A Pragma-Dialectical Study of Personal Attack in China-Related Letters to the Editorof The New York Times

• Autores: Lu Pinchao
• Localización: Sinología hispánica, ISSN-e 2531-2219, ISSN 2444-832X, Nº. 3, 2016, págs. 79-100
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article under the research frameworkof pragma-dialectics, analyses the use of personalattacks in the China-related Letters to theEditor of The New York Times, and evaluates itsreasonableness. The research results show thatthe personal attacks in the China-related Lettersto the Editor of The New York Times can bemainly classified into three subtypes: the abusivevariant (insult others), the circumstantial variant(suspect motives) and the tu quoque (you also).Both reasonable and unreasonable use of personalattack are identified. The unreasonable use ofpersonal attack is mainly caused by: (1) the useof personal attack prevents the opponents fromcasting doubts or proposing his or herstandpoint; (2) the use of personal attack hasdeficiency or even is invalid in logic, failing inthe examination of critical questions. Onaccount of this, the related discourse subjectsin similar kind of discourse practice, should: (1)design their arguments reasonably according tothe code of conduct of critical discussion (TenCommandments); (2) consider the audience asan extremely rigor one, making sure that theargument can pass any critical examination,and so the rational and responsible figure of theproponents can be guaranteed.