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Prolepsis and Rendering Futures in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Reports
Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher1, Sara Doody2, Carolyn Eckert1
1Department of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Written Communication
|February 27, 2024
Summary
This study analyzes how the rhetorical figure prolepsis shapes climate change arguments in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Area of Science:
- Rhetorical Studies
- Climate Change Communication
- Science Policy Interface
Background:
- Rhetorical figures of speech are crucial for understanding argumentation within genres.
- Prolepsis, a figure of speech, renders future events in the present to motivate action.
- The Statement for Policy Makers (SPM) is a key genre for climate crisis communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how anticipatory arguments, using prolepsis, function in the IPCC's SPM.
- To understand the role of prolepsis in shaping climate crisis discourse.
- To offer an approach combining figural and genre studies for analyzing scientific reports.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Synthesis Report's (SYR) Statement for Policy Makers (SPM).
- Application of figural studies to identify and analyze instances of prolepsis.
- Integration of Rhetorical Genre Studies to understand the genre's context and function.
Main Results:
- Prolepsis is actively employed in the SPM to frame future climate scenarios and drive policy action.
- Anticipatory arguments derived from complex data are strategically presented through prolepsis.
- The study identifies specific patterns of prolepsis within the SPM that influence policy-relevant climate discourse.
Conclusions:
- Prolepsis is a significant rhetorical tool in climate change policy documents like the SPM.
- Understanding prolepsis enhances our analysis of how scientific findings are translated into policy-relevant arguments.
- The study's approach offers a novel method for analyzing the intersection of rhetoric, genre, and scientific communication.
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