The Argumentative Uses of Emotive Language

Revista Iberoamericana de Argumentacion, 1(1), 2010, 1-33.

29 Pages Posted: 5 Apr 2012

See all articles by Fabrizio Macagno

Fabrizio Macagno

Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Douglas Walton

University of Windsor

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: 2010

Abstract

This paper analyzes selected examples of uses of argumentation tactics that exploit emotive language, many of them criticized as deceptive and even fallacious by classical and recent sources, including current informal logic textbooks. The analysis is based on six argumentation schemes, and an account of the dialectical setting in which these schemes are used. The three conclusions are (1) that such uses of emotive language are often reasonable and necessary in argumentation based on values, (2) but that they are defeasible, and hence need to be seen as open to critical questioning (3) and that when they are used fallaciously, it is because they interfere with critical questioning or conceal the need for it. The analysis furnishes criteria for distinguishing between arguments based on the use of emotive words that are reasonable tools of persuasion, and those that are fallacious tactics used to conceal and distort information.

Keywords: loded terms, persuasive definitions, argumentation, fallacies

Suggested Citation

Macagno, Fabrizio and Walton, Douglas, The Argumentative Uses of Emotive Language (2010). Revista Iberoamericana de Argumentacion, 1(1), 2010, 1-33., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2035047

Fabrizio Macagno (Contact Author)

Universidade Nova de Lisboa ( email )

Av. Berna 26 I&D Building, office 4.02
Lisbon, 1069-061
Portugal

HOME PAGE: http://fabriziomacagno.altervista.org/

Douglas Walton

University of Windsor ( email )

401 Sunset Avenue
Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4
Canada

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