Argumentation Modeling in Popular Science Discourse Using Ontologies

Abstract

Today, popular science discourse is becoming an integral and essential element of scientific activity, as it acts as a mediator, providing communication between the scientific community and a wide audience. In order for this interaction to be productive, it is necessary that the texts (popular science books and articles) offered to the uninitiated public contain high-quality argumentation. In this regard, the study of the argumentation presented in the popular science literature is an important and urgent problem. This paper presents an approach to modeling the arguments used in popular science literature. Such modeling is performed using the means of the ontology of argumentation, based on the AIF format (Argument Interchange Format). This format is accepted de facto by the international community as a standard notation for describing arguments and argumentative structures. We extended this ontology by the means necessary to model the argumentation used in popular science discourse. In particular, new means allow you to model the target audience and present the content of the statements included in the arguments. In terms of the extended ontology we can describe generally accepted and original argumentation schemes, their significance for various audiences, the structure and components of arguments. Concrete arguments extracted from the texts under study and their components can also be presented in the terms of this ontology. The ontology of argumentation with such properties is described for the first time. This ontology is used as an information model of a software system designed for modeling and analysis of argumentation used in popular science literature.