Argument mapping: Towards an interdisciplinary descriptive model

Abstract

This article introduces and advocates a model designed for mapping reasoning, with a primary focus on exhaustively describing the argumentative moves within a text in natural language. The study begins by analyzing the limitations of existing methodologies, including informal logic – the foundational framework for these maps – computational argumentation analysis, and textual linguistics. It then proposes an interdisciplinary functional approach that revises text segmentation strategies and addresses linguistic elements often overlooked in philosophical discussions of argument mapping. The paper also presents a typology of argumentative functions and a methodology for depicting these functions, which are applied to a complex case study. Furthermore, the article explores the dual role of argument maps as both pedagogical and scientific tools, reflecting on their broader implications throughout.

Keywords

• informal logic
• argument map
• argument mining
• discourse relations
• text linguistics