XACT Research

The XACT Research Group was formed in 2025 to coordinate and enhance the research work of the Department of Linguistics and Communication at the University of Lodz. The group works primarily on projects in Argumentation theory with a focus on developing tools which can be employed in the teaching of textual analysis and critical thinking. Members of the group also pursue research studies in areas such as Rhetoric, AI communication, Multimodality, Critical Discourse Analysis, and the Philosophy of Language and Linguistics.    

Explainable Argumentation Theory (XAT) was developed by Martin Hinton and Jean Wagemans. The aim is to provide systematic procedures for the analysis and evaluation of argumentative texts which are fully explicit and thus both robust and repeatable. The two principal tools which have been developed are Wagemans's Periodic Table of Arguments (PTA) and Hinton's Comprehensive Assessment Procedure for Natural Argumentation (CAPNA).      

The XACT team currently has 11 members based at the Department of Linguistics and Communication in Lodz.

Dr Hab. Martin Hinton (Team leader)

Prof. Piotr Stalmaszczyk

Dr Alexandra Majdzińska-Koczorowicz

Dr Nina Shtok

Dr Kinga Rogalska

Miriam Kobierski, MA (PhD candidate)

Weronika Olkowska, MA (PhD candidate)

Ahmed Saladin, MA (PhD candidate)

Cong Chi Huynh, MA

Agnieszka Sroka, BA

Kacper Rybiński, BA

The XACT research group collaborates with scholars and labs from across Europe. Our partner groups are:

The Netherlands

LANCAR (Language and Cognition in Argumentation) research group  - University of Amsterdam

The Normativity of Multimodal Arguments project - University of Groningen

Poland

The NewEthos - Technical University of Warsaw

Laboratory of Everyday Argumentation and Persuasion - Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan

The Centre of Applied Rhetoric - University of Warsaw

 

We also cooperate closely with:

Stuart Riddick - University of the Highlands and Islands

Gabrijela Kišiček - University of Zagreb

Maciej Grzenkowicz - University of Groningen

Agnieszka Bryła-Cruz - UMCS, Lublin

Julia Ostanina-Olszewska - UKEN, Krakow

Karen Velyan - Brusov State University, Yerevan

Here is a selection of our recently published work:

2026

Welle, M. T., & Shtok, N. (2026). Argumentation and Language in Identity Construction: A Discourse-Historical Analysis of Polarisation in the 2024 Trump-Harris Debate. Argumentation, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-026-09709-z

2025

Kobierski, M. (2025). AI the Teacher? A Study on the Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Learning. Linguistics Beyond and Within (LingBaW), 11(11), 89-102.

Hinton, M. (2025). Towards an Ethos of Machines: LLMs as Rhetors. Res Rhetorica, 12 (4), 220-240. https://do.org/10.29107/rr2025.4.12 

Hinton, M. & Wagemans J.H.M. (2025). Two-tier Fallacy Theory. Informal Logic, 45 (4), 475-503. https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v45i4.9435 

Hinton, M. (2025). Evaluating Argumentative Discourse Processes. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 70 (83), 259-281. https://doi.org/10.2478/slgr-2025-0014

Kulik, M., Hinton, M., & Budzynska K. (2025). Charity as Just Deserts. Topoi, 44, 1433–1443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-025-10295-0

2024

Majdzińska-Koczorowicz, A., & Ostanina-Olszewska, J. (2024). Image-Based Internet Memes as Conceptual Blends. Forum Philosophicum, 29, (2), 335-350. https://doi.org/10.35765/forphil.2024.2902.06

Stalmaszczyk, P. (ed.) (2024). Conceptual Engineering. Methodological and Metaphilosophical Issues. Brill. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783969753026

Shtok, N. (2024). A critical study of group-defining categories in the discursive construal of national identity. LingBaW. Linguistics Beyond and Within, 10, 215–228. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12153/8165

Kisicek, G. & Hinton, M. (2024). As Syllable from Sound. Informal Logic, 44(2), 135-165. https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v44i2.8203

Hinton, M., Kobierski, M., Olkowska, W., & Sroka, A. (2024). Functions of Argument: Changing minds about what? In Proceedings of OSSA 13. University of Windsor. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14776/18897

Hinton, M. (2024). Argumentation and Identity: a Normative Evaluation of the Arguments of Delegates to the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. Argumentation, vol. 38, 1, 85–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-022-09589-z

Hinton, M. & Kobierski, M. (2024).  The Debating Tradition in Great Britain and the United States of America. In Budzynska-Daca, A. & Modrzejewska, E. (eds.) Debata. Retoryka dla Demokracji. pp. 330-344. Warsaw: PWN.