On ethos and discourse analysis (DA): theoretical overview, criticism and terminology

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to address questions relating to ethos in Discourse Analysis (DA), whether in the sense of “images of self ” that the communicator constructs in the present of the enunciation, or regarding shared images of this same orator, pre-existing the discursive event. Based on a quick conceptual pathway, there is a critical reflection on the two theoretical dimensions of ethos and on the terminology used to designate them in discursive analysis practices, namely, the tags “pre-discursive ethos” and “discursive ethos”. As will be seen, the expressions “pre-corpus ethos” and “present ethos” are preferred, as they are less imprecise. As well as this, another two questions are addressed: the interrelation of rhetorical tests and the possibility of extending ethos to the “images of others” constructed by the discourse.