A stylistic basis of Burkeian identification

This article contends that many analyses utilizing the Burkeian concept of identification emphasize the ideational sources of consubstantiality contingent upon the content and context of discourse; receiving less attention is Burke's perception of a complementary formal identification evolving not so much from the lexical “matter” of discourse as from the syntactical features of its “manner” or style—regardless of content. In this attempt to clarify a stylistic basis of identification, one facet of the rhetorical effectiveness of form is explicated in terms of redundancy and the decreased information and predictability of some symbols in sequences. Admittedly, idiomatic syntax achieves a relative redundancy. The salient point emerging from this explication, however, is that identification, in the Burkeian view, may be facilitated by yet increased redundancy achieved by stylistic manipulation in favor of uncommon but more formalized syntactical patterns. Some dimensions of that functionalism are then explored.