Reconstructing Multimodal Arguments in Advertisements: Combining Pragmatics and Argumentation Theory

The analysis of multimodal argumentation in advertising is a crucial and problematic area of research. While its importance is growing in a time characterized by images and pictorial messages, the methods used for interpreting and reconstructing the structure of arguments expressed through verbal and visual means capture only isolated dimensions of this complex phenomenon. This paper intends to propose and illustrate a methodology for the reconstruction and analysis of “double-mode” arguments in advertisements, combining the instruments developed in social semiotics, pragmatics, and argumentation theory. An advertisement is processed through a five-step path. The analysis of its context, text genre, and images leads to a first representation of the messages that it encodes both pictorially and verbally (step 1). These first semantic representations are further enriched by including their polyphonic articulations and presuppositions (step 2), their explicatures (step 3), and their dialogical functions and illocutionary forces (step 4). These pragmatic steps retrieve the commitment structure of the ad, which allows a further argument analysis conducted through argumentation schemes (step 5).

[1]  A. Tseronis,et al.  Arguing Against Corporate Claims Visually and Multimodally: The Genre of Subvertisements , 2017 .

[2]  M. Kissine.  From Utterances to Speech Acts , 2013 .

[3]  I. Kecskés.  Situation-bound utterances as pragmatic acts , 2010 .

[4]  Frans H. van Eemeren,et al.  In Context Giving Contextualization Its Rightful Place in the Study of Argumentation , 2011, Reasonableness and Effectiveness in Argumentative Discourse.

[5]  Assimakis Tseronis,et al.  Argumentative functions of visuals: Beyond claiming and justifying , 2013 .

[6]  Introduction : Pragmatic insights for multimodal argumentation , 2018 .

[7]  Chris Reed,et al.  Argumentation Schemes , 2008 .

[8]  H. Widdowson.  Explorations in Applied Linguistics , 1979 .

[9]  Jens E. Kjeldsen.  The Study of Visual and Multimodal Argumentation , 2015 .

[10]  D. Walton.  The Speech Act of Clarification in a Dialogue Model , 2007 .

[11]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Fundamentals of critical argumentation , 2006, Critical reasoning and argumentation.

[12]  R. Pinto.  Analogical Argumentation in Text Genres: Empirical Studies , 2014 .

[13]  J. Bronckart.  Genres de textes, types de discours, et « degrés » de langue , 2008 .

[14]  J. Blair,et al.  The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments , 2012 .

[15]  Anne Bezuidenhout,et al.  Descriptions and Beyond , 2004 .

[16]  P. Strawson.  Intention and Convention in Speech Acts , 1964 .

[17]  Fabrizio Macagno.  Presumptive Reasoning in Interpretation. Implicatures and Conflicts of Presumptions , 2012 .

[18]  David I. Beaver.  Chapter 17 – Presupposition* , 1997 .

[19]  Jean-Michel Adam,et al.  Les textes : types et prototypes : récit, description, argumentation, explication et dialogue , 1992 .

[20]  Georges Roque,et al.  Visual Argumentation: A Further Reappraisal , 2012, Topical Themes in Argumentation Theory.

[21]  M. Just,et al.  Semantic Macro-Structures and Knowledge Frames in Discourse Comprehension , 2013 .

[22]  W. Alston.  Illocutionary acts and sentence meaning , 2000 .

[23]  Jacques Moeschier.  Foundations of Dialogue Analysis , 1992 .

[24]  Michael L. Geis.  Speech Acts and Conversational Interaction , 1996 .

[25]  D. Sperber,et al.  Relevance: Communication and Cognition , 1997 .

[26]  Douglas Walton.  Media argumentation - dialect, persuasion and rhetoric , 2007 .

[27]  Aristotle.  The Complete Works Of Aristotle , 1954 .

[28]  Ken Hyland,et al.  Teaching and Researching Writing , 2001 .

[29]  J. Atlas.  Logic, Meaning, and Conversation , 2005 .

[30]  D. Walton,et al.  Commitment In Dialogue , 1995 .

[31]  Elly Ifantidou,et al.  Evidentials and relevance , 2001 .

[32]  Janina Wildfeuer,et al.  Chapter 7. Seeing the untold: Multimodal argumentation in movie trailers , 2017 .

[33]  F. H. Eemeren,et al.  Speech acts in Argumentative Discussions. A Theoretical Model for the Analysis of Discussions Directed towards Solving Conflicts of Opinion (vertaling in het Russisch) , 1984 .

[34]  M. Louise Ripley.  Argumentation Theorists Argue that an Ad is an Argument , 2008 .

[35]  Theo van Leeuwen,et al.  Introducing social semiotics , 2005 .

[36]  K. Bach.  Impliciture vs. Explicature: What's the difference? , 2010 .

[37]  M. Kissine.  Sentences, utterances, and speech acts , 2012 .

[38]  D. Walton,et al.  Emotive Language in Argumentation: Contents , 2014 .

[39]  S. Levinson.  Presumptive Meanings: The theory of generalized conversational implicature , 2001 .

[40]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Practical Reasoning Arguments: A Modular Approach , 2018, Argumentation.

[41]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Appeal to Expert Opinion: Arguments from Authority , 1997 .

[42]  D. Hitchcock.  Does the Traditional Treatment of Enthymemes Rest on a Mistake , 2017 .

[43]  Michael Halliday,et al.  An Introduction to Functional Grammar , 1985 .

[44]  R. Barthes.  Rhétorique de l'image , 1964 .

[45]  G. Kress,et al.  Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication , 2002 .

[46]  Anne Bezuidenhout,et al.  Pragmatics, semantic undetermination and the referential/attributive distinction , 1997 .

[47]  W. Labov,et al.  Therapeutic Discourse: Psychotherapy As Conversation , 1976 .

[48]  K. Jaszczolt,et al.  Speaker intentions and intentionality , 2012 .

[49]  R. Giora.  On Our Mind: Salience, Context, and Figurative Language , 2003 .

[50]  V. Kennedy.  The dialogic imagination , 2018 .

[51]  D. Maingueneau.  Analyser les textes de communication , 1999 .

[52]  J. Bentham.  The book of fallacies , 2015 .

[53]  Markus Steinbach,et al.  Exploring the Meaning of Quotation , 2011 .

[54]  Francisco Yus Ramos.  Inferring from comics: a multi-stage account , 2008 .

[55]  Fabrizio Douglas Macagno,et al.  Classifying the Patterns of Natural Arguments , 2015 .

[56]  W. Mann.  Dialogue games: Conventions of human interaction , 1988 .

[57]  C. Slade.  Seeing Reasons: Visual Argumentation in Advertisements , 2003 .

[58]  Jens E. Kjeldsen,et al.  Pictorial Argumentation in Advertising: Visual Tropes and Figures as a Way of Creating Visual Argumentation , 2012, Topical Themes in Argumentation Theory.

[59]  R. M. Harnish,et al.  Commitments and Speech Acts , 2005, Philosophica.

[60]  D. Walton,et al.  Implicatures as Forms of Argument , 2013 .

[61]  Robyn Carston,et al.  Thoughts and Utterances: The Pragmatics of Explicit Communication , 2002 .

[62]  Arthur Merin.  Algebra of elementary social acts , 2002 .

[63]  O. Ducrot,et al.  Les Mots du discours , 1981 .

[64]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Types of Dialogue, Dialectical Shifts and Fallacies* , 1992 .

[65]  François Rastier,et al.  Sens et textualité , 1994 .

[66]  Guy Cook.  The discourse of advertising , 1992 .

[67]  Matthew W. Keefer.  Distinguishing Practical and Theoretical Reasoning: A Critique of Deanna Kuhn's Theory of Informal Argument , 1996 .

[68]  J. Atlas,et al.  It-clefts, informativeness and logical form: Radical pragmatics (revised standard version) , 1981 .

[69]  Fabrizio Macagno,et al.  Analyzing the pragmatic structure of dialogues , 2017 .

[70]  Robyn Carston,et al.  Word meaning, what is said and explicature , 2013 .

[71]  John Lyons,et al.  Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction , 1995 .

[72]  C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni,et al.  Les actes de langage dans le discours : théorie et fonctionnement , 2001 .

[73]  F. H. Eemeren,et al.  Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse: Extending the Pragma-Dialectical Theory of Argumentation , 2010 .

[74]  R. Carston.  Linguistic Meaning, Communicated Meaning and Cognitive Pragmatics , 2002 .

[75]  Douglas Walton,et al.  What is Reasoning? What Is an Argument? , 1990 .

[76]  Fabrizio Macagno,et al.  A Means-End Classification of Argumentation Schemes , 2015 .

[77]  H. H. Clark,et al.  Quotations as Demonstrations. , 1990 .

[78]  Alessandro Capone,et al.  The Attributive/Referential Distinction, Pragmatics, Modularity of Mind and Modularization , 2011 .

[79]  Keith Allan,et al.  What is Common Ground , 2013 .

[80]  D. Sperber,et al.  Meaning and Relevance , 2012 .

[81]  Michael Stubbs,et al.  Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language , 1983 .

[82]  Andrea Rocci,et al.  The argumentative relevance of pictorial and multimodal metaphor in advertising , 2015 .

[83]  B. Clark,et al.  CAN PICTURES HAVE EXPLICATURES , 2014 .

[84]  E. Hall,et al.  The Hidden Dimension , 1970 .

[85]  V. Voloshinov.  Marxism and the philosophy of language , 1973 .

[86]  K. Bach,et al.  Linguistic Communication and Speech Acts , 1983 .

[87]  H. Nølke.  Linguistique modulaire: de la forme au sens , 1994 .

[88]  Oswald Ducrot,et al.  Le dire et le dit , 1984 .

[89]  Leo Groarke,et al.  Outlines of a Theory of Visual Argument , 2007 .

[90]  Leo Groarke,et al.  Toward a Theory of Visual Argument. , 1996 .

[91]  E. Borg.  Exploding Explicatures: Exploding Explicatures , 2016 .

[92]  R. Giora.  When is relevance? On the role of salience in utterance interpretation , 1998 .

[93]  J. Adam,et al.  L'argumentation publicitaire : rhétorique de l'éloge et de la persuasion , 1997 .

[94]  Deirdre Wilson,et al.  Linguistic form and relevance , 1993 .

[95]  Steven W. Patterson.  A Picture Held us Captive: The Later Wittgenstein and Visual Argumentation , 2011 .

[96]  I. Kecskés.  Dueling contexts: A dynamic model of meaning , 2008 .

[97]  S. Levinson.  Action formation and ascription , 2013 .

[98]  I. Kecskés,et al.  Activating, seeking, and creating common ground: a socio-cognitive approach , 2009 .

[99]  Robyn Carston,et al.  Implicature, explicature and truth-theoretic semantics , 1998 .

[100]  S. Toulmin.  The uses of argument , 1960 .

[101]  Jacob L. Mey,et al.  Pragmatics: An Introduction , 2001 .

[102]  Douglas Walton,et al.  Interpreting Straw Man Argumentation , 2017 .

[103]  Candace L. Sidner,et al.  Attention, Intentions, and the Structure of Discourse , 1986, CL.

[104]  John A. Bateman,et al.  Multimodality and Genre: A Foundation for the Systematic Analysis of Multimodal Documents , 2008 .

[105]  J. Austin.  How to do things with words , 1962 .

[106]  B. Geurts.  Communication as commitment sharing: speech acts, implicatures, common ground , 2019, Theoretical Linguistics.

[107]  D. Vanderveken.  Towards a Formal Pragmatics of Discourse , 2013 .

[108]  T. Wharton,et al.  Pragmatics and Non-Verbal Communication: Contents , 2009 .

[109]  J. Anscombre,et al.  L'argumentation dans la langue , 1976 .

[110]  I. Kecskés.  The paradox of communication: Socio-cognitive approach to pragmatics , 2010 .

[111]  R. Carston.  Thoughts and Utterances , 2002 .

[112]  John A. Bateman,et al.  Multimodality and Genre , 2008 .

[113]  J. Anscombre.  « Théorie de l'argumentation, topoï, et structuration discursive » , 2009 .

[114]  Theo van Leeuwen,et al.  Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design , 1996 .

[115]  S. Ruhi.  Higher-order Intentions and Self-Politeness in Evaluations of (Im)politeness: The Relevance of Compliment Responses , 2007 .

[116]  H. Grice.  Logic and conversation , 1975 .

[117]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[118]  Jörg Meibauer,et al.  Lying at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface , 2014 .

[119]  A. Braet.  The Oldest Typology of Argumentation Schemes , 2004 .

[120]  Sophie Marnette.  The French théorie de l'énonciation and the study of speech and thought presentation , 2001 .

[121]  J. Searle.  A classification of illocutionary acts , 1976, Language in Society.

[122]  Ducrot Oswald.  Dire et ne pas dire , 2017 .

[123]  D. Walton,et al.  Emotive Language in Argumentation , 2014 .

[124]  Jens E. Kjeldsen.  Where Is Visual Argument , 2015 .

[125]  Fabrizio Macagno,et al.  The Dialogical Force of Implicit Premises: Presumptions in Enthymemes , 2013 .

[126]  Marcelo Dascal.  24. The pragmatic structure of conversation , 1992 .

[127]  C. Slade,et al.  Reasons to Buy: The Logic of Advertisements , 2002 .