The Argumentative Sequence as a Doner of Meaning in the Dialogic Discourse Analysis and in the Argumentative Semantics

Abstract

This work aims to discuss the construction of the utterances’ meanings based on the ideas of Discourse in Life and Discourse in art, by Voloshinov (2012) and on the Theory of Argumentation Within Language, by Ducrot and Anscombre (1983), more specifically, its current technical version – the Theory of the Semantic Blocks – proposed by Carel (1995) and developed along with Ducrot today. It is, in the dialogical analysis, a matter of seeking the necessary password to the understanding of the utterance and, in the argumentative analysis, to follow the argumentative orientation of the linguistic entities, which indicate possible continuations, banning others. In both cases, the utterance can be answered when it constitutes an argumentative sequence, which was compared by Voloshinov to an enthymeme whose main premise was exposed and understood by Ducrot and Carel as two predicates put together by donc or pourtant, among which a semantic interdependency that creates a singular meaning, reality’s discursive representation is established.