Vikten ligger i det som lämnas osagt : En kritisk diskursanalys av entymem i partiledardebatten i SVT:s Agenda

Sammanfattning: The study aims to increase the understanding of how the rhetorical device enthymeme is used in a Swedish party leader debate on the show Agenda on SVT. The study also chooses a more complex and problematized description of enthymemes where they are seen as more than rhetorical syllogisms, and which suggests they can act as methods for analyzing discursive practices. With that, the method Critical Discourse Analysis was chosen to analyze how enthymemes work and are constructed in the text, how they can create discourses, and how these discourses have a relation to or affect society at large.A scheme for analysis was created and based on Walkers (1994) description of the enthymeme, and includes an analysis on a textual level of argumentative structure (including implicit or explicit premises and conclusions), modality and tonality, lexical choices, interactional control, kairos, aptum, doxa, and stylistic devices. In total, 21 enthymemes were found in the debate, and 10 of them were chosen as particularly interesting for further analysis. The analysis shows that all party leaders use enthymemes in the debate, as well as the importance of the implicit information and knowledge used. The analysis also shows that the description of enthymemes as more complex than a rhetorical syllogism is correct, and that Critical Discourse Analysis can reveal more about the workings of enthymemes as the method analyzes on several levels with great care for context.