Towards a new systemic functional model of tenor

• Grant number: 22/10527-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Roberto Gonçalves Segundo
• Grantee: Theodoro Casalotti Farhat
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/04354-3 - Tenor and field: exploring contact zones, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This project aims to develop a new systemic functional model for describing the systemic organization and semiotic realization of the potential relations and roles enacted by the participants of an interaction. To do so, we will start from Hasan's (2020) systemic description of tenor as a contextual parameter - which, although very important as a foundation, shows evident gaps and limitations - and, through theoretical and methodological interactions with other systemic functional descriptions and a number of external perspectives (namely the studies initiated by Goffman on participation frameworks, Sociocultural Linguistics, contemporary studies on ethos and Social Psychology), we will propose a revised system, which will include hypotheses of realization principles for different subsystems and their options. The results of such exchanges will be progressively tested in analyses of interactions on Twitter, a platform suitable for the investigation of different tenor configurations due to its "searchable" nature and its internal diversity - factors that will regulate the collection of the corpus itself. We expect that such an "inter-theoretical" approach will promote a global restructuring of the system, so that, at the end of the project, it will be possible to propose a thoroughly revised model. Thus, we expect that this project will not only make important contributions to Systemic Functional Theory, but will also provide analytical categories relevant to any research ("pure" or applied) that is concerned with how roles and relations are enacted through language.