The Effective and/or the Reasonable: Border Crossing in Strategic Maneuvering

The main aim of an argumentative speech act complex, as defined in argumentation theory, is to resolve a difference of opinion by advancing a constellation of reasons brought up by the arguer in order to justify the acceptability of a standpoint. In order to achieve one’s goal, the arguer is entitled to employ strategic maneuvering, a process through which a balance between reasonableness and effectiveness is to be established, and the aim of which is to move towards the best position in the actual context of argumentation. A prototypical example of applying strategic maneuvering is that of political speeches where speakers frequently achieve their goals by the rhetorical means of persuasion and manipulation, by misleading language use. The speaker’s orientation towards finding the best position will be followed through the analysis of dialogues taken from the TV series House of Cards.