3The Linguistics of Argumentation
There is a great diversity of argumentative texts, among which are news editorials, judicial deliberations, blog posts and radio or TV debates. Texts may originate from oral transcriptions, with limitations on the oral features (see Chapter 9). An argumentative text is generally organized around a main claim and possibly a set of secondary claims. When the text is long or complex, it may include several main claims found in different text sections, which may be related or not. This is the case, for example, in political debates where different topics may be addressed. Statements for or against these claims are developed in the text. These statements may also appear in various types of discourses that are not argumentative, for example in texts that are factual or that develop an explanation on a given topic. It is their relation with a claim that gives them their argumentative orientation.
Given a text, the problem is then to be able (1) to identify if it is argumentative and, if so, (2) to identify claims, hierarchies of claims, and their related supports and attacks. All supports or attacks do not have the same importance: they are more or less strong and central with respect to a claim. Secondary or peripheral statements with respect to a claim are probably less useful than the most central ones. The overall argumentative organization of a text is called an argumentation.
It is not easy to identify arguments and the structure of an argumentation ...
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