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Explaining and Arguing
The Social Organization of Accounts
- Charles Antaki - Loughborough University, UK
August 1994 | 222 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Explanations identify causes, back up claims and justify actions. Social scientists study them because they reveal how people understand and construct their worlds. This stimulating book offers a critical review of the major approaches to the study of everyday explaining and arguing.
Using concrete examples to illuminate the range of contemporary approaches, Antaki's concern is to test theory against practice. He draws a picture of explanation as a richly social achievement of speaker and audience, involving a balance between delicate manoeuvre and the exercise of discursive power.
Introduction
Attributing Cause
Causal Talk
Explanations in Exoneration
Explanation Slots
Storied Accounts
Explanatory Discourse
Making Claims in Logic and Rhetoric
Backing Claims in Quarrels
Conclusion
