Prevailing Arguments and Types of Conclusions of Parent–Child Argumentation

Abstract

This chapter examines the types of arguments used most often by parents and children and the different types of conclusions of their argumentative discussions. The conceptual tool adopted for the analysis is based on the integration of the pragma-dialectical ideal model of a critical discussion (van Eemeren & Grootendorst in A systematic theory of argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004) with the Argumentum Model of Topics (Rigotti & Greco Morasso in Inference in argumentation: A topics-based approach to argument schemes. Springer, Cham, 2019). The integration of these two tools of analysis permits to reconstruct the inferential configuration of the arguments used by parents and children and to identify the types of conclusions of their argumentative discussions. Exemplary argumentative sequences that bring to light the results obtained through the qualitative analysis of a larger corpus of argumentative discussions between parents and children are presented and discussed.