ABSTRACT
In this contribution, I would like to begin with an overview of ancient and modern traditions of rhetoric and argumentation. These traditions can be useful for Critical Discourse Studies because they provide important research tools for the critical analysis of spoken or written texts. This short overview will first deal with Classical Rhetoric (Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian), then introduce the New Rhetoric developed by Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca and subsequently finish with a brief survey of contemporary theories of argumentation. After this short overview, I would like to select some especially important tools for the description and critical evaluation of argumentative texts. Firstly, argument schemes are described. Secondly, norms of rational argumentation, which can be used for the critical analysis of potentially fallacious arguments, are discussed. Thirdly, the techniques of verbal presentation are dealt with. A short case study will apply the insights of rhetoric and argumentation theory to the critical analysis of a specific argumentative text, taken from the genre of political rhetoric. The speeches I have chosen are M. K. Gandhi’s Quit India speeches (August 7–8, 1942).
