Normative Discourse and Persuasion: An Analysis of Ga'dang Informal Litigation

A study of the discourse of Ga'dang, a Philippine language, focuses on normative discourse and persuasion, especially the ways in which the former is used to accomplish the latter. The first five chapters outline the theoretical framework of the study, placing normative and persuasive discourse in a philosophical context and relating them to the fields of cognitive science, to neuropsychology, and to the study of the consequences of literacy to provide an explanation for the substantial differences between Ga'dang normative discourse and that of Western society. The conciliatory nature of dispute settlement in Ga'dang is examined in relation to the sociology or ethnology of law and social control. The normative discourse of dispute settlement is seen as intended to produce group harmony and consensus. Subsequent chapters narrow the focus on normative discourse to those elements central to discourse analysis, and particularly to a distinct type of normative discourse in Ga'dang, informal litigation. The textual characteristics of a substantial portion of one litigation (appended) are identified, and the strategies of persuasion used are discussed. A scale of normativity is used to rank the features of Ga'dang normative discourse, and the results are analyzed. (MSE)