Abstract

Institutional contexts influence the argumentative exchanges that occur in them. This paper examines the concept of argumentative activity type as an integration of institutional insights into the pragma-dialectical theory, aimed at depicting such influence. The integration is significant to the pursuit of an empirically adequate account of argumentative discourse. Activity types account for the institutional aims of the arguers and provide tools to trace the influence of these aims on the arguers’ attempt to balance between their dialectical and rhetorical aims, I argue.