BEYOND PERSUASION: ARGUMENTATION ACCORDING TO ENUNCIATIVE SEMANTICS

Abstract

This article aims to present and discuss the epistemological foundations of the conception of argumentation in the Enunciative Semantics of Eduardo Guimarães (1987, 1995, 2002, 2018), which presents argumentation as a relationship of signification, following the fundamental turn established by Ducrot (2020), moving it away from the field of rhetoric and persuasion to the field of signification. To this end, we reconstruct the epistemological path that underpins this perspective, encompassing Michel Bréal's critique of naturalism and his emphasis on the relational and historical character of language; Saussure's conception of language as a system of relational values; and the contributions of Benveniste and Ducrot on subjectivity in language and polyphony. We demonstrate how Guimarães synthesizes these influences by defining argumentation not as a technique, but as a relationship of signification, constituted in the political agency of the speaker within the enunciative scene.