LAS PREGUNTAS RETÓRICAS EN CATILINARIA I DE CICERÓN

Abstract

This article presents the research project "Rhetorical and Pragmatic Strategies Used by Cicero in Some Speeches" written by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia´s research group “Lingüística y educación” (linguistics and education). The aim of this study is to analyze the rhetorical and pragmatic strategies employed by Cicero in some of his speeches, specifically; the way in which Cicero uses rhetorical questions in The First Catilinarian (Catil. I), as discursive strategies, to provide with argumentative force his speech. The analysis articulates the pragmatic and rhetorical explanation of this kind of rhetorical questions. It is necessary to take into account that rhetorical questions perform the act of asking apparently, since their main role is to make modalized assertions.

The paper is divided into three sections. The first one presents the general context of the topic, based on the issues and the characterization of the type of discourse from a linguistic and rhetorical perspective. The second presents the general analysis. And finally, there are some conclusions of the study.