Forms of appeal

In Boris Johnson's speech on the EU referendum, logos and ethos are the dominant forms of appeal, but examples of pathos are also presen…

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Logos

Johnson often appeals to logos support his claims that the EU is a broken system that the UK needs to leave, mostly by referencing statistical evidence.

For example, he uses statistics to convince the audience that the UK is losing both legislative autonomy and money while being part of the EU: “…the House of Commons Library has r…

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Ethos

Boris Johnson appeals to trust or authority in the speech whenever he wants to make himself or the Leave camp appear trustworthy and knowledgeable.

Johnson tries to make himself appear knowledgeable on European issues, something which would give him the necessary authority to discuss th…

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Pathos

Johnson occasionally appeals to emotions in the speech. When he does, he mostly refers to negative emotions like frustration or sadness, to remind the audience of their disillusionment with the EU project: “It is sad that our powers of economic self-government have become so straitened that…” (ll. 89-90); “It is very worrying that the European Court of Justice – Luxembourg, not Strasbourg – should now be freely adjudicating on human rights…” (ll. 94-95)

However, when he talks abou…