The procedural and rhetorical modes of the organizing dimension of communication: Discursive analysis of a parliamentary commission

Abstract

How can we explain a phenomenon as general and as central as social organization through discourse analysis? This is the question raised by the Transformational Analysis of Discourse (TAD) which proposes treating the illocutionary dimension of all speech acts as the establishment of a relationship between an agent and a recipient through the transfer or mediation of objects. The discursive analysis described in this paper is intended to show the utility of this analysis of speech acts as a key to understanding the organizing dimension of communication. The corpus is a transcription of the deliberations of a Quebec parliamentary commission set up to decide the future of Sidbec, a public metallurgical corporation created in 1964 by the Quebec government in response to the presence of American‐owned mining operations in Quebec since the mid 1940s. In applying this method of analysis, we attempt to substantiate three hypotheses: (1) all enunciation can be interpreted as an activity of mediation (that is, an action involving the transfer of an object) between an agent and a recipient, (2) the organizing dimension of communication is found in the discursive objects circulating illocutionarily between agents and recipients, (3) perlocutionary transformations occur in two modes, namely, the “procedural” mode and the “rhetorical” mode. Through these transformations, we aim to demonstrate that the social universe is structured and organized through “interobjectivity” (Latour), essentially through the circulation of enablements—what Greimas calls a “being able to do,” such as a permission—and constraints—what Greimas calls a “having to do,” such as advice or request. Thus, organizations exist only through such illocutionary circulation and perlocutionary fixation of objects which not only create (discursive) links between actors, but also transform their (social) identity. Even though these links are symbolic, they constitute both what ties us together and differentiates us from each other in organizations. TAD also attempts to illustrate how Rhetoric can be translated as “the art of linking.” By demonstrating how the “rhetorical” mode of the perlocutionary transformation occurs, we try to show how arguments can be analyzed according to strategies of association (or identification) and dissociation (or division) carried out in discourse. Using illustrations of these two complementary strategies, we show how people can be linked together through the perlocutionary acceptance of objects that circulate illocutionarily.