Presentational aspects of argumentation
a. The function of tropes and figures in strategic maneuvering
In this research project, carried out by Francisca Snoeck Henkemans, insights from classical rhetoric, pragmatics, modern stylistics and cognitive linguistic approaches are used to explore the possibilities for strategic maneuvering with specific presentational means. To this end, for each stage of an argumentative discussion, it is examined what role stylistic devices such as metonymy, rhetorical questions, praeteritio and hyperbole can play in effectively presenting the topical choices that arguers have made.
Snoeck Henkemans, A.F. (2009) Manoevering strategically with praeteritio. Argumentation 23 (3), 339- 350.
b. The role of visual images in argumentative discourse
A first project within this project cluster is Strategic maneuvering with visual arguments. This project is carried out by Eveline Feteris and José Plug. Aim of the project is to develop methods to enable a well- founded analysis of visually presented argumentation and its strategic aspects. Visual images such as those used in political cartoons are reconstructed as a contribution to a critical discussion and analyzed from the perspective of strategic maneuvering. It is established how insights from cognitive pragmatics, multimodal analysis and rhetoric can be integrated in the pragma-dialectical theoretical framework to develop tools for analyzing the strategic maneuvering in terms of the selection from the topical potential, the presentational techniques and the adaptation to audience demand.
Feteris, E.T. and H.J. Plug (2011) (Co-authored with L. Groarke). ‘Strategic maneuvering with visual arguments in political cartoons: A pragma dialectical analysis of the use of topoi that are based on common cultural heritage’. In: Keeping in touch with pragma-dialectics. E.T. Feteris, B.J. Garssen,
A.F. Snoeck Henkemans (eds.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (283 pages), p. 59-74. Feteris, E.T. (2012). Strategisch manoeuvreren in politieke cartoons met een visuele scenariometafoor. Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, jrg. 34, no. 3, pp. 199-212.
A second project is Argumentative functions of visuals beyond the evidentiary, carried out by Assimakis Tseronis in collaboration with Charles Forceville, both members of the research group Adventures in Multimodality (AIM). The dialogical and functional approach to argumentation as a social and discursive activity that the pragma-dialectical theory advocates (van Eemeren 2010) can prove useful in exploring the role that visuals play when argumentation is understood as a process and not as product. In light of this approach, next to the evidentiary function of visual images other argumentative functions can be researched, such as the use of images to advance a standpoint, to criticize, to explain and to draw attention to various aspects of the argumentative procedure. In addition, the role that visual and multimodal metaphors play in argumentative communication is explored by combining insights from argumentation theory, cognitive linguistics are multimodal analysis. The aim of the project is to describe the various functions that visuals play in argumentative communication by taking into account the cognitive processes that underlie the production and interpretation of argumentative discourse.