Chapter 12 Integrating argumentation in discourse analysis? Problems and challenges

This paper justifies the need for Discourse Analysis to fully integrate argumentation as a constitutive element of discourse. A global presentation of the theory of argumentation in discourse, drawing upon New Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis as developed in France, shows how it differs from the new version of CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis) which is inspired by a normative approach to argumentation based on pragmadialectics. It also endeavors to resolve the theoretical tensions between conceptions of argumentation borrowed from Aristotle and Perelman, and trends in Discourse Analysis based on contemporary views of the subject and the social and institutional constraints imposed upon discourse. The theoretical synthesis is followed by a concrete example - the microanalysis of a polemical web post on the burqa in France. The paper concludes with a discussion about the ways in which analysis dealing with social discourse and social issues authorizes or excludes political or ethical engagement by researchers.