a handful of questions: argumentation, methodology, ethno, political

[JF Delannoy]

Hopla, a few questions about the CDA approach  regarding argumentation, political aspects, and ethnological aspects.

 

I am especially interested in the study of argumentation.

 

 

  1.. Are there studies on prima facie argumentation (i.e. not the hidden agenda, but the arguments proposed) ?
 

  2.. On the reception of the argumentation ? ( both: how is it criticized; and how it is taken in, and accepted).




 

  3.. In CDA, are there risks of, say, reverse political bias? Seeing defects of the conservatives, but much less of "progressists" ? E.g., what could be said about discourse from and about Cuba ? Kabila ? In siding with the perceived oppressed, should one accept d'avoir tort avec Sartre plutôt que d'avoir raison avec Aron ? 
 

  4.. Is there a risk of seeing everyting as a deliberate use of power through words (e.g. I had a dispute with someone saying that mentioning that some mushrooms were grown in "strict anaeroby" in a biological lab, was a useless precision compared to "anaeroby", and that it was in fact an attempt to give oneself an image of authority. I looked up, and there is such a distinction : strict anaeroby is stricter than when one just says anaeroby.
 

  5.. Are there constrastive studies regarding abuse of power through language ? (across political systems, ethnic styles, etc.).
 

  6.. Are there studies on the notion of victim and perpetrator, and what happens when all belligerents have both a victim side ande a perpetrator side ? (e.g. book by Halimi: L'opinion, ça se travaille (about NATO, Kosovo and Serbs).
 

  7.. About polemology and the dynamics of conflicts involving lots of discourse ?
 

  8.. Have there been studies of perception and discourse of one minority regarding another ? vagueness as to origins, degree of interest in e.g. latinos seems very little interested in things Arabic or Chinese ... and vice-versa
 

  9.. Are there studies on the use of loaded terms like ethnic cleansing (used 2d degree, rather automatically, without much recorded use in the 1st degree), pensée unique (a favourite of anti-economic-liberalism in France but now also used in the other direction).
 

  10.. Are there dictionaries of connotations? (I am launching on a project on this).
 

  



Food for thought.





Cheers



 


 

 

    JF, in Paris

 



---
Dr JF Delannoy
linguiste-conseil
ingénieur des connaissances
professeur auxiliaire U Ottawa
www.site.uottawa.ca/~delannoy


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/critics-l/attachments/20030703/a48c069f/attachment.htm>