Psychological and social models in persuasive language

Abstract

The paper focuses on the issue of mental models as pre-existing mental structures that are activated through persuasive language and which are the real locus of persuasive processes. Even if it is a platitude that language itself has no persuasive power on its own, it is important to emphasise the complexity of various cognitive structures that are the real triggering mechanism allowing language persuasive potential to be realised. Mentioning briefly psychological mechanisms of persuasion (as more prominent in the relevant literature) the author shows one social model in particular that seems to be of primary importance in persuasive discourse. The so-called Relational Model postulates universal decision-taking mechanisms, which means that it is the social model that constitutes the starting point for any analysis of possible persuasive potential of language. Far from presenting any coherent approach, the paper essentially aims at emphasising the approach to persuasion that starts from a necessary cognitive model (actually pointing out the multiplicity and complexity of such models) through which “persuasive language” may be analysed and understood, rather than analysing language first, and then anchoring language used within some relevant context.