Rhetoric as Knowledge.

摘要

A proper assessment of the relation between discourse structure and speaker's communicative intentions requires a better understanding of communicative intentions. This contribution proposes that there is a crucial difference between intending the hearer to entertain a certain belief (or desire, or intention), and intending to affect the strength with which the hearer entertains the belief (or desire, or intention). Rhetoric, if defined as a body of knowledge about how discourse structure affects the strength with which a discourse participant entertains beliefs, desires, and intentions, can be seen to play a precise and crucial role in the planning of discourse.