Rhetorical Analysis Of Rose Petal Eau De Parfum

The clip begins with the tranquil sound of spa-like music. Cognitively, this captures attention and urges hearers to imagine contexts associated with the senses. Speaker A opens the discourse and makes full use of phonologic and semantic features to guide hearers into the context of a perfume commercial. For example, “rose petal eau de parfum” (L.2) resembles a perfume slogan by means of its phrasing and semantically related words. The French term ‘parfum’ means perfume in English and is synonymous with “fragrance” (L.5). While ‘rose petal’ denotes to a part of a rose and is a meronym of flower. The meaning of the expression is carried by sense, and interrelated with patterns of concurring words. In line three, “aroma” relates to “floral scents”

Alliteration of the /p/ consonant in ‘petal’ and ‘parfum’, is pronounced with small puffs of air which create a sensual, breathy quality. While in lines three - seven, repetition of the /s/ consonant is stressed by jets of air hitting the back of the teeth. These aspirated sibilants create a whispered, hissing effect that enhance the sensual resonance of utterances ‘to allow hearers to infer meaning’ (The Open University, Unit 7, 2018). As a tool of persuasion, alliteration and sibilance not only seduce hearers with their phonological effects, but entice them to the most important aspects of the

Yet the way people imply meaning may also convey a sense of individuality. For example, speaker A is being overly prolific with her description of perfume, which in Grice’s terms, means she is ‘flouting’ the ‘maxim of manner’ (Grice,1975, n.p). Instead of being direct, she goes all around the houses to get her point across. This is where speaker B (a child) cuts in; “with a stick in an old jam jar” (L.14). The utterance creates an overlap and changes the focus of context and meaning. The hearer establishes this by referring to the sequential context - “the back of the garden” (L.10), which was uttered in the first part of the adjacency pair. The child’s utterance foregrounds the new location, and takes the sequence further in a ‘new linguistic format’ (Seedhouse, 2013,