Abstract:

Based upon grammatical, pragmatic, and rhetorical competence, and pragma-rhetoric, an emerging interface study of pragmatics and rhetoric, with its Pragma-rhetorical Principle and its corresponding framework for analysis, this paper forwards the binary opposition of pragma-rhetorical competence vs pragma-rhetorical failure. Pragma-rhetorical competence encompasses all pragmatic competence, all rhetorical competence, most of grammatical competence, communicative competence, discourse competence, strain capacity (adaptation competence), humour competence etc. entailing effectiveness of verbal and non-verbal expressions, reaching thought-emotion-kinesics-speech-act effectiveness and harmony, agreeing with the requirement of the Pragma-rhetorical Principle, and making few pragma-rhetorical failures. Eight criteria for pragma-rhetorical competence are set up. It is maintained that all people are supposed to boost their pragma-rhetorical competence in the eight facets whilst avoiding pragma-rhetorical failures of various types. The last section is an analysis of a series of cases of pragma-rhetorical acts by way of the Pragma-rhetorical Principle and its framework.

Key words: pragmatic competence, pragma-rhetoric, Pragma-rhetorical Principle, pragma-rhetorical competence, pragma-rhetorical failure