Actio, pronuntiatio, starkt etos och pistis : en studie av Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy och Bill Clinton

How a speaker can use their posture, gesture, facial expression and voice to create a strong ethos, pistis and sense of trustworthiness is, in this paper, associated with charisma (the power of leadership or authority). Verbal and nonverbal expressions from three particular speeches by Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton have been analyzed in depth. The results show that patos as well as strong nonverbal expression are factors in inspiring devotion or creating enthusiasm. Personal magnetism and radiance is also found to develop through figures of speech and rhetorical devices, including metaphors. Results show that facial expressions, pitch and other prosodic information are not always consciously taken in. Nevertheless, it is questioned whether such information can affect the ethos and pistis developed. This kind of subconscious infliction can be made visible by modern technical equipment. By identifying relevant para- and extralinguistic signals (so called ‘charismatic behaviors’ e.g. intense eyecontact) we can more easily understand why some people affect us greatly, while others go unnoticed