Cant [ Language & Speech ]
… Image ‘The scheming triumvirate’, © The Trustees of the British Museum, 1760. Résumé In the eighteenth century, ‘cant’ was a word widely used in controversies to disqualify the opponent's language and rhetoric. It first referred to the secret language of thieves but then was used to criticise an excessive use of ready-made phrases. Accusations of ‘cant’, i.e. of hypocrisy, flourished in a century that saw the development of new models of sociability relying on … as of emotional preaching. Concepts > Language & Speech Mots-clés Controversy Conversation Hypocrisy Rhetoric Nowadays, ‘cant’ is used in English to refer to professional jargons, but the word was more widely used in the long …
Controversy | Conversation | Hypocrisy | Rhetoric
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