Research platform for the study of argumentation in popular science discourse

Abstract

The paper discusses a software system designed to support the study of argumentation in Russian-language popular science texts. This system is based on an ontology built on modern principles of argumentation modeling. In particular, this ontology contains formal descriptions of typical reasoning schemes that are used for annotating texts, analyzing the arguments presented in them, and assessment of its persuasiveness relative to a given audience. A method of argumentative marking of a text is proposed, which provides the allocation of statements and the construction on their basis of an argumentation graph using knowledge about typical reasoning schemes. The paper also describes a set of web tools that provide the creation of thematic corpora, visualization of the argumentation ontology used, the construction of the argumentation graph, the selection of argumentation indicators in the texts, as well as the search for various entities in the text corpora in ontology terms. Analytical tools are presented by means of collecting statistical information on the occurrence of typical elements of argumentation in the body of texts, by means of researching indicators of argumentation and by means of analyzing the persuasiveness of argumentation. The novelty of the work consists in the development of an original methodology for studying argumentation in popular science discourse, based on the ontology of argumentation and supported by a specialized web platform.