A pragma-dialectical approach in television talk show argumentation: A case study of the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation’s one-on-one discourse
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Date
2024
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University of Namibia
Abstract
This study investigated the argumentative discourse of the Namibian Broadcast
Corporation (NBC) One-on-One talk show interviews between the host and a guest.
Although the interviews present different guests per sitting, the host is an NBC
employee assigned to the interview segment and is couched within the theoretical
explications of pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation (van Eemeren, 2017). The
pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation is fundamentally a broad spectrum of
the study of linguistics that has, through its development and growth, shifted its
interest and focus from abstractions of formal logic to a more structured interest in
pragmatics. This theory has since been more concerned with pragma-dialectics
encompassing the rules of argumentation, strategic manoeuvring, and effectiveness
through reasonableness. The discourse in argumentation varies in a range of how
influential political figures represent or defend their points of view on the issue at
hand. Specifically, the study represented a qualitative establishment of television
show discourse, and it was primarily focused on investigating the patterns of pragma dialectics in which the host of the talk show and the guest strategically manoeuvred
to resolve differences of opinion. In the same vein, the study investigated whether
the resolution of the differences of opinion was achieved and how effectiveness and
reasonableness played any role in the process of the arguers' attempt to defend their
standpoint on issues under discussion. The data was collected from archived audio
recordings transcribed into readable text files. The topics of the talk show discussions
covered were on issues pertaining to Namibia’s social, economic and political
spheres. The analysis employed the pragma-dialectical method to evaluate the data.
The findings, on one part, demonstrated that three turn-taking strategies played a
vital role in the argumentative discourse in the following ways: the arguers (especially
the host) used the turn-holding strategy in order to maintain and prolong their
window of talking. This was more prevalent in the repetitive use of "but", and "and".
The arguers also used turn-claiming as a strategy by interjection and conjunctions
such as “but!”, “really!’ and “Oh!” Turn-yielding strategy was also used but rarely.
The arguers decided to give up their turn to talk when deemed necessary and when
they seemed to have exhausted their stance in opinion. This benefitted the opponent
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in the argument by rendering them more time to express and defend their standpoint
at certain issues. The findings further reflected that, through the constellation of
argumentative moves displayed by the arguers, argumentative patterns were
employed through their typology of standpoints, a difference of opinions,
argumentative schemes and argumentative structure. It was also observed that the
arguers strategically manoeuvred at every stage of the discussion to maintain their
standpoint; in this regard, argumentative patterns came up as a result of strategic
manoeuvring. By trying to observe the importance of being effective and
reasonableness, the arguers still strategically manoeuvred. Although there are
numerous pragma-dialectic studies on talk shows, the study concluded that there
was a need for improvement in journalistic communication skills between One-on One talk show in terms of strategic manoeuvring and adhering to the rules that apply
in every argumentation stage. It is recommended that further studies should be
carried out directed towards communication skills in television shows, especially in
situations where non-native English speakers struggle to express their opinions and
fail effectively to defend their viewpoints due to language barriers and poor
argumentation strategies
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of philosophy in English studies
Keywords
Pragma-dialectics, Argumentation, Argumentation structure, Argumentation stages, Strategic manoeuvring, Television talk show discussion, University of Namibia