ISSA Proceedings 1998 – Two kinds Of Argument In Editorials Of Women’s Magazines

• by: Viviane M. Heberle - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina

1. Introduction
Women’s magazines, understood as a popular feminine genre (Marshment 1993) and a form of self-help (Cameron 1995), aim at instructing and entertaining women (Ballaster et al 1991; McCracken 1993). Women’s world as portrayed in these publications is related to feminine social values, norms, problems, doubts and expectations within a personal, private sphere. These publications became a ‘feminised space’, with contradictions, asymmetry of gender differences and issues of sexuality constantly being re-worked (Beetham 1996).
Among the different genres and types of discourse found in women’s magazines are the editorials, also known as editors’ letters, comments or columns. These texts constitute a significant instance of advertising of the magazines, an example of ‘hybrid information-and-publicity (or ‘selling and telling’) discourse’ (Fairclough 1992:115). They are an amalgam of advertising and editorial material (McCracken 1993), since they provide information about sections of the issue but they do so stressing the wonderfully useful (from a Cosmopolitan editorial) features in the issue.
My investigation is based on principles of critical discourse analysis (CDA) which allow for the study of the bidirectional link between language use and context. Critical discourse analysis as a multidisciplinary field focuses on the complex relations between macro and micro linguistic features and different social issues, especially those concerned with ethnic, socio-economic, political or cultural inequalities. I specifically draw on Fairclough’s (1989; 1992; 1995) social theory of discourse with its three interdependent levels of analysis: text (lexicogrammatical features), discourse practice (analysis of the processes of text production and interpretation); and social practice (institutional, societal issues; power and ideology). Halliday’s (1978; 1985; 1994) systemic-functional grammar is considered an insightful linguistic tool for CDA studies, to analyze textual and contextual features.
An important aspect of discursive practices in contemporary society concerns the conversational, promotional (Wernick 1991) and confessional nature of discourse. Giddens’ (1984) concept of modernity is also useful to perceive globalized discursive practices in contemporary society, with local and global habits and customs, individual and collective aims put together.
As a researcher of a text aimed at women, I also found it necessary to investigate studies on language and gender which have proved insightful for the link between the contextual features and the text analysis. Read more

ISSA Proceedings 1998 – Linguistic And Pragma-Rhetorical Characteristics Of Argumentative Discourse In L2 And L1

• by: Ineke Vedder - University of Amsterdam

1. Introduction
The following fragment has been taken from an argumentative essay in Italian, written by a native Dutch university student of Italian. The essay argues that even in a unified Europe, the single European countries will not loose their national identity.

(1) Unificazione europea: perdita dell’identità nazionale?
Non penso che l’unificazione di Europa sarà una perdità dell’identità nazionale (Opinion 1). Secondo me Europa è formato di molto paesi che hanno tutto i propri valori e le proprie tradizione. Questi valori e tradizione sono formati per molti secoli e non camberanno di colpo (Argument 1). Certo, ci sarà uno scambio dei valori e delle tradizione tra i paesi (Counterargument 1 rejected) ma penso che questo scambio sarà utile per arricchere la propria cultura (Argument 2). Ci sono anche le lingue che sono molto diverse (Argument 3). L’inglese sarà la lingua principale (Counterargument 2 rejected), ma penso che non sia possibile (Qualifier 1) di trasformare tutte le lingue nell’inglese (Argument 4). Per me l’unificazione vuol dire che Europa sia un insieme di paesi separati con un zielo uguale: la collaborazione sul campo economico e politico (Conclusion 1).

(European unification: a loss of national identity?)
I don’t think the unification of Europe will lead to a loss of national identity (Opinion 1). In my opinion Europe consists of many countries and each of them has its own values and traditions. These values and traditions have developed over many centuries and will not change all of a sudden (Argument 1). Of course, there will be an exchange of values and traditions between countries (Counterargument 1 rejected), but I think this exchange will be useful and will enrich each country’s culture (Argument 2). Also the languages are very different (Argument 3). English will be the main language (Counterargument 2 rejected), but I think it will be impossible to transform all languages into English (Argument 4). For me unification means that Europe will be a mixture of separate countries with one common goal: collabaration in the fields of economy and politics (Conclusion 1).][i]
To defend his point of view, introduced by standpoint markers like I think, I don’t think, in my opinion, for me, the writer puts forward four arguments. The text also contains a qualifier to mark the degree of certainty with which he regards his standpoint, a conclusion and two counterarguments, which are rejected by the writer. There are only few connectives or argumentative indicators, such as because and consequently. Figures of speech such as metaphors and rhetorical questions are absent. In spite of several language errors, the argumentation is nonetheless adequate.
Producing written argumentative discourse in a foreign or a second language (L2) is a fairly demanding task. L2 writers have to acquire a number of lexical and syntactic devices to enable them to use the argumentative categories that are included in the macro-argumentative structure. The argumentative function of an utterance can be marked linguistically by means of argumentative indicators or by other lexical and syntactic devices (verbal constructions, morpho-syntactic marking, communicative formulas, performatives), which L2 writers must be able to handle. They must also be acquainted with L2 pragma-rhetorical and stylistic conventions. Read more

ISSA Proceedings 1998 – Legal Rhetoric And Dialectic In The Renaissance: Topica Legalia And Status Legales

• by: Hanns Hohmann - San José State University

1. Introduction
By the late Middle Ages a greater theoretical interest in legal argumentation, spurred by a much expanded and deepened argumentative practice based on the revival of Roman law since the late eleventh century, had led to the emergence of a distinct genre of specialized commentary sections or separate treatises bearing titles such as De modis arguendi in jure. These modi arguendi systematized and supplemented the discussions of legal interpretation and argumentation which had before been limited to brief remarks in the course of glosses and commentaries on specific provisions of the Justinian Corpus iuris (Hohmann 1998). In this paper, I will discuss the next stage in the development of the theoretical literature dealing with legal argumentation, which is reached as the civil law tradition of the Middle Ages encounters Renaissance Humanism. [i] This development is marked in the sixteenth century by the ascendancy of works with titles such as Dialectica legalis or Topica legalia. Such titles make more explicit a strong reliance on dialectical models for the formal systematization of legal arguments, which had already characterized the earlier modi arguendi. But I will argue that in spite of this greater external emphasis on the instrumentarium of logic, the substance of the Topica legalia was in effect even more focused on rhetorical concerns than had been the content of the modi arguendi.
I will first place the emergence of works explicitly identifying themselves as dealing with legal dialectic in the context of the rhetorical reorientation of dialectic promoted by the De inventione dialectica of Rudolph Agricola (1444-1485), a work written around 1480, which began to exercise its influence even before the appearance of its first printed edition in 1515 (Cogan 1984: 163 n.1). I will relate this development to the explicit discussion of the relationship between legal dialectic and legal rhetoric in the Dialectica legalis (1534)[ii] and the Rhetorica legalis (1541) by Christoph Hegendorff (1500-1540).[iii]
My argument will continue with an examination of additional rhetorical elements accompanying the topoi catalogues offered by 16th century books on legal dialectic, beginning with works marking the transition from the modi arguendi of the medieval Commentators on the Corpus iuris to the legal dialectic of the Humanist jurists in the Renaissance, the Legalis dialectica (1507) of Pietro Andrea Gambari (d. 1528),[iv] and the Topica seu loci legales (1516) by Nicolaas Everaerts (1462-1532).[v]
I will then investigate the use of the rhetorical status legales, a complex of arguments initially designed to be used by forensic advocates in dealing with issues of legal interpretation,[vi] in Renaissance works focused on that subject. Here I will pay special attention to the Iurisconsultus sive de optimo genere iuris interpretandi of François Hotman (1524-1590),[vii] who proposes a return to a reconceptualization of the status legales as the controlling scheme of legal hermeneutics.
Finally, I will discuss some rhetorical considerations which furthered the emergence of such a large number of works on legal dialectic and interpretation in the 16th century, and helped to define their distinctive characteristics compared to the modi arguendi of preceding centuries, considerations related to pedagogical exigencies, solicitude for the scientific status of legal scholarship, and concerns about the political implications of legal argumentation. Read more

ISSA Procedings 1998 – Public Argument In The Post-Mass Media Age

• by: Thomas A. Hollihan - University of Southern California, James Klumpp - University of Maryland & Patricia Riley - University of Southern California

In recent years, the demise of the “public sphere” has been a frequent subject for discussion, among philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, cultural critics, and argumentation theorists (Goodnight 1982; 1987; Hauser 1998; Verstraeten 1996). The discussion has been provoked, at least in part, by Jurgen Habermas’ (1975; 1979; and 1989) declarations that the public sphere had been “colonized.” Habermas’ argued that we needed to emancipate public discourse and identify new communication practices that could both create and sustain a more democratic “lifeworld.”
Our own interest in this topic has resulted in a series of papers that examine both argumentation theory and pedagogy. In previous studies we explored the demise of the argumentative free marketplace for ideas, the importance of having students engaged in “real world” disputes, the poverty of conventional forms of argumentation in politics and democratic processes, and proposed alternative sites for a democratic lifeworld (Hollihan, Riley & Klumpp 1993; Klumpp, Riley & Hollihan 1995; and Riley, Klumpp & Hollihan 1995). This essay extends our project by considering how the changing media environment may impact the possibility for public argumentation and civic deliberation.
We argue that the era of the mass audience and mass media is ending. While an optimistic reading of the future might lead one to claim that the advent of new media technologies will enhance the possibilities for civic participation by increasing the opportunities for citizens to express themselves, the new technologies may serve only to further isolate citizens and decrease their political influence.

The paper proceeds by:
1.considering the origins and emergence of the notion of the public sphere and the liberal political philosophy it reflects;
2. discussing the development of mass society and the mass media as a modernist invention;
3. arguing that the era of mass media is coming to a close;
4. assessing the consequences of a post-mass media society on the abilty to form a democratically engaged citizenry; and
5) identifying some responses mandated for argumentation study and pedagogy by the new media world.

This essay raises many new questions as it offers insights on changing publics and arguments. It is only through such preliminary discussions and criticisms, that argumentation scholars can help ascertain the approaches available for public argument that can strengthen the citizenry’s voice in their own governance and place in the global milieux.

1. Origins of the Public Sphere Concept
The notion of an engaged, civic minded public capable of forming themselves through social interactions emerged as enlightenment thinkers contemplated the requirements for democratic civic engagement. This was an essentially bourgeois vision, conceptually described as a forum accessible to as many people as possible, where a wide variety of social experiences could be expressed. The public sphere, thus came to occupy a space between the state, and the private spheres of life where questions of individual beliefs or conduct remained autonomous (Habermas 1989; Balthrop 1989). This sphere was the salon, the coffeehouse, the pub, or in the early days of the American republic, the town meeting. Citizens engaged in the public sphere provided a rich storehouse of public opinion, defined as a body of discourse and arguments constituting public will and values, from which governmental officials and other societal leaders could draw rhetorical sustenance and legitimacy. Read more

ISSA Proceedings 1998 – Conditions For Spontaneous Production Of Computer-Mediated Argumentative Dialogues Between Learners

• by: Matthieu Quignard & Michael Baker - Université Lumière Lyon

1. Introduction
This research aims to experiment the conditions for spontaneous production of argumentative dialogues between learners, in problem-solving situations. Since relatively little research has been carried out in this field of research, this paper proposes a restricted set of hypotheses, from both theoretical and practical points of view, on the conditions under which such discussions can be produced. A computer-based environment, involving synchronous typewritten communication, has been implemented in order to test these hypotheses, and to collect a corpus of argumentative interactions that is adapted for the validation of a cognitive model of this type of interaction. Preliminary analyses of the corpus gave quite encouraging results.
Up to the present date, some research in the field of cooperative learning has been carried out on the role of dialogic interactions in the processes of concept acquisition or comprehension (e.g. Thorley & Treagust 1987 ; Baker 1996). However, much less research relates to the study of the conditions under which argumentative interactions are produced between learners. Golder (1996) carried out research on young pupils’ criteria for obtaining argumentative texts (the task was to compose a coherent text, while arguing successively in favour of two conflicting points of view, with respect to a particular question). Other research has been carried out on the design of computer-based environments, using computer mediated communication (CMC) for promoting certain types of interaction, by a suitably structured dialogue interface (Baker & Lund 1997). All of this research shows, that the conditions for producing argumentative dialogues are very diverse, including for example cognitive, social aspects as well as the design of the interface itself. The approach described here is practical as well as theoretical, the main aim being to collect a corpus of argumentative dialogues within a cognitive modelling framework.
This paper presents a experimental situation, designed for the production of argumentative dialogues, by computer mediated communication (CMC), between learners, on a specific problem-solving task in physics : the elaboration of simple qualitative models of energy (“energy chains”, Tiberghien 1994). Once this work has been situated in the framework of research related to argumentation modelling, the hypotheses and modelling constraints that contribute to the elaboration of the experiment are exposed. Then a corpus sample is given, that includes a CMC discussion of one dyad and the individual attitudes of the two participants, just before and just after the interaction. In conclusion, some qualitative preliminary results are given, related to the evaluation of the situation with respect to its original aim : provoking spontaneous argumentative dialogues.

2. Research project
The work described here is situated within the research framework of a PhD thesis in cognitive science, the aim of which is to investigate the cognitive changes (specifically, changes in attitudes) of learners that result from engaging in argumentative dialogues. As part of this work, a computational model based on artificial intelligence techniques is currently under development (Quignard & Baker 1997). The model comprises two belief sets (Doyle 1979) imbedded in two artificial agents, whose dialogue is based on a dialectical model of argumentation (Barth & Krabbe 1982) using multifunctional communicative acts (Bunt 1989).
From a methodological point of view, this cognitive modelling approach requires collecting specific empirical data, for validation of the model. This data must include a dialogue corpus, containing modellable argumentative phases, and give access to the participants’ attitudes at the boundaries of these phases. Since that kind of corpus is not naturally available, a specific experimental situation has been designed and implemented for this purpose. Read more

ISSA Proceedings 1998 – The Importance Of Being Argumentative: Designing Disagreement Into Teaching/Learning Dialogues

• by: Sally Jackson - University of Arizona

The single most important thing to know about the pragmatics of argumentation is that argumentation is a kind of conversational expansion, a form of repair that kicks in when triggered by a special sort of event. Discourse occurs before a very dense backdrop of assumptions, assertions, and implications, not all of which can be examined for their acceptability or justifiability. Whenever any of us speaks, we evoke for our hearers an indefinitely expandable context of belief and claim, any part of which may be called out and made arguable. Most of what we say, and especially most of what we evoke, passes without close examination.
This willingness to let things pass without examination, though essential to the organization of conversation, is antithetical to what is commonly called “critical thinking.” In educational contexts, at least, we might suppose that what we want is for students to be constantly engaged in reviewing each proposition advanced and considering whether it is to be believed or not. Realizing, however, that a speaker’s “standpoint” is not simply what is asserted but also what must be believed in order to have made that assertion and to have made it in the circumstances in which it was made, we see that it is not in fact possible for students to inspect everything. Like all of us in all contexts, they must pick and choose among propositions to examine. In the classroom as in conversation, most statements pass without inspection.
This paper is about designing discourse for the support of argumentation, both in the sense of stimulating its occurrence and in the sense of regulating its conduct. Argumentation is valuable in educational contexts, and although I do not expect this point to be controversial, I will begin by reviewing in the first section some of what is known about the relationship between argumentation and learning. Unfortunately, however valuable argumentation may be, it is also interpersonally complex, implicating not just our beliefs about impersonal things but also our “standing concerns” for identity, status, and relationship (Jacobs, Jackson, Stearns & Hall 1991). In status-marked settings like the classroom, these interpersonal complexities can create intractable dilemmas for the structuring of argumentation, a point to be elaborated briefly in the second section of the paper. Employing a design methodology described briefly in the third section of the paper, I will describe several explicitly theorized plans for the incorporation of argumentation into teaching and learning. In this respect, the present paper is an instance of the form of practical research my colleagues and I championed in Reconstructing Argumentative Discourse (van Eemeren, Grootendorst, Jackson & Jacobs 1993): research organized by the search for argumentation procedures that take into account the situation of argumentation within real-world constraints and limitations. Read more