Browsing by Author "Koskinen, Heikki"

The aim of this thesis is to examine the rhetorical means used in vegetarian cookbooks. The study explains what kind of rhetorical means vegetarian cookbook authors use in order to persuade readers to become vegetarians. This research also explains how marginal position of vegetarian diet in Finnish food culture appears in the use of these rhetorical means. The theoretical background of this study is based on the evolution of vegetarian diets and on different standpoints to rhetoric and argumentation. The research questions are: 1. What kind of means of rhetorical convincing are utilised in vegetarian cookbooks? 2. How marginal position of vegetarian diet appears in the use of rhetorical means? The material of this discourse analysis was gathered from 22 vegetarian cookbooks. To subject of the analysis was selected such text entities where authors discussed their stance on vegetarian diets and where they examined their perceptions to vegetarian choice. This kind of ready-made research material can be called naturalistic because researcher has not participated in the production of the material. The research material was analysed by using rhetorical means of Jokinen (1999). The use of rhetorical means was versatile and abundant in vegetarian cook books. Almost every category of rhetorical means by Jokinen (1999) was utilised by cook book authors. Only rhetorical mean, called ´factual speech´, was not noticed in the research material. In addition to rhetorical means by Jokinen, two other rhetorical ways of convincing were found from the material. However, the use of rhetorical questions and irony was unimportant. The use of rhetorical means was also very flexible as often one rhetorical mean contained elements from another. The marginal position of vegetarian diet appeared in two ways. First, cook book authors described vegetarian diets with positive images and definitions. On the contrary, foods of animal origin were described with negative expressions. The cook book authors also portrayed a theme of change on many levels while assuring readers.