Enthymeme...what a weird word. If you were talking to me and out of your mouth came the word "enthymeme" I would have thought you were crazy. But of course that was before English 314 and before I was introduced to the word "enthymeme". So I think enthymemes are everywhere, but we don't pick up on the fact that they are so common because we don't look for them. In case you have forgotten or didn't hear in class, an enthymeme is an informal way of reasoning through things that is typical of rhetoric discourse and the major or minor premise is left out since it is implied. This is also called a "truncated syllogism". But the definition isn't the point of this blog post; the point is that it is everywhere and we don't realize it since we aren't looking for it.
Now that we know what an enthymeme is, can you recall a recent conversation or an important conversation and think how many enthymemes there were in it? Can you see how many enthymemes you actually produced? Can you see if the other person actually understood what you were saying? I can say I am definitely guilty of using enthymemes as a way to imply something with out having to explain the whole idea/situation/task. But not saying the whole thing gets me in trouble because usually my boyfriend gets mad at me when he doesn't know what I'm talking about. Which then I have to go through and explain. I'm not sure if that is the exact right idea of an enthymeme, but that is one of the things I first though about when I sat down to write this blog post.
I know I have incorporated the technical definition for an enthymeme and you have seen how I interpret it, but how do you interpret an enthymeme?
man imagine if you tried to have a conversation without using enthymemes though.
ReplyDeleteMe: "hey do you want to go to a picnic?"
You: "It looks really cloudy."
Me: "Thanks for changing the subject, ya jerk?"
You: "No I mean I think it's going to rain"
Me: "Look I just want to go sit on a blanket and eat sandwiches"
You: "Ummmm...."
Me: "So you don't want to go, eh?"
You: "If it's cloudy it will rain
If it rains your picnic is ruined"
It's cloudy therefore your picnic is ruined."
Me: " Oooooohhhh!"
You[walking away]: "Dumb-ass"
Haha, I like the situation and I agree with the post and the comment. We use enthymemes all the time and don't even realize it. I know if I was the "you" in the above conversation, I would reply with "It looks cloudy, so a picnic would be a bad idea." (I'm sure just about everyone would respond this way) We just expected our audience to understand that clouds usually mean rain, and rain is usually bad for picnics. I believe this would be an enthymeme since I do not explicitly say "It looks cloudy, so it will rain, so a picnic is a bad idea."
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