Argumentative, which derives from argumentation, is the dictionary-recommended form of the adjective meaning (1) quarrelsome or given to argument, or (2) concerned with or relating to argumentation. The shorter argumentive may have a better sound, but dictionaries don’t list it, and it is only very rarely found in edited publications.
Examples
Argumentative is the preferred form throughout the English-speaking world. For example, these various publications use it:
The man became argumentative and refused to get out of the roadway and return to his home. [Bay Net]
Others embraced the new pamphlet format to weigh in on the merits of Luther’s arguments, both for and against, like argumentative bloggers. [The Economist]
In one, an argumentative Israeli bargains in an American department to the evident confusion of the clerk who is unused to Middle Eastern haggling. [Globe and Mail]
For a liberal arts college, expository and argumentative writing should be as important as physical fitness. [The Dartmouth]
Obstreperous and argumentative for the sake of it, she found herself presented to the matriarch . . . [The Age]
