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Argumentative Style
Edited by Frans H. van Eemeren
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 10:1] 2021
► pp. 97–120

On the relation between argumentative style and linguistic style

Integrating linguistic-stylistic analysis systematically into the analysis of argumentative style

| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL)
| Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL)

Argumentative style is assumed to be instrumental to the implementation of an arguer’s strategic plan to resolve a difference of opinion in his/her favor. One important constitutive element of argumentative style are linguistic choices. It is therefore crucial to pay close and systematic attention to linguistic choices and their argumentative functions in the analysis of argumentative style.

In this paper we discuss how a linguistic-stylistic analysis can be conducted systematically by making use of methodological insights from the so-called “linguistic-stylistic approach”, and how such an analysis can be integrated with a pragma-dialectical analysis of argumentative discourse. Our aim is to show how such an integration could be helpful in analysing the presentational aspect of an argumentative style, and how the outcomes of such an analysis could be linked to another aspect of argumentative style, namely the strategic considerations implemented in the argumentative discourse and more particularly the argumentative strategies involved.

Keywords: argumentative activity type, argumentative strategy, argumentative style, linguistic style, linguistic-stylistic analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Argumentative strategies and linguistic choices
  • 3.The linguistic-stylistic approach and its integration with pragma-dialectics
  • 4.An illustration: The Yuri case
    • 4.1The case
    • 4.2Identifying argumentative strategies
    • 4.3Linguistic-stylistic analysis
    • 4.4Results of the linguistic-stylistic analysis
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 February 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.20014.haa
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