Towards an in integrative topos analysis: methodological reflections on a contested concept

The notion of topos points to the basic idea that an issue or a phenomenon can be approached from a range of different perspectives, imbued with different argumentative potential. Thus, an analysis of topoi addresses the fundamental question of how an issue or a phenomenon is constituted as a matter of this or that nature, and how this constitution has argumentative and persuasive implications. However, the notion of topos is multifaceted and has a complex history. Over the last decades, it has found its way into critical discourse analysis, not least the so called discourse-historical approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2009). This has given rise to controversies over the conceptual definition and the analytical criteria for identifying topoi (Žagar, 2010). Taking these controversies as a starting point for clarification, the paper will put forward a material understanding of topos (Kopperschmidt, 1991), i.e. as the content related premise upon which an argument is based, which is theoretically deepened by four topos dimensions suggested by Bornscheuer (1976). On that basis, the paper will argue that the concept of topos has methodological potential to integrate quantitative and different qualitative approaches within a discourse studies framework. Thus, the notion of topos can function as a prism that allows both zooming out on argumentative patterns and zooming in on their textual realizations.This enables analysis at different levels of perceptual distance on a scale from in depth analysis of the linguistic articulation of individual topoi over typological identification of a set of topoi to a quantitative analysis of the distribution of a large amount of topoi occurrences. Moreover, the different analytical approaches may be informed by each other in systematic ways. As for empirical illustration, the paper will draw on examples from environmental and political communication.