The Employment Of Presupposition In Argumentation

The thesis is a tentative investigation into the employment of presupposition in argumentative interactions by referring to the theoretical background of the study of presupposition. It aims to find out the main strategic uses of presuppositions and investigate how theses strategies contribute to the refutation and persuasion in argumentation.Conflicts exist anywhere and at anytime, so argumentation is an indispensable part in human life in all ages. Argumentation is a verbal interaction with creative use of language. It is the prime of the art of speechcraft, in which all kinds of language techniques are applied. Pragmatic presupposition is a hot topic of linguistics, especially of pragmatics. Due to its unique characteristics and special functions, pragmatic presupposition is an oft-adapted method in terms of language techniques in various argumentative interactions.This thesis, based on the combination of qualitative and quantitative study, by analyzing the argumentative stories collected, detects five kinds of strategic uses of presupposition: neglecting presuppositions, using sham presuppositions, suspending presuppositions, changing presuppositions and utilizing the presuppositions of the utterance of the other party. The thesis analyses every strategy with examples.For these strategic uses of pragmatic presupposition are concluded from daily argumentative stories, in order to improve the prevalence and universality of these strategies in other forms of argumentation, the thesis probes the problem in discourses of debate contests. By investigating the strategic uses of presupposition in the "free debate" parts of 6 debate contest discourses, the author finds all above mentioned strategic uses of presuppositions are employed, but the frequency of the strategies differ greatly: the most frequently used strategy is utilizing the presuppositions of the other party, the least, neglecting presuppositions and sham presuppositions. On the basis of this analysis, the author tentatively investigates...