{"id":12845,"date":"2013-02-15T22:22:54","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T06:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=12845"},"modified":"2013-02-15T22:22:54","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T06:22:54","slug":"the-2-year-old-rhetorician-at-our-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/the-2-year-old-rhetorician-at-our-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The (Two-Year-Old) Rhetorician at Our House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two-year-old<\/a>
The rhetorician in 1985 with crib, blankies and bottle. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My daughter Christina discovered the art of rhetoric right around the time she was being weaned from baby bottle to plastic cup.<\/p>\n

She would follow me into the kitchen and say solemnly, “I want milk and I don’t want it in a cup.”<\/p>\n

Her heartrending — but unspoken — plea was, “Please, Mommy, I want my bottle.”<\/p>\n

I’d cave in, of course,\u00a0and produce the desired\u00a0bottle.<\/p>\n

How’d she do that?<\/p>\n

Michael D.C. Drout, a professor of English at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, tells exactly what went down in that\u00a0 mother-daughter exchange in his Recorded Books lecture series, “A Way with Words<\/a>: Writing, Rhetoric, and the Art of Persuasion.”<\/p>\n

“A Way with Words” is one of those recorded college lecture series, and it’s a terrific resource for writers — packed with ideas for creative as well as discursive writing.<\/p>\n

It also comes in handy when talking with your two-year-old.<\/p>\n

Professor Drout defines rhetoric very simply as “the art of using words to change the social world.”<\/p>\n

In his lectures he talks about the trusty five-part essay of freshman English classes – and why it’s still something to pay attention to. He also outlines how to write a classic medieval sermon, in case you’re working on <\/a>one of those.<\/p>\n

But the handiest creative writing tip from I’ve gleaned in listening to Prof. Drout is the distinction rhetoricians make between\u00a0 locutionary statements, illocutionary statements and perlocutionary effect.<\/p>\n

The locutionary statement<\/em> is what is actually said. “We’ve run out of granola,” I might have said to my husband Jon, who did the grocery shopping at our house.<\/p>\n

The – unstated – illocutionary statement<\/em> here was my wish that Jon buy some granola the next time he went to the supermarket.<\/p>\n

The perlocutionary effect<\/em> is something quite different. If Jon did indeed restock our granola supply by the time I was ready to pour myself another bowl, then my illocutionary statement had the persuasive effect I intended.<\/p>\n

\"Tw0-year-old<\/a>
Persuasive at 26 months: She got the perlocutionary effect she was going for. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Being aware of these distinctions can help us navigate social situations, says Drout.<\/p>\n

For example, let’s say a mother says to her grown son, “You’re just like your father. He never wanted to take me to the neighborhood barbecue either.” (Locutionary statement.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The mother really means (among other things), “I want to go to the neighborhood barbecue, and I want you to take me.” (Illocutionary statement.)<\/em><\/p>\n

How the son responds to the illocutionary statement can say a lot about his character.<\/p>\n

Does he let his mother guilt him into taking her to the barbecue? (Which is what she seems to want.)<\/p>\n

Does he bristle at her whiny, manipulative ways and storm out of the room? (Which is maybe what she really wants — a fight.)<\/p>\n

Or does he perceive her whiny illocutionary statement as a sad ploy, take pity on her, and take her to the barbecue anyway? (Which may be what she truly desires in her heart of hearts.) (Perlocutionary act.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The trick, says Drout, is to pick up on the illocutionary statements lurking behind the locutionary statements we encounter every day — in our friends, in our co-workers — in the tw0-year-old in the house.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this post, you might like to read “Different From, Different Than — Which Is It?”<\/a>\u00a0 Or, “Writer’s Block and the Toxic Reader.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To share this story with your Facebook friends, click on the FB icon in the right column.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Two-year-old<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s rhetoric? I’ve always thought of it as the high-flown language of politics. But really, it’s something we humans do all the time, and that includes the two-year-old humans among us.<\/p>\n

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