The 10.000-Argument Rule: Adequacy in Theories of Argument Structure

Abstract

Whilst different areas of argumentation theory might focus upon different phenomena, or offer competing accounts, there is unspoken consensus that foundational features such as linked-ness, convergence and even support or attack should be reliably distinguishable in the wild. After detailed analysis of more than ten thousand arguments in the QT30 corpus (Hautli-Janisz et al. 2022a, b), it seems as though this consensus view is false, challenging fundamental notions of descriptive adequacy from across argumentation theory.