Abstract
As more and more sophisticated software is created to allow the mining of arguments from natural language texts, this paper sets out to examine the suitability of the well-established and readily available methods of corpus linguistics to the study of argumentation. After brief introductions to corpus linguistics and the concept of meta-argument, I describe three pilot-studies into the use of the terms Straw man, Ad hominem, and Slippery slope, made using the open access News on the Web corpus. The presence of each of these phrases on internet news sites was investigated and assessed for correspondence to the norms of use by argumentation theorists. All three pilot-studies revealed interesting facts about the usage of the terms by non-specialists, and led to numerous examples of the types of arguments mentioned. This suggests such corpora may be of use in two different ways: firstly, the wider project of improving public debate and educating the populace in the skills of critical thinking can only be helped by a better understanding of the current state of knowledge of the technical terms and concepts of argumentation. Secondly, theorists could obtain a more accurate picture of how arguments are used, by whom, and to what reception, allowing claims on such matters to be evidence, rather than intuition, based.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of the methods of corpus linguistics in certain aspects of the study of argumentation
Of the 50 uses of the phrase ‘straw man’ analysed in the study, 36 were examples of meta-argumentation and in the other 14 instances the phrase was used as a metaphorical description of something else, not an argument
This paper has looked at how techniques of corpus linguistics can be used in the study of meta-argument, and, as far as keyword searches are concerned, I see this as an area in which corpora can be used to radically improve understanding and debate
Summary
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of the methods of corpus linguistics in certain aspects of the study of argumentation. In order to achieve that, the paper contains descriptions of three mini- or pilot-studies. It is important to bear in mind that the pilot-studies themselves, while producing some interesting results, are too small a foundation upon which to base any wider conclusions as to their subjects: at best they open avenues for further research. As such, they are not described in the rigorous detail which a full-scale corpus investigation would require in order to be accepted. The conclusions of those pilots should allow a preliminary answer to be made to the following research questions: 1. Is the methodology of corpus linguistics appropriate to the study of (meta-) argumentation?
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