The research carried out by the members of the LANCAR group comprises several interrelated projects with prospected applications in argumentation technology. Coordinating the research projects in this way enables the LANCAR members and research affiliates to optimally benefit from each other’s expertise and to fruitfully collaborate in a cross-disciplinary group centered around the ubiquitous and fascinating phenomenon of argumentation.
Psycho-linguistic theories of language processing and associated research methods (e.g., self-paced reading, eye tracking, EEG) are used to gain insights into people’s immediate and, in part, unconscious responses to arguments of different types and forms, thus initiating a cross-disciplinary research project named Psycho-Argumentation.
The project Annotating Argumentation in the Wild focuses on identifying argumentative moves in online discussion forums such as Reddit with a view to creating annotated datasets for argumentation research purposes. The annotated datasets are subjected to various types of linguistic analysis and modelling aimed at increasing our knowledge about how people express arguments in naturalistic settings.
The empirical results of the annotation project are combined with normative insights about argumentation assessment so as to develop a reliable and transparent procedure for Argument-Checking. This procedure enables assessment of argumentative texts in various communicative domains and facilitates a more objective measuring of people’s competence in assessing and producing arguments.
The project on Adpositional Argumentation (AdArg) is aimed at providing a robust formalization of linguistic and pragmatic aspects of argumentative discourse in terms of a constructivist representation framework. The results can be used as input for experiments in psycho-argumentation and preparing implementation in argumentation technology.
Research into the Philosophy of Argument is aimed at providing historically and empirically informed accounts of the various theoretical concepts relevant to the study of argumentation (e.g. ‘argumentation structure’, ‘argument type’, ‘stock issue’, and ‘fallacy’) and at exploring modifications and extensions of traditional definitions of argument (e.g. to metaphor, narration, visual and multimodal argumentation, and polylogue).
LANCAR 