Abstract
Little empirical investigation of cultural influences on rhetoric has been conducted, limiting our understanding of how persuasive discourse may be enhanced in diverse contexts. To broaden our understanding of rhetorical variation and cross-cultural communication, the present study examined a variety of persuasive essays from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). English texts from college students at the highest proficiency level in the corpus (CEFR B2) were analyzed from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand. To evaluate the relationship between rhetorical variation and cultural beliefs, the frequency of first-person singular (I, me, and my), first-person plural (we, us, and our), third-person singular (he, him, his, she, and her), third-person plural (they, them, their), and second-person (you and your) pronouns and determiners was compared to cultural beliefs about power distance and individualism (vs. collectivism). Comparison using the non-parametric Spearman rho formula revealed that collective societies that accepted hierarchical differences had fewer first-person singular pronouns (rs = -.83; p =.011) and more third-person singular masculine pronouns (rs = .89; p =.003). Individualistic cultural groups had more first-person singular pronouns (rs = .78; p =.023) and less third-person singular masculine pronouns (rs = -.80; p =.017). Findings suggest that rhetorical use of pronouns for persuasion vary predictably in tandem with cultural values. Such information provides insights concerning how English rhetoric and pedagogy may be improved to enhance intercultural communication.