Figures, politeness and textual organization

Rhetorical figures, which were listed by classical rhetoric as 'figures of thought', seem to derive their effect by combining forms of politeness with maximized argumentative strength. This study will concentrate on three of them: precaution, communication and deliberation, and show that their rheto rical efficiency consists mainly in global discursive awareness, in the met adiscursive aspect of some modes of interaction, and in the strategic distr ibution of those figures in the linear structure of the text. (C) 2001 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.