From Connectives to Argumentative Markers: A Quest for Markers of Argumentative Moves and of Related Aspects of Argumentative Discourse

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the potential of systematically studying the linguistic surface of discourse for the purposes of identifying markers of argumentative moves and other related categories, such as types of arguments and argumentative strategies. Such a list of argumentative markers can prove useful for the (semi)automatic treatment of a large corpus of texts. After reviewing literature on the linguistic realization of argumentative moves as well as literature on the subject of discourse markers, it becomes clear that the search for representative items of argumentative markers cannot be restricted to those elements marking relations but that it should also include elements that signal a certain function that is of pertinence to argumentative analysis. In this view, argumentative markers can be any single or complex lexical expression as well as a discursive configuration whose presence in a given utterance marks that utterance or the one preceding/following it, or a larger piece of discourse as having a certain argumentative function (as an argumentative move, a type of argument or an argumentative strategy). Examples taken from a French corpus on the controversy surrounding the development and applications of nanotechnology currently under study are used to illustrate the different types of argumentative markers proposed.

General Pragmalinguistic Overview of Some Lexical, Syntactical and Rhetoric Units in Argumentation

“…The author substantiates the view-point after reviewing literature on the linguistic realization of argumentative moves as well as literature on the subject of discourse markers, it became clear that the search for representative items of should also include elements that signal a certain function that is of pertinence to argumentative analysis: "In this view, argumentative markers can be any single or complex lexical expression as well as a discursive configuration whose presence in a given utterance marks that utterance or the one preceding/following it, or a larger piece of discourse as having a certain argumentative function (as an argumentative move, a type of argument or an argumentative strategy)" [7].…”

Proceedings of the 2017 EMNLP Workshop: Natural Language Processing meets Journalism

“…An argumentative text is one that contains argumentation, i.e., a claim supported by evidence, and presented as a coherent whole. The extensive literature on argumentation has identified linguistics aspects that pinpoint to argumentative texts (Biber, 1988;van Eemeren et al, 2007;Moens et al, 2007;Tseronis, 2011;Habernal and Gurevych, 2017). Based on this research, we include argumentation lexical cues, such as discourse connectives and stance adverbials, in our set of features.…”

Evidently epistential adverbs are argumentative indicators: A corpus-based study

“…On these grounds, this study proposes a corpus-based methodology to investigate indicators of argumentative discourse relations [39]. The advocated procedure is exemplified through the analysis of the evidential-modal adverb evidently and its Italian counterpart evidentemente, in comparable corpora of newspaper articles.…”