TEMA 34: ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS

TEMA 34: ARGUMENTATIVE TEXTS

1. INTRODUCTION

   • Purpose: intended to convince, to persuade the reader of a certain point of view or to understand the author's reason for holding certain views on a matter under discussion
     • Present in our daily life
       • brochures, government speeches, debates, face-to face discussions, thesis and the research field among others
   • English Curriculum
     • LOMCE 8/2014
   • RELEVANT AUTHORS
     • Beaugrande, Dressler, Halliday and Hasan Notion of text. Brook and Warren Modern Rethoric and Traugott and Pratt Linguistics for literature Students

2. TEXT, CONTEXT AND TEXT TYPOLOGY

   • TEXT
     • DEFINITION
       • - Language that is funtional  - Funtional = language is doing some job in some situation  - Nature of text: not only words or sentences, but meanings  - Semantic unit - Outstanding characteristic: UNITY
     • SEVEN STANDARDS OF TEXTUALITY
       • TEXT-CENTRED
         • COHESION: components of the surface are mutually connected
         • COHERENCE: components of the textual world relevant and accesible
       • USER-CENTRED
         • Intentionality: producer attitude
           • Acceptability: receiver's attitude
             • Informativity: occurrences expected or not....
               • Situationality: factors relevant to the situation
                 • Intertextuality: Text dependent upon other
   • CONTEXT
     • Situation gives the participants a great deal of information about the meanings that are being exchanged and the meanings that are likely to be exchanged
       • Text = process and product of social meaning in a particular context
         • External factors affects choices
           • TYPES
             • CONTEXT OF SITUATION
               • FIELD: what is happening?
               • TENOR: Who is taking part?
               • MODE: What part of the language is playing?
             • CONTEXT OF CULTURE
               • Broader background, not immediate sights, the whole cultural history
   • TEXT TYPOLOGY
     • Classification follows different criteria
     • Trimble (1985)
       • PURPOSE
         • Discourse is intended to inform, express an attitude, persuade and create debate
       • MODE
         • Narrative, descriptive, expository, argumentative and instrumental modes

3. DEFINITION AND TYPES

   • Definition
     • Typical discourse concerned with the presentation and evaluation of arguments, rethorical or dialectical, which show the cause-effectrelationship established in an event or theory
     • Purpose: persuade and convince the audience of the value of the thesis for which the argumentation seeks assent so as to obtain some effectiveness on the argumentative discourse
     • Depending on the audience addressed
       • Non-specified
       • Specialized group
     • Form of
       • discussion, interview, speech, essay, opinion letter or a book literary criticism
     • Categories
       • Science, literature..
     • Mixed up with other categories
   • Types
     • Objective = scientific
       • related to the cognitive process of formally judging about a given problem
       • Orator starts by posing explicitly or implicitly the problem to deal with, so as to organize the arguments which will lead to a relevant conclusion
         • However, scientific argumentations refers to methods based on established facts and follows established laws
       • Objective perspective
         • Based on Data given by bibliographic references taken from relevant authorities or authors = arguments of authority
       • Research documents, experiments, direct observations, fieldwork reports, analysis
         • reflected on statistics, graphics, photos....
       • Mixture structure
     • Subjective
       • author/speaker/encoder's desire to communicate certain ideas or simple to provoke the audience
       • Orator starts by posing implicitly or explicitly the problem to be dealt with, so as to organize the arguments and will lead to a relevant conclusion
         • Speaker refers to a particular system of knowledge and his point of view is expressed by means of presuppositions and connotations
           • Produce informal, persuasive, ironical, appreciative or pejorative arguments
       • Found in
         • Oral
           • Political speeches, debates, interviews, informal conversation, radio and TV repots
         • Written
           • letters, press articles, opinion columns, business letters...
     • Other types
       • based on the author's desire to present specific solutions or insights as common problems
         • Fortiori
           • From an accepted conclusion to an even more evident one
             • Commentary texts
         • Contrario
           • From an accepted conclusion to the rejection if its contrary
             • Clear dissociation
               • Scientific texts = more specific as the main argument is supported by verifiable facts or statements

4. STRUCTURE

   • Common sequence
     • Issue selection and kind of work, seeking information, work planning, writing down of the argument and finally, presentation
       • first one = three types of work (resume, research, argumentation)
   • Types of argumentation
     • Deductive structure
       • Analytic structure
     • Inductive structure
       • synthetic structure
     • Framed structure
       • Thesis : beginning and conclusion
     • Zig-zag pattern
       • + - / - +
     • One-sided arguments
       • problem + refutation + solution
       • problem + no refutation + conclusion
     • Eclectic perspective
       • reject or accept some points = combinatation of both
   • Main structural elements
     • Two essential compoments
       • Thesis
         • idea/ theory that the author presents as a universal truth in a relevant, brief and clear way
       • Body
         • The rest
     • Two types of argumentss
       • Positive
         • Reinforce the truth of the thesis
       • Negative
         • refuse arguments/ ideas against the main thesis
   • Sequence of steps
     • 1. Introduction
       • 2. Explanation of the issue
         • 3. Outline of the argument
           • 4. Presenting proofs
             • 5. Refutation
               • 6. Conclusion

5. FEATURES

   • Textual and lexical devices
     • Textual devices enhance the effectiveness of the arguments
       • Purposes
         • Provide objective or subjective arguments
         • Convince and persuade the audience about the truth of the argument
       • To have a greater impact:words and structures appropiates
         • 3 major objectives: coherence, clarity and capacity of affective influence
           • COHERENCE
             • essential quality of texts
             • not come across any obstacles
             • paragraphs: organize and better understand
             • Use of cohesion devices: connectors
             • Persuasion: set of affective or emotive mechanisims
           • Grammatical approach
             • Conjunctions: connectors establish links
           • Lexical approach
             • Declarative verbs
           • Effectiveness in the development of the argument
             • adjectives
               • qualifying /neuter: author's subjectivity
             • Concrete nouns
               • technical definition: more formality
             • Adverbs
               • economy by fusing
             • Abstract Nouns
               • ideas, facts, anecdotes
           • Specific syntactic structures
             • Subordinate clauses, prepositional and adverbial clauses, impersonal and pasive senteces, causal and consequence sentences.