Reframing as a Persuasive Device in Public Speech: Beyond Globalized Biodiversity.

This chapter shows how reframing operates as a persuasive device in public discourse to reorient the audience’s existing beliefs according to the speaker’s viewpoint. The study considers the empirical case of a public speech reframed by a socio-ecological expert to persuade her audience of alternative perspectives on biodiversity. The main aim is to analyze the different types of frame changes intentionally used by the speaker for effective persuasive appeals, and to investi-gate how these were indexed by linguistic devices and strategies to influence the audience. Qualitative findings reveal a network of linguistic elements at play in evoking frame changes combined with linguistic markers of emotional appeals to influence the audience’s preference for the speaker’s viewpoint.