Page 36 - Žagar, Igor Ž. 2021. Four Critical Essays on Argumentation. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 36
four critical essays on argumentation
it wants to find the underlying topoi—the lists of topoi in the background
would become unimportant, useless, and obsolete. As they, actually, al-
ready are. Text mining, to borrow an expression from computational lin-
guistics, would bring the text’s or discourse’s own topoi to the surface, not
the prefabricated ones. Even more, Toulmin’s scheme allows for p ossible
exceptions, or rebuttals, indicating where, when, and why a certain topos
does not apply. Such a reconstruction can offer a much more complex ac-
count of a discourse fragment under investigation than enthymemes or
static and rigid lists of topoi.
In place of conclusion
If DHA really wants to follow the principle of triangulation, as described in
the beginning of the article, to make choices at each point in the research
itself, and at the same time make these choices transparent, taking all the-
se steps in finding the topoi in concrete texts would be the only legitima-
te thing a credible and competent analysis should do. If DHA wants to in-
corporate argumentation analysis in its agenda, that is, not just references
to the names of concepts within argumentation analysis.
36
it wants to find the underlying topoi—the lists of topoi in the background
would become unimportant, useless, and obsolete. As they, actually, al-
ready are. Text mining, to borrow an expression from computational lin-
guistics, would bring the text’s or discourse’s own topoi to the surface, not
the prefabricated ones. Even more, Toulmin’s scheme allows for p ossible
exceptions, or rebuttals, indicating where, when, and why a certain topos
does not apply. Such a reconstruction can offer a much more complex ac-
count of a discourse fragment under investigation than enthymemes or
static and rigid lists of topoi.
In place of conclusion
If DHA really wants to follow the principle of triangulation, as described in
the beginning of the article, to make choices at each point in the research
itself, and at the same time make these choices transparent, taking all the-
se steps in finding the topoi in concrete texts would be the only legitima-
te thing a credible and competent analysis should do. If DHA wants to in-
corporate argumentation analysis in its agenda, that is, not just references
to the names of concepts within argumentation analysis.
36
