Retorički potencijal određenih konstrukcija u polemikama o pravopisnim pitanjima
The Rhetorical Potential of Certain Constructions in Spelling Polemics

Summary/Abstract: The paper will analyze the polemics on linguistic topics in the second half of the twentieth century from a linguistic (especially pragmalinguistic) point of view. This period was marked by very heated debates about orthographic issues of the Croatian language, which is why we consider them particularly interesting in the context of discovering the rhetorical potential of linguistic choices. In contemporary linguistic and stylistic research, polemics are underrepresented, but their significance, especially in terms of their potential to entice critical thought about language and scientific theses, is unquestionable. Polemic is viewed as a specific discourse type in which the relationship between polemicists is especially emphasized (even more than the subject being polemicized), so special attention is paid to those language constructions that polemicists use to convince the general public of the correctness of their positions. In other words, we will particularly be interested in those nouns (for example, adjectives) and constructions that polemicists use in order to present the opponent in a negative context and gain the favor of the wider (and especially the academic) community. In this manner, the research will lead us to a conclusion about the subjectivity and emotional coloring of the expression, which conflicts with the requirement for the scientific foundation of arguments and the determinants of the traditionally understood scientific style in general.

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