"Rhetoric is useful because things that are true and things that are just have a natural tendency to prevail over their opposites, so that if the decisions are not what they ought to be, the defeat must be due to the speakers.
Things that are true and things that are better are, by their nature, practically always easier to prove and more persuasive."
Aristotle, Rhetoric
Who we are
Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics of USI
The Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) develops its research and teaching around three areas of interest:
- The reconstruction and evaluation of argumentation in different forms of discourse and different social contexts of communication,
- The semantic and pragmatic analysis of text and dialogue in relation to the linguistic resources deployed,
- The integration of verbal and non-verbal semiotic resources within multimodal and multimedia communicative strategies.
The didactic and research activities of IALS are centered in particular on the role of argumentation, rhetoric (both verbal and multimodal strategies) and interpersonal communication in the professional practices of financial communication, public communication, mediation, media and social media, and advertising.
IALS is supported by the Faculty of Communication, culture and society.
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Director |
Prof. Andrea Rocci
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People |
The complete list is available at the following page:
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Events
What we do
Education
The Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) is responsible for several courses at Bachelor's, Master's and PhD's level, and coordinates a Master's programme.
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Bachelor |
IALS is responsible for several courses in the fields of argumentation, linguistics and semiotics within the following programmes: The Institute also coordinates the teaching of German, French and English language, culture and writing.
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Master |
IALS coordinates the offered jointly by USI (Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society) and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy (Faculty of Banking, Finance and Insurance).
The Institute is also responsible for several courses in its areas of expertise within other Master's programmes offered by USI |
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PhD |
Doctoral Programme Managing Languages, Arguments and Narratives in the Datafied Society The Doctoral Programme in Applied Linguistic "Managing Languages, Arguments and Narratives in the Datafied Society", is financed by swissuniversities, and offers interdisciplinary educational and research activities focused on argumentation in professional practice, especially in professions related to communication and language (such as journalism, advertising, corporate and institutional communication, translation and interpreting). The programme is organised by IALS in cooperation with the Department of Applied Linguistic of ZHAW (Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, ZHAW) and counts on a national and international network of experts in argumentation and applied linguistic. Click here for further information
Other PhD programmes In addition, IALS contributes to doctoral education in the following programmes: |
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Research
The Institute of Argumentation, Linguistics and Semiotics (IALS) conducts research projects that are characterised by a strong interdisciplinary focus, in the context of a network that includes academic partners at national and international level.
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Projects |
The list of IALS research projects - active and completed - can be found on the link below:
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Publications |
The list of IALS main scientific publications can be found on the link below:
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Areas of main expertise
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