different between discourse vs argument

English

Etymology

From Middle English discours, borrowed from Middle French discours (“conversation, speech”), from Latin discursus (“the act of running about”), from Latin discurr? (“run about”), from dis- (“apart”) + curr? (“run”). Spelling modified by influence of Middle French cours (“course”). Doublet of discursus.

Pronunciation

• (mainly noun) IPA^(key): /?d?sk??(?)s/
• (mainly verb) IPA^(key): /d?s?k??(?)s/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?d?sko(?)?s/, /d?s?ko(?)?s/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?d?sko?s/, /d?s?ko?s/

Noun

discourse (countable and uncountable, plural discourses)

1. (uncountable, archaic) Verbal exchange, conversation.
   • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter XVIII

     Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.

2. (uncountable) Expression in words, either speech or writing.
3. (countable) A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.

   The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

4. (countable) Any rational expression, reason.
   • 1692, Robert South, A Discourse Concerning The General Resurrection On Acts xxiv. 15

     difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason
5. (social sciences, countable) An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault).
   • 2008, Jane Anna Gordon, Lewis Gordon, A Companion to African-American Studies (page 308)

     But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
6. (obsolete) Dealing; transaction.

   • Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.

Synonyms

• (expression in words): communication, expression
• (verbal exchange): debate, conversation, discussion, talk
• (formal lengthy exposition of some subject): dissertation, lecture, sermon, study, treatise
• (rational expression): ratiocination

Derived terms

• direct discourse
• indirect discourse

Related terms

• course
• discursive

Translations

Verb

discourse (third-person singular simple present discourses, present participle discoursing, simple past and past participle discoursed)

1. (intransitive) To engage in discussion or conversation; to converse.
2. (intransitive) To write or speak formally and at length.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To debate.
4. To exercise reason; to employ the mind in judging and inferring; to reason.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

5. (obsolete, transitive) To produce or emit (musical sounds).
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene 2, [3]

     Hamlet. […] Will you play upon this pipe? […] It is as easy as lying. Govern these ventages with your fingers and thumbs, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music.

   • 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, Volume II, Part II, Chapter V, p. 233, [4]

     Music discoursed on that melodious instrument, a Jew's harp, keeps the elfin women away from the hunter, because the tongue of the instrument is of steel.

   • 1915, Ralph Henry Barbour, The Secret Play, New York: D. Appleton & Co., Chapter XXIII, p. 300 [5]

     Dahl's Silver Cornet Band, augmented for the occasion to the grand total of fourteen pieces, discoursed sweet—well, discoursed music; let us not be too particular as to the quality of it.

Synonyms

• (engage in discussion or conversation): converse, talk
• (write or speak formally and at length):

Derived terms

• discourser

Translations

See also

• essay

Anagrams

• discoures, ruscoside

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????j?m?nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /????j?m?nt/, /-?ju-/, /-?j?-/
• Hyphenation: ar?gu?ment

Etymology 1

From Middle English argument, from Anglo-Norman and Old French arguement, from Latin arg?mentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”), from arguere + -mentum (suffix indicating the instrument, medium, or result of something). Arguere is the present active infinitive of argu? (“to argue, assert, declare; to make clear, prove, show; to accuse, charge with, reprove; to blame, censure; to denounce as false”), either ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?er?- (“silver, white; glittering”), or from Hittite [script needed] (arkuw?(i)-, “to make a plea, state one’s case”). The English word is analysable as argue +? -ment.

Noun

argument (countable and uncountable, plural arguments)

1. (countable, also figuratively) A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:argument

   1. (logic, philosophy) A series of propositions organized so that the final proposition is a conclusion which is intended to follow logically from the preceding propositions, which function as premises.
2. (countable) A process of reasoning; argumentation.
3. (countable) An abstract or summary, as of the contents of a book, chapter, or poem; (figuratively) the contents themselves.
4. (countable) A verbal dispute; a quarrel.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dispute
6. (countable, linguistics) Any of the phrases that bears a syntactic connection to the verb of a clause.
7. (countable, mathematics)
   1. The independent variable of a function.
   2. The phase of a complex number.
   3. (also astronomy) A quantity on which the calculation of another quantity depends.

8. (countable, programming)
   1. A value, or a reference to a value, passed to a function.

      Synonyms: actual argument, passed parameter

   2. A parameter at a function call; an actual parameter, as opposed to a formal parameter.
9. (countable, obsolete)
   1. A matter in question; a business in hand.
   2. The subject matter of an artistic representation, discourse, or writing; a theme or topic.
10. (uncountable, archaic) Evidence, proof; (countable) an item of such evidence or proof.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with argument: valid, invalid, correct, incorrect, right, wrong, strong, weak, convincing, unconvincing, conclusive, inconclusive, fallacious, simple, straightforward, inductive, deductive, logical, illogical, absurd, specious, flawed.
• (parameter at a function call): some authors regard the use of argument to mean “formal parameter” to be imprecise, preferring that argument be used to refer only to the value that is used to instantiate the parameter at runtime, while parameter refers only to the name in the function definition that will be instantiated.

Alternative forms

• arguement (obsolete)

Meronyms

• (logic): conclusion, premise, proposition

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

The obsolete senses are derived from Middle English argumenten (“to argue, discuss; to consider, reflect”), from Old French argumenter (“to argue”), from Latin arg?ment?r?, the present active infinitive of arg?mentor (“to adduce arguments or proof, prove, reason; to adduce (something) as argument or proof; to conclude”), from arg?mentum (“argument (for a position); evidence, proof; point, theme; thesis, topic; plot (in theatre)”) (see further at etymology 1) +? -or (the first-person singular present passive indicative of -? (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)).

The current sense is derived from the noun.

Verb

argument (third-person singular simple present arguments, present participle argumenting, simple past and past participle argumented)

1. (intransitive, obsolete, now nonstandard, non-native speakers' English) To put forward as an argument; to argue.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To adduce evidence, to provide proof.

Conjugation

References

Further reading

• argument on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument of a function on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (literature) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• argument in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• argument in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin arg?mentum.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /??.?u?ment/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?r.?u?men/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /a?.?u?ment/

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument (reason)
2. (computing) argument
3. plot, storyline
4. (mathematics) argument
5. (grammar) argument

Related terms

• argumentar

Further reading

• “argument” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “argument” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “argument” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “argument” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?ar?um?nt]

Noun

argument m

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)

Declension

Derived terms

• pseudoargument
• protiargument

Related terms

• argumentace

See also

• parametr m

Further reading

• argument in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• argument in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Noun

argument n (singular definite argumentet, plural indefinite argumenter)

1. argument

Declension

Related terms

• argumentere

References

• “argument” in Den Danske Ordbog

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arg?mentum, from argu? (“prove, argue”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?.?y.m??/

Noun

argument m (plural arguments)

1. argument

2. (grammar) argument of a verb, phrase syntactically connected to a verb (object and subject)

Derived terms

• argumentaire
• argumenter
  • argumentation

Related terms

• arguer

See also

• (grammar): valence

Further reading

• “argument” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument or argumenter, definite plural argumenta or argumentene)

1. argument

Related terms

• argumentere
• argumentasjon

References

• “argument” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin argumentum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r???m?nt/

Noun

argument n (definite singular argumentet, indefinite plural argument, definite plural argumenta)

1. argument

Related terms

• argumentasjon

References

• “argument” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Etymology

From Latin arg?mentum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ar??u.m?nt/

Noun

argument m inan

1. point, argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)
2. (philosophy, logic, mathematics, programming) argument

Declension

Synonyms

• uzasadnienie, racja, pod?o?e, podstawa, przes?anka, powód,
• dowód, operand, parametr

Related terms

• argumentacja

Further reading

• argument in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

From French argument, from Latin argumentum.

Noun

argument n (plural argumente)

1. argument

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ar??ment/
• Hyphenation: ar?gu?ment

Noun

argùment m (Cyrillic spelling ?????????)

1. argument (fact or statement used to support a proposition)
2. (philosophy, logic, mathematics, programming) argument

Declension

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

argument n

1. an argument supporting a stance
2. (mathematics) an argument; an independent variable passed to a function
3. (programming) an argument; a variable passed to a function

Declension