LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 23:5 May 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

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Identification and Analysis of Fallacious Argument of Socio-political Discourse: A Case Study of Computer-mediated Discourse on Quora

Mohit Raj, PhD Scholar and Sweta Sinha, Assistant Professor

Abstract

Nowadays, social media content has become one of the main sources of information to feed the mind of social-media users. However, the reliability on social media for information may be problematic due to the doubtful credibility of its content. There are two ways to overcome this problem: fact-checking and fallacy identification of the argument. The paper has attempted to address this problem by identifying the fallacious argument of social media’s textual content.

The study has been divided into two parts: fallacious argument identification and its division according to their characteristics. For the fallacious argument identification, the study has adapted the concept of fallacy as a hindrance to the goal of conflict resolution and wrong moves in the communication process.

The study has employed a fallacy taxonomy framework to classify fallacious arguments into different categories. The fallacy taxonomy framework has been prepared based on popular informal fallacies with the help of Walton’s pragmatic theory of fallacy. The data for the study has been collected from the social media platform Quora. The data collection process only extracted the textual data related to the discourse of the socio-political domain, which is generated in Hindi.

The study has analysed socio-political discourse to address the following objectives: 1. Identification of fallacious argument, 2. Categorisation of fallacious argument into different types.

Keywords: fallacy, rationality, social media, Hindi discourse, socio-political, argument analysis

Introduction

Argumentation is traditionally known as the process in which two or more interlocutors engage in debate or discussion with each other due to differences of opinion about something. One of the most well-known and influential definitions of argumentation comes from the philosopher Stephen Toulmin. He defined argumentation as “the process of providing reasons for supporting or criticising a claim” in his book “The Uses of Argument” in 1958 (Toulmin, 1958).

Argumentation is a very common and frequent phenomenon that exists in our life. In the process of argumentation, reasoning plays a great role in reaching a conclusion. The role of argumentation in daily life starts even with the early morning of the day, deciding what food should be for today. The sphere of argumentation has broadened from the personal to the public sphere. Argumentation take place among people on personal issues like deciding carrier field, movie selection for watching, where to go on vacation, and public issues like evaluating whether government policy is good or bad, deciding whether education should be free or paid etc. In the age of digital communication, social media provide a platform for people to do argumentation with individuals or many people. When people engage with one another by sending messages via a network of computers, that communication is known as computer-mediated discourse (CMD) (Herring et al., 2015). The age of digital communication has made easy the process of sharing and accessibility of information. It enables us to talk or argue about any topic in order to find common ground. In this sense, the digital revolution makes it easier to communicate with a wide range of audiences to exchange information and knowledge. Yet, it is not just restricted to only casual chats with known and unknown common people. Instead, it enables us to communicate openly and directly with national and international authorities. These are the benefits of computer-mediated communication that we experience. Yet, it has also been used to distribute false information and rumours. The social media platform has also been used to manufacture consent, set a particular narrative, and publish communal posts using logical and argumentative tricks. That raises the possibility of a breakdown in concord and brotherhood, and more crucially, it makes it harder to cultivate a democratic society and logical temperament.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mohit Raj
PhD Scholar, Linguistics (Pursuing)
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Patna
Bihta, Patna - 801106
mohitraj.iitp21@gmail.com

Sweta Sinha
Assistant Professor, Linguistics
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Patna
Bihta, Patna - 801106
apna1982@gmail.com
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