Page 53 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 53
argumentation as poliphony: one speaker, several voices 53
always new. Therefore, there are no identical utterances even though se-
quences of uttered sounds and words may appear identical. Each utter-
ance is the result of some concrete, individual act of uttering in a specif-
ic, constantly changing context that has to be reconstructed for each and
every interpretation.
The conceptual pair meaning/sense is related to the pair sentence/
utterance: meaning is the semantic value of a sentence, whereas sense is
the semantic value of an utterance. However, Ducrot does not define
(and this represents one of his innovations) the meaning (of a sentence)
as part of its sense (as is commonly done in the formula: “sense = mean-
ing + context”), but rather as a set of instructions that should help us in
disentangling the sense of utterances that are (or could be) possible realiza-
tions of the given sentence. The sentence-meaning thus guides our correct
interpretation of an utterance, i.e. it guides our search for information,
which must be, in order for our interpretation to be plausible, sought in
the context. What does this mean? Let us go back to example (6):
(6) A: Is dinner ready by now?
B: Yes, almost.
We have already said that the utterance Dinner is almost ready pro-
vides an argument in favour of some implicit conclusion that is ori-
ented in the direction of lateness, e.g. Hurry up! The same conclusion
is also supported by the argument Dinner is ready by now, but the lat-
ter is stronger (affirming that the dinner is ready, not just almost ready)
than the former, yet both of them have identical argumentative orien-
tations.
To be able to interpret an utterance of Dinner is almost ready, the
construction of a sentence meaning would therefore have to consist of
a) informative (descriptive) instruction(s)
and
b) argumentative instruction(s).
Consequently, the utterances of the sentence Dinner is almost ready
can be correctly interpreted only if we follow the instructions for its
(sentence) meaning as stated below:
informative instruction:
some small quantity of time µ has to be defined or agreed upon; the ut-
terance is true if dinner is not yet ready, and if the time difference be-
tween the utterance Dinner is almost ready and dinner’s actual readi-
ness equals µ.
always new. Therefore, there are no identical utterances even though se-
quences of uttered sounds and words may appear identical. Each utter-
ance is the result of some concrete, individual act of uttering in a specif-
ic, constantly changing context that has to be reconstructed for each and
every interpretation.
The conceptual pair meaning/sense is related to the pair sentence/
utterance: meaning is the semantic value of a sentence, whereas sense is
the semantic value of an utterance. However, Ducrot does not define
(and this represents one of his innovations) the meaning (of a sentence)
as part of its sense (as is commonly done in the formula: “sense = mean-
ing + context”), but rather as a set of instructions that should help us in
disentangling the sense of utterances that are (or could be) possible realiza-
tions of the given sentence. The sentence-meaning thus guides our correct
interpretation of an utterance, i.e. it guides our search for information,
which must be, in order for our interpretation to be plausible, sought in
the context. What does this mean? Let us go back to example (6):
(6) A: Is dinner ready by now?
B: Yes, almost.
We have already said that the utterance Dinner is almost ready pro-
vides an argument in favour of some implicit conclusion that is ori-
ented in the direction of lateness, e.g. Hurry up! The same conclusion
is also supported by the argument Dinner is ready by now, but the lat-
ter is stronger (affirming that the dinner is ready, not just almost ready)
than the former, yet both of them have identical argumentative orien-
tations.
To be able to interpret an utterance of Dinner is almost ready, the
construction of a sentence meaning would therefore have to consist of
a) informative (descriptive) instruction(s)
and
b) argumentative instruction(s).
Consequently, the utterances of the sentence Dinner is almost ready
can be correctly interpreted only if we follow the instructions for its
(sentence) meaning as stated below:
informative instruction:
some small quantity of time µ has to be defined or agreed upon; the ut-
terance is true if dinner is not yet ready, and if the time difference be-
tween the utterance Dinner is almost ready and dinner’s actual readi-
ness equals µ.
