Accounting for Rhetorical Change: The Case of the Founding of the Austrian Academy of Science

Abstract

Using the founding of the Austrian Academy of Science as its lens, this study attempts to break new ground in three ways. First, it establishes the perception of rhetorical change as a product of underlying textual features. Second, it accounts for rhetorical change by reference to a causative factor that can be precisely located and is in no sense rhetorical. Finally, it tries to show that under the influence of a powerful model, rapid change in rhetorical practices can take place as a consequence of adherence to a preferred model. I see this as a form of learning. A conclusion reflects on the implications of this study by comparing the rhetorical changes I examine with those of another sort of learning, that which accompanies graduate training in rhetoric.