Abstract Designers routinely justify or substantiate their design decisions and need to persuade various stakeholders that their verbalized rationales are legitimate and appropriate. This paper thus starts from the assumption that verbal justification, as a major part of any design process, may be interrogated from a rhetorical perspective. Furthermore, insofar as designers are socialized to provide “proper” justifications for their design actions, their selectively expressed rationalizations can reveal ideological orientations within the larger design community. To interrogate the discursive framing of design actions, this paper introduces Kenneth Burke’s theory on a “grammar of motives.” This paper shows how a “grammar of design motives” can be utilized to analyze and critique design justifications and enhance designers’ awareness of how they articulate themselves rhetorically. Furthermore, as an interpretive guide, Burke’s framework can reveal patterns in design discourse, providing clues about dominant discursive conventions and, by extension, more deeply held conceptions of good practice.

中文翻译：

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迈向设计动机的语法

摘要 设计师经常证明或证实他们的设计决策，并需要说服各种利益相关者他们的口头理由是合法和适当的。因此，本文从这样一个假设开始，即作为任何设计过程的主要部分的口头论证，都可以从修辞的角度进行审问。此外，就设计师社会化为他们的设计行为提供“适当”的理由而言，他们有选择地表达的合理化可以揭示更大的设计社区内的意识形态取向。为了探究设计行为的话语框架，本文介绍了肯尼斯·伯克的“动机语法”理论。” 本文展示了如何利用“设计动机语法”来分析和批判设计理由，并提高设计师对他们如何用修辞表达自己的意识。此外，作为解释指南，伯克的框架可以揭示设计话语中的模式，提供有关主导话语惯例的线索，进而提供更深入的良好实践概念。