Paul Chilton
University of East Anglia
p.a.chilton@uea.ac.uk

Argumentation Strategies in Mein Kampf: An approach from Cognitive Linguistics

Much ink has been spilled on the language and style not only of Hitler but of nazi-period German in general. This paper, however, uses some of the techniques of linguistics, and of cognitive linguistics in particular, to explore the relationships between language-use and conceptualisation in one particular text. The argumentation of Mein Kampf rests on two pivots: a quasi-logical deductive process, and assertions about natural kinds and natural processes. It is not original to point out that the style of the text is profoundly rhetorical, and, more specifically, metaphorical. The analysis I shall present seeks to shed light on some of the precise mechanisms that produce a text that readers may conceptualise as  coherent and persuasive. Analysis of samples of the text involves processing the text through a serious of technical filters, including an analysis of the argument structure of the syntax. It also includes filtering the text for recurrent metaphors, especially those based on the image-schemata of Container, Up-Down, Path, Disease, etc. The aim is to show how reasoning is carried out largely by stipulation of image schemata and their consequent metaphorical entailments.