Argumentationsstile im Deutschen und im Arabischen aus kontrastiver Sicht
Argumentation Styles in German and Arabic from a Contrastive Perspective

Summary/Abstract: The article is a review of the monograph entitled Argumentationspraktiken im Vergleich by Abdel-Hafiez Massud. The monograph is devoted to a linguistic comparison between argumentation patterns in German and Arabic. The author describes linguistic and extralinguistic measures used in the process of intercultural communication to convince others of our point of view or to persuade them to take a specific step. The publication consists of three thematic parts: argumentation in the online media, argumentation as an intercultural phenomenon, and teaching argumentation skills. The first part focuses on the issue of argumentation patterns preferred by both internauts and companies in the digital world. Argumentative speech acts, such as protesting or apologizing, are discussed on the basis of various text types, for instance German and Arabic protests on Twitter, answers given by companies to customers’ online complaints, and „About us” sections on German private school websites. The second part, which is based on German and Arabic online complaints, is devoted to intercultural politeness and impoliteness in German and Arabic argumentation. The third part is centered around developing argumentation skills during classes in German as a foreign or second language. The value of the monograph is enhanced by the fact that it contrastively thematizes German and Arabic multimodal argumentation styles, which is a new and little explored research field. It is also important that the impact of modern communication forms in the new media on argumentation patterns and practices in both cultures has been considered. Due to its topicality and the presentation of the themes in an original manner, the publication might be of interest to linguists, particularly those researching argumentation.

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