Argument and construction of knowledge: a bakhtinian approach

Abstract

Seeking to relate argumentation and knowledge construction, this article stands on a strand of Bakhtinian discourse studies, to assert that argumentation analysis must go beyond the examination of possible argumentative structures and/or techniques. It uses the dialogic discourse analysis, inspired by the works of the Bakhtin Circle, to discursively describe a judicial sentence, revealing shades of meaning pointing to axiological positions. Finally, it demonstrates that the linguistic traces in the text show how knowledge was argumentatively constructed along the process.