Scientific Rhetorics and Enthymemes Simone Teufel University of - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Scientific Rhetorics and Enthymemes

Simone Teufel

University of Cambridge

April 21, 2016

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Work in Cambridge on Argument Interpretation

• Argumentative Zoning and Scientific Rhetorics; scientific text
• First steps in Enthymeme Interpretation (with my student

Olesya Razuvayevskaya); general text

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What is required for an article to be published?

• HLG-1: Show: Knowledge claim is significant
• HLG-2: Show: Knowledge claim is novel
• HLG-3: Show: Authors are knowledgeable about area
• HLG-4: Show: Research methodology is sound

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Publication justified Novelty Knowledgable Significance Sound Methodology

Goal New Methods New Known Goal

• Suff. # citations

We use good stuff

H-9: Harder H-11: Clash R-1: Real problem R-3: Goal hard R-4: Import. R-5: Desir. H-12: Support

• Suff. different from most similar

R-2: Goal New

Comparison to SoA

H-1 H-2 H-3 H-6: Better H-7 H-16: Similar H-8: Different R-6: Gap H-4: Solves H-5: Good H-14: Use H-13 H-14

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Rhetorical statements: Properties of the “research space”

R-1 Problem addressed is a problem R-2 New goal/problem is new R-3 New goal/problem is hard R-4 New goal/problem is important/interesting R-5 Solution to new problem is desirable R-6 No solution to new problem exists Recently, R-4 the use of imines as starting materials in the synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds has attracted a lot of interest from synthetic chemists.(1)

(b200198e)

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Properties of new solution

R-7 New solution solves problem R-8 New solution avoids problems R-9 New solution necessary to achieve goal R-10 New solution is advantageous R-11 New solution has limitations R-12 Future work follows from new solution Moreover, R-10 the simplicity and ease of application of the electrochemical method . . . should also be emphasised and makes it an interesting and valuable synthetic tool.

(b513402a)

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Properties of existing solution

H-1 Existing solution is flawed H-2 Existing solution does not solve problem H-3 Existing solution introduces new problem H-4 Existing solution solves problem H-5 Existing solution is advantageous H-4 This account makes reasonably good empirical predictions, though H-2 it does fail for the following examples: . . .

(9503014, S-75)

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Relationships between Existing and New Solutions

H-6 New solution is better than existing solution H-7 New solution avoids problems (when existing does not) H-8 New goal/problem/solution is different from existing H-9 New goal/problem is harder than existing goal/problem H-10 New result is different from existing result H-11 New claim is different from/clashes with existing claim H-12 Agreement/support between existing and new claim H-13 Existing solution provides basis for new solution H-14 Existing solution provides part of new solution H-15 Existing solution (adapted) provides part of new solution H-16 Existing solution is similar to new solution H-12 Greater survival of tillers under irrigated conditions agrees with other reports in barley [4,28] and wheat [10,13,26].

(A027)

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Enthymeme recognition and discovery

• Socrates is mortal because he’s human.

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Enthymeme recognition and discovery

• Socrates is mortal because he’s human.
• Syllogism with modus ponens:

All humans are mortal. [major premise] Socrates is human. [minor premise] Therefore, Socrates is mortal. [conclusion]

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Enthymeme recognition and discovery

• Socrates is mortal because he’s human.
• Syllogism with modus ponens:

All humans are mortal. [major premise] Socrates is human. [minor premise] Therefore, Socrates is mortal. [conclusion]

• It is the major premise here that is not explicitly stated.

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Enthymeme recognition and discovery

• Socrates is mortal because he’s human.
• Syllogism with modus ponens:

All humans are mortal. [major premise] Socrates is human. [minor premise] Therefore, Socrates is mortal. [conclusion]

• It is the major premise here that is not explicitly stated.
• Task: find enthymemes in text
• reconstruct them/ guess missing premise

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Our framing of the problem

• Delineation of “atomic argument context” and “Decision

Enthymeme Y/N”

• Use discourse markers to find possible mini-arguments
• Complicated by fact that there’s often a mixture of Walton’s

argument types in the vicinity

• Judgment of size of “inference step”
• Generation of candidate premises
• Testing of premises for relevance/support
• Judgment of size of “inference step”

Data used: Novels, BNC, advertisement pamphlets

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“Of course” snippets

• Indication of a “smaller, obvious” step in argumentation
• Communicative function:
• On surface, an apology for an obvious piece of information.
• Or maybe, a wish to reaffirm some assumptions
• Compiled a small corpus of “of course” phrases
• Data collection with fixed sentence boundaries
• Also: “let alone” sentences, “therefore” mini-arguments

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Some examples of “Of course” sentences

• Of course Peter will try to acquit him.

He is a criminal himself.

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Some examples of “Of course” sentences

• Of course Peter will try to acquit him.

He is a criminal himself.

• Missing premise: Criminal lawyers are more likely to acquit

criminals than non-criminal lawyers.

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Some examples of “Of course” sentences

• Of course Peter will try to acquit him.

He is a criminal himself.

• Missing premise: Criminal lawyers are more likely to acquit

criminals than non-criminal lawyers.

• Of course, she would have to get off smack in the long run.

Or else she would look like that girl in the adverts.

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Some examples of “Of course” sentences

• Of course Peter will try to acquit him.

He is a criminal himself.

• Missing premise: Criminal lawyers are more likely to acquit

criminals than non-criminal lawyers.

• Of course, she would have to get off smack in the long run.

Or else she would look like that girl in the adverts.

• Missing premise: The girl in the adverts is on smack, or at

least looks like it.

• Missing premise: That look is not desirable (to her,

presumably).

• Missing premise: Taking smack is something that will

eventually show on photos.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

• Counter example – the enthymeme, if one exists, includes the

previous (invisible) sentence.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

• Counter example – the enthymeme, if one exists, includes the

previous (invisible) sentence.

• Of course it is possible to have isomers of some of these.

For example, it is possible to string together the four carbons

• f butane in two different ways.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

• Counter example – the enthymeme, if one exists, includes the

previous (invisible) sentence.

• Of course it is possible to have isomers of some of these.

For example, it is possible to string together the four carbons

• f butane in two different ways.
• Missing premise: Carbons of butane, if strung together

correctly, form an isomer of X.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

• Counter example – the enthymeme, if one exists, includes the

previous (invisible) sentence.

• Of course it is possible to have isomers of some of these.

For example, it is possible to string together the four carbons

• f butane in two different ways.
• Missing premise: Carbons of butane, if strung together

correctly, form an isomer of X.

• I did, of course, help her.

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More “of course” examples

• Of course, the statue was in modern dress.

A suspiciously stained smart dark suit, just like Clive’s.

• Counter example – the enthymeme, if one exists, includes the

previous (invisible) sentence.

• Of course it is possible to have isomers of some of these.

For example, it is possible to string together the four carbons

• f butane in two different ways.
• Missing premise: Carbons of butane, if strung together

correctly, form an isomer of X.

• I did, of course, help her.
• Missing premise: Helping people is a moral principle in our

society that the speaker also subscribes to.

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Current experiments

• Measure agreement on “is this a mini argument or not”?
• We think it measures intuitions about size of inference step
• We don’t show any context
• Elicit from humans premise candidates

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“Let alone” sentences

• Implies a scale
• Typically the smaller point is negated
• The implication is that the larger point is “even more”

negated

• For instance:

The advice of the church’s moral experts and authoritative clerics was thus pertinent to the entire population of the world, let alone that of Ireland.

• What can we mine from that?
• Ireland is a part of the world?
• Whatever is pertinent to the world is of course pertinent to

Ireland?