Marion Carel, Oswald Ducrot, Paradox in argumentative semantics
This paper aims at defining paradox as a mere linguistical notion, indépendant of any cognitive or sociological notion (in particular, « paradox » is distinguished from belief opposite to usually accepted opinions). This definition is given in the framework of the theory of « argumentation in language » , as recently reformulated : the paper second part presents the argumentative notions necessary to define (part 3) « paradox » in this framework. Lastly, the notion is used to characterize sequences of two connected sentences, and lexical words.
According to Anscombre and Ducrot, words can be described by means of argumentative discourses. In fact, there are, I believe, two kinds of relations between words and argumentative discourses. This paper aims at defining them. It aims at distinguishing the relation of indulgent and il est indulgent donc il est aimé from the relation of indulgent and elle avait commis une faute pourtant il ne l'a pas punie.
Key words: Argumentation, Lexicon, Paradox, Grading, Negation, Semantic Block.
Argumentation in everyday speech is generally analyzed as a demonstration process. Though sometimes vague in its expression, or incomplete in its assumptions, it seems to preserve the structure of a mathematical demonstration: what is at stakes is to show, by means of an argument interpreted and justifiable in itself, that the conclusion is true. In fact, the natural use of done differs from its mathematical counterpart, not qualitatively but structurally. Argument and conclusion cannot be interpreted independently and spoken argumentation cannot even be considered an incomplete demonstration. Put positively, it means injecting into discourse ordinary expressions and common place ideas, contained in the very meaning of the words and developped by the way they are strung together. From this point of view, done is no longer the privileged mark of argumentation: pourtant differently but just as directly, makes it possible; Résumé Les argumentations du discours quotidien sont généralement analysées comme des procédures de démonstration. Parfois floues dans leurs termes, ou incomplètes dans leurs prémisses, elles garderaient tout de même la structure des démonstrations mathématiques : l'enjeu serait d'établir, à partir d'un argument interprété et justifiable en lui-même, la vérité de la conclusion. En fait, l'usage naturel de donc diffère, non qualitativement, mais structureUement de son usage mathématique. L'argument et la conclusion ne peuvent s'interpréter indépendamment. L'argumentation discursive n'est pas une démonstration lacunaire. De façon positive, argumenter consiste à injecter dans le discours des représentations communes, des lieux communs, inscrits dans la signification même des mots et développés par les enchaînements. Ainsi comprise, l'argumentation n'a plus pour marque privilégiée l'usage de donc : pourtant, sous une autre forme, mais tout aussi directement, permet de réaliser des argumentations.
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