Cognitive Modeling in Computational Rhetoric: Litotes, Containment and the Unexcluded Middle

Jelena Mitrović, Cliff O’Reilly, Randy Harris, Michael Granitzer

2020

Abstract

The focus of our study is the rhetorical figure litotes and its cognitive modeling. This figure is formed by a contrary term that emphatically accentuates a positive, e.g. He is not exactly an idiot (said of Albert Einstein). Lawrence Horn’s illumination of the Law of Excluded Middle and its relationship to litotes by creating an Unexcluded Middle is central to our ideas and we correlate this to Image Schema theories developed by Mark Johnson, George Lakoff and Rafael Núnez – specifically the schema of CONTAINMENT. The distinction be- ˜ tween contrary and contradictory opposition is described. We extend the assessment of the Excluded Middle from the perspective of Image Schema theory into the realm of the Unexcluded Middle and draw a representation of the layout of containers and analogous concept-activation. Lastly, we create and present an OWL ontology and publish it online.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Mitrović J., O’Reilly C., Harris R. and Granitzer M. (2020). Cognitive Modeling in Computational Rhetoric: Litotes, Containment and the Unexcluded Middle. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-395-7, pages 806-813. DOI: 10.5220/0009104908060813

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart20,
author={Jelena Mitrović and Cliff O’Reilly and Randy Harris and Michael Granitzer},
title={Cognitive Modeling in Computational Rhetoric: Litotes, Containment and the Unexcluded Middle},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,},
year={2020},
pages={806-813},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009104908060813},
isbn={978-989-758-395-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,
TI - Cognitive Modeling in Computational Rhetoric: Litotes, Containment and the Unexcluded Middle
SN - 978-989-758-395-7
AU - Mitrović J.
AU - O’Reilly C.
AU - Harris R.
AU - Granitzer M.
PY - 2020
SP - 806
EP - 813
DO - 10.5220/0009104908060813