The pragmatics of argumentation
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Thomas Becker✝
Abstract
Argumentation in everyday life is a matter of pragmatics. A speaker who utters an assertion that is meant to be an argument is not only committed to the truth of the assertion itself and its presuppositions but also to the implicit premises that make the assertion a reasonable argument. For example, if a speaker utters an argumentum ad verecundiam “Dr XY said so”, he is committed to the truth of “Dr XY is an expert in the relevant field” among other premises. This follows from the properties of assertions alone if the commitment attributed to assertions is extended from ‘commitment to truth’ to ‘commitment to relevance’. Keywords: argumentation; assertion; commitment; implicit premises; relevance; truth
Abstract
Argumentation in everyday life is a matter of pragmatics. A speaker who utters an assertion that is meant to be an argument is not only committed to the truth of the assertion itself and its presuppositions but also to the implicit premises that make the assertion a reasonable argument. For example, if a speaker utters an argumentum ad verecundiam “Dr XY said so”, he is committed to the truth of “Dr XY is an expert in the relevant field” among other premises. This follows from the properties of assertions alone if the commitment attributed to assertions is extended from ‘commitment to truth’ to ‘commitment to relevance’. Keywords: argumentation; assertion; commitment; implicit premises; relevance; truth
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Practical theories and empirical practice – facets of a complex interaction 1
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Part I. Empirical practice
- The embodiment of linguistic meaning 35
- Infants’ encoding of social interaction as a conceptual foundation for the acquisition of argument structure 55
- Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila 71
- Yucatec demonstratives in interaction 99
- Many languages, one knowledge base 129
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Part II. Practical theories
- Nen assentives and the phenomenon of dialogic parallelisms 159
- Evidentiality, modality, focus and other puzzles 185
- Does Searle’s challenge affect chances for approximating assertion and quotative modal wollen ? 245
- The pragmatics of argumentation 257
- Implicature of complex sentences in error models 273
- The semantics of functional spaces 307
- Language index 325
- Name index 327
- Subject index 333
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Practical theories and empirical practice – facets of a complex interaction 1
-
Part I. Empirical practice
- The embodiment of linguistic meaning 35
- Infants’ encoding of social interaction as a conceptual foundation for the acquisition of argument structure 55
- Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila 71
- Yucatec demonstratives in interaction 99
- Many languages, one knowledge base 129
-
Part II. Practical theories
- Nen assentives and the phenomenon of dialogic parallelisms 159
- Evidentiality, modality, focus and other puzzles 185
- Does Searle’s challenge affect chances for approximating assertion and quotative modal wollen ? 245
- The pragmatics of argumentation 257
- Implicature of complex sentences in error models 273
- The semantics of functional spaces 307
- Language index 325
- Name index 327
- Subject index 333
