Arguments as abstract objects

Abstract

In recent discussions concerning the definition of argument, it has been maintained that the word 'argument' exhibits the process-product ambiguity, or an act/object ambiguity. Drawing on literature on lexical ambiguity we argue that 'argument' is not ambiguous. The term 'argument' refers to an object, not to a speech act. We also examine some of the important implications of our argument by considering the question: what sort of abstract objects are arguments? © Paul Simard-Smith and Andrei Moldovan.