Towards an authentic argumentation literacy test

A central goal of education is to improve argumentation literacy. How do we know how well this goal is achieved? Can we measure argumentation literacy? The present study is a preliminary step towards measuring the efficacy of education with regards to argumentation literacy. Tests currently in use to determine critical thinking skills are often similar to IQ-tests in that they predominantly measure logical and mathematical abilities. Thus, they may not measure the various other skills required in understanding authentic argumentation. To identify the elements of argumentation literacy, this exploratory study begins by surveying introductory textbooks within argumentation theory, critical thinking, and rhetoric. Eight main abilities have been identified. Then, the study outlines an Argumentation Literacy Test that would comprise these abilities suggested by the literature. Finally, the study presents results from a pilot of a version of such a test and discusses needs for further development

Reconstructing argumentation patterns in German newspaper articles on multidrug-resistant pathogens: a multi-measure keyword approach

This study explores the reconstruction of argumentative patterns through keywords in a newspaper corpus on multi-resistant organisms. Starting from manually identified frequent argumentation patterns based on a previous study by (Author, 2017), keywords are assigned to the argument they are assumed to point to. Keywords are calculated through three different measures (log likelihood, log ratio, adjusted log ratio) which cover different frequency ranges. This approach allows us to explore argumentation on varying levels of semantic granularity, showing that keywords of different frequency (and therefore different specificity) contribute to exploring discourse strategies. While an unambiguous category assignment is hardly achievable because frequent keywords appear in a wide range of contexts, keywords assigned to argumentation patterns do mostly occur in arguments. Most of our pre-determined argumentation patterns could be reconstructed using keyword methodology. Moreover, we identify two patterns absent from our original annotation scheme. Moreover, the different measures uncover words of noticeably different frequencies and thus argumentative specificity. Therefore, we deem keywords useful for exploring argumentative discourse

Computational Argumentation for the Automatic Analysis of Argumentative Discourse and Human Persuasion

Tesis por compendio[ES] La argumentación computacional es el área de investigación que estudia y analiza el uso de distintas técnicas y algoritmos que aproximan el razonamiento argumentativo humano desde un punto de vista computacional. En esta tesis doctoral se estudia el uso de distintas técnicas propuestas bajo el marco de la argumentación computacional para realizar un análisis automático del discurso argumentativo, y para desarrollar técnicas de persuasión computacional basadas en argumentos. Con estos objetivos, en primer lugar se presenta una completa revisión del estado del arte y se propone una clasificación de los trabajos existentes en el área de la argumentación computacional. Esta revisión nos permite contextualizar y entender la investigación previa de forma más clara desde la perspectiva humana del razonamiento argumentativo, así como identificar las principales limitaciones y futuras tendencias de la investigación realizada en argumentación computacional. En segundo lugar, con el objetivo de solucionar algunas de estas limitaciones, se ha creado y descrito un nuevo conjunto de datos que permite abordar nuevos retos y investigar problemas previamente inabordables (e.g., evaluación automática de debates orales). Conjuntamente con estos datos, se propone un nuevo sistema para la extracción automática de argumentos y se realiza el análisis comparativo de distintas técnicas para esta misma tarea. Además, se propone un nuevo algoritmo para la evaluación automática de debates argumentativos y se prueba con debates humanos reales. Finalmente, en tercer lugar se presentan una serie de estudios y propuestas para mejorar la capacidad persuasiva de sistemas de argumentación computacionales en la interacción con usuarios humanos. De esta forma, en esta tesis se presentan avances en cada una de las partes principales del proceso de argumentación computacional (i.e., extracción automática de argumentos, representación del conocimiento y razonamiento basados en argumentos, e interacción humano-computador basada en argumentos), así como se proponen algunos de los cimientos esenciales para el análisis automático completo de discursos argumentativos en lenguaje natural.[CA] L'argumentació computacional és l'àrea de recerca que estudia i analitza l'ús de distintes tècniques i algoritmes que aproximen el raonament argumentatiu humà des d'un punt de vista computacional. En aquesta tesi doctoral s'estudia l'ús de distintes tècniques proposades sota el marc de l'argumentació computacional per a realitzar una anàlisi automàtic del discurs argumentatiu, i per a desenvolupar tècniques de persuasió computacional basades en arguments. Amb aquestos objectius, en primer lloc es presenta una completa revisió de l'estat de l'art i es proposa una classificació dels treballs existents en l'àrea de l'argumentació computacional. Aquesta revisió permet contextualitzar i entendre la investigació previa de forma més clara des de la perspectiva humana del raonament argumentatiu, així com identificar les principals limitacions i futures tendències de la investigació realitzada en argumentació computacional. En segon lloc, amb l'objectiu de sol$\cdot$lucionar algunes d'aquestes limitacions, hem creat i descrit un nou conjunt de dades que ens permet abordar nous reptes i investigar problemes prèviament inabordables (e.g., avaluació automàtica de debats orals). Conjuntament amb aquestes dades, es proposa un nou sistema per a l'extracció d'arguments i es realitza l'anàlisi comparativa de distintes tècniques per a aquesta mateixa tasca. A més a més, es proposa un nou algoritme per a l'avaluació automàtica de debats argumentatius i es prova amb debats humans reals. Finalment, en tercer lloc es presenten una sèrie d'estudis i propostes per a millorar la capacitat persuasiva de sistemes d'argumentació computacionals en la interacció amb usuaris humans. D'aquesta forma, en aquesta tesi es presenten avanços en cada una de les parts principals del procés d'argumentació computacional (i.e., l'extracció automàtica d'arguments, la representació del coneixement i raonament basats en arguments, i la interacció humà-computador basada en arguments), així com es proposen alguns dels fonaments essencials per a l'anàlisi automàtica completa de discursos argumentatius en llenguatge natural.[EN] Computational argumentation is the area of research that studies and analyses the use of different techniques and algorithms that approximate human argumentative reasoning from a computational viewpoint. In this doctoral thesis we study the use of different techniques proposed under the framework of computational argumentation to perform an automatic analysis of argumentative discourse, and to develop argument-based computational persuasion techniques. With these objectives in mind, we first present a complete review of the state of the art and propose a classification of existing works in the area of computational argumentation. This review allows us to contextualise and understand the previous research more clearly from the human perspective of argumentative reasoning, and to identify the main limitations and future trends of the research done in computational argumentation. Secondly, to overcome some of these limitations, we create and describe a new corpus that allows us to address new challenges and investigate on previously unexplored problems (e.g., automatic evaluation of spoken debates). In conjunction with this data, a new system for argument mining is proposed and a comparative analysis of different techniques for this same task is carried out. In addition, we propose a new algorithm for the automatic evaluation of argumentative debates and we evaluate it with real human debates. Thirdly, a series of studies and proposals are presented to improve the persuasiveness of computational argumentation systems in the interaction with human users. In this way, this thesis presents advances in each of the main parts of the computational argumentation process (i.e., argument mining, argument-based knowledge representation and reasoning, and argument-based human-computer interaction), and proposes some of the essential foundations for the complete automatic analysis of natural language argumentative discourses.This thesis has been partially supported by the Generalitat Valenciana project PROME- TEO/2018/002 and by the Spanish Government projects TIN2017-89156-R and PID2020- 113416RB-I00.Ruiz Dolz, R. (2023). Computational Argumentation for the Automatic Analysis of Argumentative Discourse and Human Persuasion [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/194806Compendi

論述における非明示的推論の解析：オーバーナイトアプローチ

Tohoku University博士（情報科学）thesi

한국어 텍스트 논증 구조의 자동 분석 연구

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 언어학과 언어학전공, 2016. 2. 신효필.최근 온라인 텍스트 자료를 이용하여 대중의 의견을 분석하는 작업이 활발히 이루어지고 있다. 이러한 작업에는 주관적 방향성을 갖는 텍스트의 논증 구조와 중요 내용을 파악하는 과정이 필요하며, 자료의 양과 다양성이 급격히 증가하면서 그 과정의 자동화가 불가피해지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 정책에 대한 찬반 의견으로 구성된 한국어 텍스트 자료를 직접 구축하고, 글을 구성하는 기본 단위들 사이의 담화 관계의 유형을 정의하였다. 하나의 맥락 안에서 두 개의 문장 혹은 절이 서로 관계를 갖는지, 관계를 갖는다면 서로 동등한 관계인지, 그렇지 않은 경우 어느 문장(절)이 더 중요한 부분으로서 다른 하나의 지지를 받는지의 기준에 따라 담화 관계를 두 개의 층위로 나누어 이용하였다. 이러한 기본 단위들 사이의 관계는 기계 학습과 규칙 기반 방식을 이용하여 예측된다. 이 때 각 글의 저자가 표현하고자 하는 의도, 자신의 주장을 뒷받침하기 위해 제시하는 근거의 종류, 그리고 그 근거를 이루는 논증 전략 등이 텍스트의 언어적 특징과 함께 중요한 자질로 작용된다. 논증의 전략으로는 예시, 인과, 세부 사항에 대한 설명, 반복 서술, 정정, 배경 지식 제공 등이 관찰되었다. 이들 세부 분류는 담화 관계의 대분류를 구성하고, 그 담화 관계를 예측하는 데 쓰이는 자질의 기반이 되었다. 또한 일부 언어적 자질들은 기존 연구를 참고하여 한국어 자료에 적용할 수 있는 형태로 재구성하였다. 이를 이용하여 한국어 코퍼스를 구축하고 한국어 연구에 특화된 접속사 및 연결어의 목록을 구성하여 자질 목록에 포함시켰다. 이러한 자질들에 기반해서 담화 관계를 예측하는 과정을 이 연구에서 독자적인 모델로서 자동화하여 제안하였다. 예측 실험의 결과를 보면 본 연구에서 정의하여 이용한 자질들은 긍정적인 상호 작용을 통해 담화 관계 예측의 성능을 향상시킨다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 그 중에서도 일부 접속사 및 연결어, 문장 성분의 유무에 따른 의존적인 문장 구조, 그리고 같은 내용을 반복 서술하는지의 여부 등이 특히 예측에 기여하였다. 텍스트를 이루는 기본 단위들 사이에 존재하는 담화 관계들은 서로 연결, 합성되어 텍스트 전체에 대응되는 트리 형태의 논증 구조를 이룬다. 이렇게 얻은 논증 구조에 대해서는, 트리의 가장 위쪽인 루트 노드에 글의 주제문이 위치하고, 그 바로 아래 층위에 해당하는 문장(절)들이 근거로서 가장 중요한 내용을 담고 있다고 가정할 수 있다. 따라서 주제문을 직접적으로 뒷받침하는 문장(절)을 추출하면 글의 중요 내용을 얻게 된다. 이는 곧 텍스트 요약 작업에서 유용하게 쓰이는 방식이 될 수 있다. 또한 주제에 따른 입장 분류나 근거 수집 등 다양한 분야에서도 응용이 가능할 것이다.These days, there is an increased need to analyze mass opinions using on-line text data. These tasks need to recognize the argumentation schemes and main contents of subjective, argumentative writing, and the automatization of the required procedures is becoming indispensable. This thesis constructed the text data using Korean debates on certain political issues, and defined the types of discourse relations between basic units of text segments. The discourse relations are classified into two levels and four subclasses, according to the standards which determine whether the two segments are related to each other in a context, whether the relation is coordinating or subordinating, and which of the two units in a pair is supported by the other as a more important part. The relations between basic text units are predicted based on machine learning and rule-based methods. The features for the prediction of discourse relations include what the author of a text wants to claim and argumentative strategies comprising grounds for the author's claim, using linguistic properties shown in texts. The strategies for argument are observed and subcategorized into Providing Examples, Cause-and-Effects, Explanations in Detail, Restatements, Contrasts, Background Knowledge, and more. These subclasses compose a broader class of discourse relations and became the basis for features used during the classification of the relations. Some linguistic features refer to those of previous studies, they are reconstituted in a revised form which is more appropriate for Korean data. Thus, this study constructed a Korean debate corpus and a list of connectives specialized to deal with Korean texts to include in the experiment features. The automated prediction of discourse relations based on those features is suggested in this study as a unique model of argument mining. According to the results of experiments predicting discourse relations, the features defined and used in this study are observed to improve the performance of prediction tasks through positive interactions with each other. In particular, some explicit connectives, dependent sentence structures based on lack of certain components, and whether the same meanings are restated clearly contributed to the classification tasks. The discourse relations between basic text units are related and combined with each other to comprise a tree-form argumentation structure for the overall document. Regarding the argumentation structure, the topic sentence of the document is located at the root node in the tree, and it is assumed that the nodes of sentences or clauses right below the root node contain the most important contents as grounds for the topic unit. Therefore, extraction of the text segments directly supporting the topic sentence may help in obtaining the important contents in each document. This can be one of the useful methods in text summarization. Additionally, applications to various fields may also be possible, including stance classification of debate texts, extraction of grounds for certain topics, and so on.1 Introduction 1 1.1 Purposes 1 1.1.1 A Study of Korean Texts with Linguistic Cues 1 1.1.2 Detection of Argumentation Schemes in Debate Texts 2 1.1.3 Extraction of Important Content in Argumentation Schemes of Texts 2 1.2 Structure 3 2 Previous Work 5 2.1 Argumentation Mining Tasks 7 2.1.1 Argument Elements 7 2.1.2 Argumentation Schemes 9 2.2 Argumentation Schemes in Various Texts 14 2.2.1 Dialogic vs. Monologic Texts 14 2.2.2 Debate Texts vs. Other Texts 15 2.2.3 Studies in Other Languages 17 2.3 Theoretical Basis 18 2.3.1 Argumentation Theory 18 2.3.2 Discourse Theory 21 3 Identifying Argumentation Schemes in Debate Texts 25 3.1 Data Description 25 3.2 Basic Units 27 3.3 Discourse Relations 29 3.3.1 Strategies for Proving a Claim 29 3.3.2 Definition 35 4 Automatic Identification of Argumentation Schemes 41 4.1 Annotation 41 4.2 Baseline 46 4.3 Proposed Model 50 4.3.1 O vs. X Classification 51 4.3.2 Convergent Relation Rule 61 4.3.3 NN vs. NS vs. SN Classification 65 4.4 Evaluation 67 4.4.1 Measures 67 4.4.2 Results 68 4.5 Discussion 74 4.6 A Pilot Study on English Texts 81 5 Detecting Important Units 87 6 Conclusion 99 Bibliography 103 초록 117Maste

Strategizing as multi-modal and rhetorical discursive practice: a case study of the BHP Billiton's failed acquisition of Rio Tinto

This thesis took a discourse approach to analyze BHP Billiton’s failed acquisition of Rio Tinto in 2007-08 to better understand what happens during strategizing. The research highlighted the structure and dynamics of the discourse, as well as the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. In doing so, the thesis provided new insights into how actors were able to influence such important strategic events. The thesis adopted a multi-modal discourse analytic framework and analyzed media reports, corporate videos, press releases and communications to shareholders, as well as slides and full transcripts of key presentations by both BHP and Rio leadership. The analysis identified the main internal and external actors as either decision-makers (BHP’s leadership, shareholders, competition regulators) or influencers (Rio’s leadership, analysts, media, customers). It further identified a range of multi-modal discursive practices and rhetorical strategies that were brought to bear to negotiate the meaning of three key constructs that shaped the discourse, that is, the additional value pool, the fair share exchange ratio, and the impact on competition. Further, the findings showed how time and context were discursively constructed and influenced the meaning of the three key constructs. These findings enabled a number of contributions to the discourse and M&A literature. While most research into acquisition discourses has routinely ignored the pre-acquisition discourse, this thesis focused on the period preceding the transaction. An initial contribution was to show that, in a pre-acquisition discourse, external actors were not a passive audience but played a significant role as rhetor and audience. Also, while previous empirical studies of discourse have emphasized the role of language, this thesis considered multi-modal discursive practices, including speech, writing, imagery, location and calculative devices. The thesis made a further contribution by showing how actors worked to persuade each other through multi-layered rhetorical strategies that were also brought to bear through non-linguistic modes. This contribution was extended by showing how these practices functioned as transgression markers that signaled convergence or divergence of meaning of the key constructs. A detailed analysis of calculative devices enabled further contributions. An initial contribution was that it showed how calculative devices developed as boundary objects over four stages: identification, calculation, negotiation, and objectification. Further, the thesis showed how calculative devices were imbued with logos and ethos through, for example, the calculative logic, accounting standards and data sources that were woven together in the symbolic manipulations of the device. Lastly, the thesis showed how calculative devices acted as boundary objects, and made a contribution to theory by proposing a third criterion, legitimacy, to complement widely acknowledged criteria of adaptability and commonality. In addition to these dynamics, the thesis outlined a discursive epistemology of strategizing through its analysis of the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. While the role of time and context is widely acknowledged in organizational discourse, it remained unclear what was specific to strategizing. The thesis argued that the purpose of strategizing is to construct and negotiate new or improved options for a preferred future and the actions to bring this about, and made a contribution to a discursive epistemology of strategizing by showing how temporal and contextual work in strategizing extends the horizon of discourses that relate to the future and discourses that relate to the broader discourse. This reconstructs the tapestry of interwoven discourses that make up the local strategy discourse, and creates new strategic options

The spatio-temporal structures of society: modernity and ecological modernization as restructurations of time and space

Approaches in the social sciences have experienced a shift toward the themes of time and space, at least over the past three decades. This shift was clearly announced in the invitation made by Anthony Giddens in the early 1980s to retreat from the considerations of time and space as simple containers of social action. Furthermore, several other authors have pointed out at least three shortfalls of the status quo before 1980s: i) the lack of the temporal dimension in the sociological explanation of modernity, ii) the dismissal of the spatial particularity in the accounts of social change, and iii) the need to temporalize the geographical inquiries. How are social sciences accounts and social actions affected by transformation to the spatio-temporal structures of society? That is the general inquiry that inspired this thesis. The notion of spatio-temporal restructuration is introduced to capture the processes of restructuration that are taking place in the social sciences and in social life. Consequently, the study of the spatio-temporal structures of society includes epistemological and phenomenological research. A reorganization of social science spatio-temporal explanatory frameworks is proposed through epistemological research. A phenomenological investigation refers to the dialogical relationship between spatio-temporal arrangements and regimes, which together define the spatio-temporal structures of society. These two conditions of the research in spatio-temporal restructuration –epistemological and phenomenological- explain the twofold structure of the thesis

Strategizing as multi-modal and rhetorical discursive practice: a case study of the BHP Billiton's failed acquisition of Rio Tinto

This thesis took a discourse approach to analyze BHP Billiton’s failed acquisition of Rio Tinto in 2007-08 to better understand what happens during strategizing. The research highlighted the structure and dynamics of the discourse, as well as the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. In doing so, the thesis provided new insights into how actors were able to influence such important strategic events. The thesis adopted a multi-modal discourse analytic framework and analyzed media reports, corporate videos, press releases and communications to shareholders, as well as slides and full transcripts of key presentations by both BHP and Rio leadership. The analysis identified the main internal and external actors as either decision-makers (BHP’s leadership, shareholders, competition regulators) or influencers (Rio’s leadership, analysts, media, customers). It further identified a range of multi-modal discursive practices and rhetorical strategies that were brought to bear to negotiate the meaning of three key constructs that shaped the discourse, that is, the additional value pool, the fair share exchange ratio, and the impact on competition. Further, the findings showed how time and context were discursively constructed and influenced the meaning of the three key constructs. These findings enabled a number of contributions to the discourse and M&A literature. While most research into acquisition discourses has routinely ignored the pre-acquisition discourse, this thesis focused on the period preceding the transaction. An initial contribution was to show that, in a pre-acquisition discourse, external actors were not a passive audience but played a significant role as rhetor and audience. Also, while previous empirical studies of discourse have emphasized the role of language, this thesis considered multi-modal discursive practices, including speech, writing, imagery, location and calculative devices. The thesis made a further contribution by showing how actors worked to persuade each other through multi-layered rhetorical strategies that were also brought to bear through non-linguistic modes. This contribution was extended by showing how these practices functioned as transgression markers that signaled convergence or divergence of meaning of the key constructs. A detailed analysis of calculative devices enabled further contributions. An initial contribution was that it showed how calculative devices developed as boundary objects over four stages: identification, calculation, negotiation, and objectification. Further, the thesis showed how calculative devices were imbued with logos and ethos through, for example, the calculative logic, accounting standards and data sources that were woven together in the symbolic manipulations of the device. Lastly, the thesis showed how calculative devices acted as boundary objects, and made a contribution to theory by proposing a third criterion, legitimacy, to complement widely acknowledged criteria of adaptability and commonality. In addition to these dynamics, the thesis outlined a discursive epistemology of strategizing through its analysis of the role of time and context in the social construction of meaning in strategizing. While the role of time and context is widely acknowledged in organizational discourse, it remained unclear what was specific to strategizing. The thesis argued that the purpose of strategizing is to construct and negotiate new or improved options for a preferred future and the actions to bring this about, and made a contribution to a discursive epistemology of strategizing by showing how temporal and contextual work in strategizing extends the horizon of discourses that relate to the future and discourses that relate to the broader discourse. This reconstructs the tapestry of interwoven discourses that make up the local strategy discourse, and creates new strategic options

Does Innovation Capacity Building Help Regional Development? Policy Expert Narrations on Development in China’s “West”

To avoid the middle-income trap, China’s leaders call for innovation to accelerate development in China. However, since it is not clear how innovation and (regional) development reinforce each other, there is no blueprint strategy for successful innovation capacity building throughout China. Due to resource scarcity in its “Western” regions, it is thus far from certain that innovation capacity building will support regional development. Departing from sociology of knowledge, narrations are constitutive of policy practice. This article analyses narrative patterns of policy experts to understand how innovation capacity building and regional development are negotiated in China’s lagging “West.” The comparison of Yunnan and Chongqing cases demonstrates that innovation capacity building is primarily infused with theoretical expectations: resource scarcity does not allow for grounding innovation as a strategy of regional development in the local context. This leads to narrations of “local” alternatives to innovation capacity building in centralist China