The thesis focuses on a study and analysis of the argumentative structures features in the English technical research papers, a subset of the scientific article. The relevance of the research is determined by applying the complex approach covering cognitive, communicative and cultural aspects of the scientific and argumentative discourse. It gives the opportunity to show the argumentative structures features with respect to the discoursecharacteristics. The research is conductive to solving a task to determine the specific character of argumentation in different genres of scientific discourse. The complex analysis of argumentative structures proposed covers the following steps: establishing the rules to extract the argumentative fragments; describing their verbal content with respect to argumentative discourse categories; semantic classification of argument components, building the argument model in the context of rhetorical structure theory, classification of arguments according to their communicative and cognitive functions, defining the features of compositional speech forms composing the text of a technical research paper.The scientific and argumentative discourse is a discursive formation which has the properties of both scientific and argumentative discourses. It is implemented in a number of genres, the scientific article being one of them. The technical research paper is a subgenre according to the following criteria: affiliation with scientific and technical substyle, communicative aims peculiar to the research paper, obligatory experimental part of research, typical composition. The extraction of argumentative fragments is performed due to typical composition, the context, manifestation of the author intention to persuade the reader, type of interference, and deductivity of the Thesis. An argumentative fragment includes one or more ordinary or complex arguments. An ordinary argument can be considered in the form of six discursive units linked by five rhetorical relations. The exception from the rule can be caused by the absence of components and union of two components in one elementary discourse unit.
The result of horizontal text decomposition is its division into compositional speech forms. Argumentation is realized in the form called reasoning. There is a classification of such forms according to communicative and cognitive function which correlates with classification of arguments. There are six types of argument: Conclusion, Confirmation, Proving, Refutation, Explanation, Conclusion, according to such indicators as the location of Thesis, role of Thesis, balance of Thesis and reason, type of interference.
The compositional speech forms in technical research papers come into interactions creating the two types of contact: uniting (attachment, inclusion, alternation, enlistment, intercropping) and mixture (contamination and convergence).
The argumentative structure of a technical research paper as a whole is a three level hierarchical construction. The bottom is local argumentation. The Thesis of argumentation of the whole article is conclusions situated in the corresponding chapter of article. The top level is annotation because it reflects the content of article. Key words:argument, argumentative discourse, argumentation criterion,discourse category, compositional speech form, rhetorical structure, rhetorical relation.
