Click here for the latest news from Wessex Press → Click here for the latest news from Wessex Press →
  • Fabrizio Macagno

    Fabrizio Macagno (Ph.D. in linguistics, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, 2008) works as an assistant professor in the departments of Philosophy and Communication at the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where he also acts as the Head of International Relations (Associate Dean). His current research, between the fields of Linguistics and Philosophy of language, is focused on the natural patterns of argument (argumentation schemes), the persuasive use of emotive language, and on the dialectical dimension of discourse implicitness (presuppositions). The theoretical framework that he has been developing together with Douglas Walton and other colleagues is used in his more empirical studies, aiming at analysing medical, educational, and legal discourse. He is coordinating a national project on the use of discourse analysis and argumentation tools for the study of medical discourse in diabetes care (METACARE) and a European project on dialogue and argumentation in the classroom (DIALLS), of which is the coordinator for the Portuguese team. He is author of several papers on definition, informal fallacies, argumentation schemes, and dialogue theory published on major international peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Argumentation, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Informal Logic, and Pragmatics and Cognition. His most important publications, in addition to the Logic of Academic Writing (Wessex 2019) include the books Argumentation Schemes (Cambridge University Press 2008), Emotive language in argumentation (CUP 2014), Interpreting straw man argumentation (Springer 2017) and Statutory interpretation: Pragmatics and argumentation (CUP 2021). He has been publishing extensively on the use of logical methods and theories for the improvement of communication in crucial areas of practice, such as education, law, and medical discourse.