Question

Give at least five premise indicators and five conclusion indicators. Is the presence of

indicator words in a passage a sure sign of the presence of an argument? Explain.

Answer 1

Examples of words or phrases that are typically included in premises:

• because
• since
• given that
• seeing that
• assuming that

Examples of words or phrases that are typically included in conclusions:

• therefore
• thus
• consequently
• which means that
• as a result

The presence of indicator words does not necessarily imply that an argument is present.  Although these words usually indicate the presence of an argument, they occasionally have other purposes. The word “thus,” for example, is sometimes used to introduce an illustration, like this:

Whole numbers can be represented as fractions. Thus, 2 can be represented as 8y4, and 5 can be represented as 15y3.