Argument Mining

4Advanced Features of Argumentation for Argument Mining

This chapter addresses a few complex challenges for argument mining and for argumentation more generally. It is not crucial to develop a simple argument mining system. It should however draw the attention of the reader interested in undertaking some research in this area.

In this chapter, we first develop a few tricky situations where opposite claims can be supported by the same justification, and where opposite justifications can support the same claim. The aim is to show that argument mining needs to cope with complex cognitive realities. Then, we discuss two topics that are crucial in argument mining: first, the need for knowledge and inference to bind a claim with an attack or a support when they are not adjacent, and second, the need to present a synthesis of the arguments that have been mined. These may be numerous and with various forms of overlap and relevance. In that case, readability is a real challenge. In this chapter, we can only report preliminary experiments and solutions since research has not reached further at the moment.

4.1. Managing incoherent claims and justifications

Argument mining reflects the complexity of human thinking. It is possible for a justification to be given for a claim and its opposite (the two standpoints involved), while still being deemed perfectly acceptable in both cases. Conversely, contradictory justifications can be mined for a given claim.

4.1.1. The case of justifications ...