Why Pragma-rhetoric?

An Interview with Professor Hou Guojin

Abstract

The following is Xiaopei Lin’s interview with Guojin Hou about his new book Pragma-rhetoric: Pragma-rhetorical Competence vs. Failures and the new discipline of pragma-rhetoric. Hou has 26 years of experience in pragmatics and over ten in rhetoric. This interview focuses on the new discipline of pragma-rhetoric as well as the new book: the advent of the discipline, the essence, the principle, and the framework of pragma-rhetoric, and how to improve pragma-rhetorical competence and avoid pragma-rhetorical failures in verbal and nonverbal communication.