A new systemic functional description of tenor
Full text
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| Author(s): |
Theodoro Casalotti Farhat
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2025-01-23 |
| Examining board members: |
Paulo Roberto Gonçalves Segundo;
Sara Regina Scotta Cabral
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| Advisor: | Paulo Roberto Gonçalves Segundo |
| Abstract | |
This thesis aims to develop a new systemic functional description of the contextual parameter of tenor, which describes: (1) the roles and relationships between participants in an interaction, described through system networks as semiotically relevant cultural variables; and (2) how the options within these networks are linguistically realized. To achieve this, we employ a methodological procedure which enables the systematic and explicit incorporation of internal and external proposals into SFL. The procedure is organized into stages of reviewing, metatranslation, and analytical testing. Combined with a set of criteria for descriptive adequacy, this procedure seeks to produce descriptions that are formally appropriate, internally consistent, explicit, analytically useful, and empirically grounded. The research is structured into five parts: in the first, we revisit the main systemic functional descriptions of tenor; in the second, we focus on contributions from social and developmental psychology to the foundations of interpersonal relationships; in the third, we explore contributions from Sociocultural Linguistics, with an emphasis on \"identity,\" \"style,\" and \"(im)politeness\"; in the fourth, we address studies initiated by Goffman on footing and participation frameworks; and, in the fifth and final part, we engage with the rhetorical category of ethos and its contemporary developments. Each part concludes with a progressive reformulation of the parameter\'s description, which is then tested through its application to the analysis of a digital interaction. As a result, we propose that tenor can be described through eight simultaneous systems: four relational systems (with \"relation\" as the entry condition) and four role systems (with \"role\" as the entry condition). The relational systems are: SOCIAL DISTANCE, which describes the degree of intimacy realized by the text; STATUS RELATION, which accounts for power and knowledge (a)symmetries in relational terms; TYPE OF RELATIONSHIP, which describes the foundation of the relationship\'s genesis; and SOCIOMETRIC RELATION, which characterizes the cooperative or conflicting nature of the interaction. The role systems are: STATUS ROLE, which describes power and knowledge (a)symmetries in terms of roles; COMMUNAL ROLES, which describe the \"master identities\" of the interactants; INSTITUTIONAL ROLES, which describe the roles enacted by interactants concerning the activities they perform within a given institutional domain; and SPEECH ROLES, which describe (con)textually less stable roles, including variables such as productive responsibility, receptive alignment, (im)politeness, and interpersonal emotivity. The description of each system includes considerations regarding patterns of co-selection, whether realizational (between context and language) or non-realizational (between the system in question and other contextual systems, either intra- or interparametrically) (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 22/10527-5 - Towards a new systemic functional model of tenor |
| Grantee: | Theodoro Casalotti Farhat |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |