The Language of Argument

4 2

C H A P T E R 3 ■ T h e L a n g u a g e o f A r g u m e n t

There are other ways of linking these sentences to form an argument.

Here is one:

Since Socrates is a man,

and all men are mortal,

Socrates is mortal.

Notice that the word “since” works in roughly the opposite way that

“therefore” does. The word “therefore” is a conclusion marker, because it in-

dicates that the statement that follows it is a conclusion. In contrast, the

word “since” is a reason marker, because it indicates that the following state-

ment or statements are reasons. In our example, the conclusion comes at the

end, but there is a variation on this. Sometimes the conclusion is given at

the start:

Socrates is mortal, since all men are mortal and Socrates is a man.

“Since” flags reasons; the remaining connected statement is then taken to

be the conclusion, whether it appears at the beginning or at the end of the

sentence.

Many other terms are used to introduce an argumentative structure into

language by marking either reasons or conclusions. Here is a partial list:

Reason Markers Conclusion Markers

since therefore

because hence

for thus

as then

We shall call such terms “argument markers,” because each presents one

or more statements as part of an argument or backing for some other

statement.

It is important to realize that these words are not always used as

argument markers. The words “since” and “then” are often used as indi-

cators of time, as in, “He’s been an American citizen since 1973” and “He

ate a hot dog, then a hamburger.” The word “for” is often used as a prepo-

sition, as in “John works for IBM.” Because some of these terms have a

variety of meanings, it is not possible to identify argument markers in a

mechanical way just by looking at words. It is necessary to examine the

function of words in the context in which they occur. One test of whether

a word is functioning as an argument marker in a particular sentence is

whether you can substitute another argument marker without changing

the meaning of the sentence. In the last example, it makes no sense to say,

“John works since IBM.”

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