Steve Oswald

Steve Oswald is a Full Professor in the Department of English at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, University of Fribourg. Holding a Doctorate in Human and Social Sciences, he has been a Full Professor since 2024, previously serving as a Senior Lecturer. His academic work bridges linguistics, philosophy, and cognitive science with a particular focus on the intersection of pragmatics and argumentation.

Professor Oswald's research interests span several interconnected areas within linguistic and cognitive approaches to argumentation. His work explores how pragmatic principles shape argumentative discourse, with special attention to implicit meaning, rephrasing strategies, and the cognitive mechanisms underlying persuasive communication. He investigates how rhetorical strategies function at the interface of cognition, language sciences, and society, examining both theoretical foundations and practical applications in public discourse.

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on experimental approaches to argumentation, particularly examining the rhetorical effectiveness of insinuations, the dynamics of rephrasing in argumentative contexts, and the norms governing public argumentation. His work often combines theoretical linguistic frameworks with empirical methodologies to investigate how different types of implicit meaning can trigger specific rhetorical effects.

Professor Oswald leads significant research projects including "AMoRe - Argumentative Model of Rephrase" (2022-2025) and "Implicit Meaning in Argumentation: Functions, Usages and Norms" (2021-2025), both funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. He has also been instrumental in organizing major academic events such as the European Conference on Argumentation series.

His scholarly contributions include editing influential volumes such as "Rhetoric and Cognition: Theoretical Perspectives and Persuasive Strategies" (2014) and co-editing "The Pandemic of Argumentation" (2022), which examine the cognitive underpinnings of rhetorical strategies and their applications in contemporary discourse.