A Pragma-Dialectical Investigation Into Argument By Appeal To Pity In The Spokespersons' Replies At Daily Press Briefings Of U.S. Department Of State

The spokespersons'replies at the daily press briefings of the U.S.Department of State,as a typical kind of media diplomatic discourse,are fundamentally argumentative,since they are intended to convince the international audience of the U.S.government's standpoints by advancing well-designed argumentation.Unfortunately,previous studies on media diplomatic discourse including governmental spokespersons'replies have barely taken the perspective of argumentation.Within the research framework of Pragma-Dialectics,this research investigates the argument by“appeal to pity”frequently and typically used in the spokesperson's replies at the daily press briefings of the U.S.Department of State from November 1^st,2015 to January19^th,2017.Three research questions are intended to be answered:1.What institutional preconditions constrain the spokespersons'argumentative replies at the daily press briefings of the U.S.Department of State?2.What subtypes of appeal to pity arguments are typically used in the spokespersons'replies?3.How do the spokespersons maneuver strategically in convincing their audience by using the various subtypes of appeal to pity?As shown in the research results,the spokespersons'use of argument by appeal to pity is affected by eight intrinsic constraints embedded in the institutional contexts.It is observed from the data that two subtypes of argument by appeal to pity are frequently and typically used at the daily press briefings of U.S.Department of State:1.appeal to pity caused by physical suffering,which includes,among others,the suffering of death,hunger and injury,and 2.appeal to pity caused by mental suffering,which includes the suffering of grief,desperation,fear,and excessive pressure.In addition,in adopting different subtypes of argument by appeal to pity,the spokespersons are prone to maneuver strategically from the aspects of“topical potential”,“audience demand”and“presentational devices”to emphasize the“size”of the suffering,“non-desert”of the sufferred and pitier's“eudaimonistic judgment”,because these three factors are effective in constructing people's recognition of“pity”.