from an overall hypothesis to infer something specific about that hypothesis.

• Delectare, To delight; viewed by Cicero as one of the three goals of rhetoric.

• Delivery. Canon #5 in Cicero's list of rhetorical canons; traditionally linked to oral rhetoric, refers to how a speech is given (including tone of voice and nonverbal gestures, among others).

• Demos. The population of an ancient Greek state, considered a political entity; population; the common people.

• Dialectic. A rhetorical term that has been defined differently by Aristotle and Ramus, among others; generally, it means using verbal communication between people to discuss topics in order to come to an agreement about them.

• Diallage. Establishing a single point with the use of several arguments.

• Dictamen. The art of writing letters.

• Dispositio. In the classical theory of the production of speech Pronuntiatio dispositio refers to the stage of planning the structure and sequence of ideas. Often referred to as arrangement, the second of Cicero's five rhetorical canons.

• Dissoi Logoi. Contradictory arguments.

• Distribution. Dividing a whole subject into its various parts.

• Divisio. To divide into categories or classes.

• Docere. To teach; viewed by Cicero as one of the three goals of rhetoric.

• Dramatistic Way to look at the nature of language stressing on language as an action. ex. uses expressions such as 'thou shalt' and 'thou shalt not."

• Dysphemism. A term with negative associations for something in reality fairly innocuous or inoffensive.