Abstract

This thesis addresses whether it is a mistake to limit the traditional conception of argument to that which is explicitly verbalized. Frans H. Van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst's Pragma-Dialectical theory of argumentation is used as an exemplar of the verbal-oriented approach, since it is recognized as being influential in the field of argumentation. A challenge is presented to the theory by introducing and discussing two modes of argumentation that tend to divert from the use of language, specifically the visual and the emotional. A "visual argument" gets its strength primarily from a visual image. A visual argument makes a claim of some sort and has a reason or reasons for that claim. Plus, the argument is both communicated to an audience and is linguistically explicable. Four types of emotional argumentation are discussed. They are: emotions used to express an argument, an emotion used as a reason for an argumentative claim, an arguer appealing to the emotions of an audience, and an arguer inducing an emotion in her audience.