Prevailing Arguments and Types of Conclusions of Parent–Child Argumentation

This chapter examines the types of arguments used most often by parents and children and the different types of conclusions of their argumentative discussions. The conceptual tool adopted for the analysis is based on the integration of the pragma-dialectical ideal model of a critical discussion (van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2004) with the Argumentum Model of Topics (Rigotti & Greco Morasso, 2019). The integration of these two tools of analysis permits to reconstruct the inferential configuration of the arguments used by parents and children and to identify the types of conclusions of their argumentative discussions. Exemplary argumentative sequences that bring to light the results obtained through the qualitative analysis of a larger corpus of argumentative discussions between parents and children are presented and discussed.