Linguistic Argumentation as a Shortcut for the Empirical Study of Argumentative Strategies

Abstract

A recent interest for the empirical observation of argumentation through institutional practices was underlined by van Eemeren (Strategic maneuvering in argumentative discourse. Extending the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins 2010). Since discourses give empirical hints which inform the observer on the institutional conventionalized practices involved in the study of strategic manoeuvring, there must be ways of describing meaning which allows to account for the dynamics of this field: a study of these ways is the object of this paper.