This dissertation reports on the results of a study into the characteristics of epistemic topoi and the methods of their identification in a corpus of biomedical publications. The study was conceived in response to the need for a systematized description of the organization of argumentative text and discourse. This need is well recognized in knowledge-intensive fields: information processing, storage, and retrieval; corpus analysis and natural language processing; data mining, knowledge management and translation; professional training and education. The study followed the design of a situated study combined with a methodological inquiry. I used inductive methods to describe the features and functions of recurrent patterns of argumentative and linguistic organization. This part of the study consisted in close reading of a corpus of fifty-five NTG papers and rhetorical and linguistic annotation of seventeen clinical studies (45,599 words) selected from the corpus. The data was generated by means of rhetorical and linguistic analysis. Visual annotation played an essential role in the identification and description of the argumentative patterns, complementing the traditional methods of corpus analysis. Forty-eight basic and nine composite epistemic topoi forming the superstructure of the papers were identified in the corpus. The topoi were found to be loosely associated with the IMRD structure and signalled with configurations of lexicogrammatical, semantic, deictic, and coreferential features. The topoi were classified according to the modes of reasoning and textual and discursive functions. The obtained results confirmed earlier insights into the links of linguistic patterning with text and discourse semantics. A significant outcome of the linguistic analysis is a catalogue of linguistic features that were found to have regular links with the topoi in the corpus. The role of linguistic configurations as identifiers of argumentative meanings makes them a valuable medium of text and discourse analysis. By linking the argumentative meanings to the surface features of text and discourse, the analysis of linguistic configurations presents informatics practitioners with an alternative to the current methods of natural language processing and knowledge management. The catalogue of linguistic features and a detailed description of the study design make the presented findings amenable to secondary analysis, extrapolation, and generalization. The auxiliary objectives of this study were a survey of argumentative practices represented in the corpus and a review of the state of epistemic research. The results of the survey and review suggest that agonistic reasoning practices and over-reliance on reductionist models have negative implications for research writing and communication. Specifically, they hamper analysis of argumentative organization of natural text and discourse. As an alternative to agonistic argumentation, I propose an argumentation model based on Aristotle’s and Kneale’s conceptions of situated knowledge and learning. The model of textual and discursive organization that accommodates situated knowledge and learning is political stasis. This model can be used as a heuristic and analytic tool. In this dissertation I use it as an explanatory conception and as a system of reference points for identifying significant research trends both in argumentation studies and in clinical NTG research.

Christianity is not anti-intellectual; however, there is a distinct quality of anti-intellectualism in the rhetoric of the Christian Right. This thesis explores the ways in which rhetors in the Christian Right encourage anti-intellectual sentiment without explicitly claiming to be against intellectualism. I argue that the Christian Right makes these anti-intellectual arguments by invoking the tropes and topoi of populism, anti-evolution, and common sense. I analyze how Pat Robertson, as a representative of the Christian Right, used the stock argument, or topos, of populism in his 1986 speech, in which he announced his intention to run for President. I argue that while Robertson used the generic argumentative framework of populism, which is "anti-elitist," he shifted the meaning of the word "elitist" from a wealthy person to an intellectual person. This formed a trope, or turn in argument. Next, I consider the Christian Right's argument against the teaching of evolution. I analyze William J. Bryan's argument in the Scopes Trial, a defining moment in the creation-evolution debate. I show that Bryan used the topos of creationism, which included the loci of quality and order, to condemn the teaching of evolution, arguing that it would be better to not have education at all than for students to be taught something that contradicts the Bible. Finally, I consider how both Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin used the topos of common sense. Reagan used this topos to create a metaphorical narrative that was to be accepted as reality, or common sense. Sarah Palin, then, used the common sense narrative that Reagan had created to support her views. By calling her ideas "common sense" and frequently referencing Reagan, her rhetoric gives the illusion that good governing is simple, thus removing the space for an intellectual in public life.

This dissertation reports on the results of a study into the characteristics of epistemic topoi and the methods of their identification in a corpus of biomedical publications. The study was conceived in response to the need for a systematized description of the organization of argumentative text and discourse. This need is well recognized in knowledge-intensive fields: information processing, storage, and retrieval; corpus analysis and natural language processing; data mining, knowledge management and translation; professional training and education. The study followed the design of a situated study combined with a methodological inquiry. I used inductive methods to describe the features and functions of recurrent patterns of argumentative and linguistic organization. This part of the study consisted in close reading of a corpus of fifty-five NTG papers and rhetorical and linguistic annotation of seventeen clinical studies (45,599 words) selected from the corpus. The data was generated by means of rhetorical and linguistic analysis. Visual annotation played an essential role in the identification and description of the argumentative patterns, complementing the traditional methods of corpus analysis. Forty-eight basic and nine composite epistemic topoi forming the superstructure of the papers were identified in the corpus. The topoi were found to be loosely associated with the IMRD structure and signalled with configurations of lexicogrammatical, semantic, deictic, and coreferential features. The topoi were classified according to the modes of reasoning and textual and discursive functions. The obtained results confirmed earlier insights into the links of linguistic patterning with text and discourse semantics. A significant outcome of the linguistic analysis is a catalogue of linguistic features that were found to have regular links with the topoi in the corpus. The role of linguistic configurations as identifiers of argumentative meanings makes them a valuable medium of text and discourse analysis. By linking the argumentative meanings to the surface features of text and discourse, the analysis of linguistic configurations presents informatics practitioners with an alternative to the current methods of natural language processing and knowledge management. The catalogue of linguistic features and a detailed description of the study design make the presented findings amenable to secondary analysis, extrapolation, and generalization. The auxiliary objectives of this study were a survey of argumentative practices represented in the corpus and a review of the state of epistemic research. The results of the survey and review suggest that agonistic reasoning practices and over-reliance on reductionist models have negative implications for research writing and communication. Specifically, they hamper analysis of argumentative organization of natural text and discourse. As an alternative to agonistic argumentation, I propose an argumentation model based on Aristotle’s and Kneale’s conceptions of situated knowledge and learning. The model of textual and discursive organization that accommodates situated knowledge and learning is political stasis. This model can be used as a heuristic and analytic tool. In this dissertation I use it as an explanatory conception and as a system of reference points for identifying significant research trends both in argumentation studies and in clinical NTG research.

The proposed release of genetically modified mosquitoes (GMM) in the Florida Keys to combat the spread of diseases such as Zika prompted heated local debate, turning a seemingly routine mosquito control policy into a public scientific controversy. Arguments about the GMM derive from inventional commonplaces where the historical conflict between democratic systems of civic deliberation and the epistemic authority of expertise is instantiated. This project analyzes the topoi that Keys participants gather around to generate their argumentative positions as published in public, local print and digital news articles, blog posts, and letters to the editor between 2011 and 2016. Investigating the commonplaces that orient the argumentative trajectories of Keys participants reveals that each relational topos intersects with individual worldviews, risk assessments, and standards and can therefore be used for contradictory arguments. The many complex and connected factors that influence participant positions must be appreciated and acknowledged in any such civic deliberation about a science-related policy or technology. There is no easy resolution for such conflicts, such as clarifying scientific data for the public, to generate consensus; the irresolvable tension between democracy and expertise underlies public scientific controversies and requires mutual respect and appreciation for the varied reasons why people disagree to move towards more productive civic discourse.

This thesis concerns itself with the notion of a networked or cooperating library and the discursive means by which it is constructed in documents related to the formation of a national strategy of libraries in Sweden. I study the draft as presented by the national library, Kungliga Biblioteket (KB), in early 2018, the comments and advice submitted by different parts of the library sector during the fall of 2018 as well as the final proposition handed over to the Minister of Culture in March 2019. The study focuses on what defines or constitutes a networked library, on the significance of a networked library for the perceived identity of libraries and library professionals and finally, on what grounds a networked library is ascribed legitimacy or is subject to criticism. This is worth investigating because of the calls for increased collaboration and coordination of different parts of the library sector and its implications for the professional identity as well as the wider understanding of what a library is and what a library does. The method of approach is a thematic document analysis informed by discourse studies. Discursive strategies are used as the main analytic tool. Strategies are adopted from the critical vein of discourse analysis (CDA) but are applied here in a way consistent with poststructuralist discourse theory and its ontological assumptions. The results show that the library sector is going through a dilemma of redefining, adjusting, modernizing, and broadening the meaning of libraries or keeping with a long-standing tradition that not always corresponds with the library practices of today. This tradition is subject to changing conditions – not least due to the digital transformation – as much as it remains a firm ground for legitimizing the professional field. A networked library requires a stale image to be left behind in favor of a collaborative library infrastructure, extending its meaning towards a library identity which adheres to the conditions of a networked world. In conclusion, a networked library is found in the middle-ground between a traditional identity and creating a new story about libraries.

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This diploma thesis focuses primarily on the relation between inner and outer landscape in postmodern fiction, i.e. on specific concepts of individual fictional spaces and the ways in which they resonate with the protagonists' means of perception. As a particular starting point, these four works are used: Trýznivé město by D. Hodrová, Pravěk a jiné časy by O. Tokarczuková, Země vod by G. Swift and prose collections Fikce and Alef by J. L. Borges. In the diploma thesis, the term "inner landscape" refers to a spectrum of concepts connected with the theme of subjective perception, among which the most important are topics of recollection and descending into deeper layers of the space - i.e. to the symbolical or mythical layer - and, thus, deeper to understanding one's identity. Therefore, a crucial part of the diploma thesis is to grasp characteristic features of individual fictional worlds and to interpret them in relation to perception and identity of characters. This interpretation is based on the definition of individual topoi and dominants as well as on the presupposition of the vertical structure of the works which implies merging of different time, space and conceptual levels. In the diploma thesis, the dynamic aspect is accentuated so the attention is paid to the protagonists' moving through...

Uppsatsen undersöker retoriseringen av begreppet 'frihet' i svensk politik med analysfokus på Moderaternas politiska diskurs 1956-2014. Genom att synliggöra eventuella förändringar i frihetsbegreppets representationer syftar uppsatsen till att belysa hur begrepp kan fyllas med olika innebörder och visa hur de på detta sätt kan bli persuasiva som bärare av olika ideologiska föreställningar – dvs. hur till synes neutrala ord blir politiskt laddade, och med vilka medel det kan ske. / This essay discusses the concept of 'freedom' and it's rhetorization in Swedish liberal political discourse 1956-2014.

This qualitative frame analysis examines how print media handles the concept of Fundamentalist Christianity. The researcher examined news reports in four prominent national newspapers over the ten-year period between 2000 and 2009 for references made to Fundamentalist Christianity. The sample is examined on the basis of Mark Silk's "topoi," a term taken from classical rhetoric meaning commonplaces or themes (1995). Silk outlines seven common topoi on which stories about religion are written, and these are utilized as a framework for this present study. While much has been written and researched on how religious groups, Fundamentalist Christians, and Evangelicals use mass media to promote their message to a secular audience, few studies have examined how the secular press frames Fundamentalist Christianity. This study, therefore, fills an existing literature gap by dissecting the portrayal of a demographic that has had a historical and cultural media presence for more than a century.

The climate crisis has increased the demands on Swedish forestry and given fuel to an already polarized debate concerning how Swedish forests should be managed and what constitutes sustainable forestry. Questions of ownership and who should have a say in the matter is at the center of this conflict. This essay examines the topic of ownership in the Swedish forest debate. The argumentation of stakeholders in the debate was analyzed to show which topoi contribute to the conflict and create inertia towards reaching mutual understanding. Thirty-nine opinion articles from Swedish news media, published between April and October 2021, were analyzed through a critical textual analysis. Two primary groupings among the debaters were found: those who argue to strengthen the rights of forest owners, and those who argue for more regulation or conservation. Identified topoi show that emotions and trust play a key role in the conflict. Ways of working with this and possibilities for discursive meeting places are discussed. Making explicit important values, clearly defining important terms, and focusing on the right subject matters are also suggested to enhance possibilities for mutual understanding.