Exploring the state of the art of Argumentation Mining technology using patent documents

Abstract

Argumentation Mining (AM) has become a hot topic, attracting the interest of research communities ranging from artificial intelligence to computational linguistics, natural language processing, social, and philosophical sciences. Some studies have raised research questions about primary works in the area to understand and support a research agenda. However, no survey has raised questions about the inventions already produced in the area. Unlike other studies, this paper presents a systematic mapping of the technical side of AM using patent documents as a source of information. The systematic protocol led us to the analysis of $N = 50$ documents in which we sought to understand the advancements in AM according to its foundation and gather general information on the area. According to the findings, AM is still an under construction problem with no clear boundaries due to this research domain's novelty. The main inventions are related only to the AM pipeline's initial tasks. Despite that, great progress has been made in projects such as the IBM Project Debater.