Warrant Toulmin’s Model of Argumentation

needs to be stated explicitly not implicitly. The indicators of ground in English are ‘because’, ‘as shown by’, ‘given that’, ‘seeing that’, ‘as indicated by’, ‘considering that’.

2.2.7.3 Warrant

Mentioning the ground behind the claim, however, is not enough. Warrant is needed to complete the first triad. Simply, warrant is a reasoning link between claim and ground. It is the turning point where the element of ground needs to be established. It can also be identified as general statement, inference or assumption that can be accepted to be true Toulmin, 1958:98. The forms of warrant are various depending on the field of argument being said since warrants are typically widely accepted as truth as they can apply to an extensive range of circumstances since warrants serve as an underlying connection between the claim and ground.Hitchcock and Verheij 2006: 2 state that “warrants can be defended by appeal to a system of taxonomic classification, to a statute, to statistics from a cens us, and so forth”. Toulmin mentions “Data such as D entitle one to draw conclusions, or make claims, such as C’, alternatively ‘Given data D, one may take it that C” 2003:91.The connection between the claim and the ground, warrants are distinguished from ground which can appear either explicit or implicit Toulmin, 2003: 92. This is a necessary component of a good argument, but often there is no need to state them explicitly because they are implied by the context. No wonder, there are 6 types of warrant. First is generalization warrant which connects what is true for a representative sample to what is likely true for the population from which the sample was drawn. Next, sign warrant which connects the evidence as a sign, clue, or symptom of the claim. Third, authority warrant connects the evidence to authoritative sources in support of the claim. Analogy Warrant connects the evidence to the claim using analogies of similar relevant situations, events, or precedents. Causality warrant which connects the evidence as being caused by or the result of the claim. The last is principle warrant which connects the evidence to the claim as an application of a broader, relevant principle. Besides closely connected to qualifier, warrants are also connected to backings and rebuttals.

2.2.7.4 Backing