In a recent interview the French linguist Oswald Ducrot discusses the Theory of Topoi, the most recent version of the Theory of Argumentation within Language developed by himself and collaborators, presenting it as an alternative model for the semantics based on the concept of truth conditions. In order to clarify the assumptions of this theory, the interviewer discusses with Ducrot and Marion Carel issues such as the relation between the concept of presupposition and the Theory of Argumentation, the relation between logical languages and natural languages, the definition of lexical meaning in the model, and at last, the translatability of lexical meanings not referentially defined.
Semantics; Argumentation; Topos; Lexical meanings; Prototypes