SPEAKERS' COMPETENCE IN IDENTIFYING FALLACIES: A PRAGMA-DIALECTICAL APPROACH

Abstract

This paper seeks to show the reach of pragma-dialectics by describing and analyzing speakers competence in the identification of fallacies in argumentative speech. The corpus selected comprises a set of sixty seven letters by 35 different authors written in response to an opinion column by Agustín Squella entitled "Es Ud. católico?" ("Are you a Catholic?"). Fallacies were analyzed in all letters answering the question and recongnition markers were searched for such fallacies as arguments but this does not occur in most cases. Ad hominem is the most recognized and also the most widely used fallacy