COGNITIVE-DISCURSIVE FUNCTION

MACROSTRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION - AN ANALYSIS OF SENSE RELATIONS

Abstract

Taking as a starting point the discussions involving academic writing, both in academic environments and in external environments, understanding that academic writing is configured as an essential requirement in the registration and circulation of technical-scientific knowledge, as well as for the maintenance of such knowledge and the dissemination of research findings, the main objective of this study is to analyze the cognitive-discursive functions of referential expressions in order to identify the meaning relationships established in these uses. The theoretical contribution that supports the study is constituted mainly by the assumptions of Textual Linguistics, which has precursors such as Conte (1977), Fávero and Koch (2012), and Koch (2003); referencing processes (Mondada; Dubois, 1995; Marcuschi, 1985; Apothéloz, 2019; Cavalcante, 2011); and discursive functions (Ciulla e Silva, 2008; Sá, 2014). In the analyzed samples, generic prototypes were identified featuring indirect anaphoric referential expressions, which exhibited the discursive functions highlighted by scholars Ciulla e Silva (2018) and Sá (2014) as well as the relationship of Interdependence of Sentence Complexes pointed out by Systemic-Functional Linguistics (Halliday; Matthiessen, 2014). As for the methodology, it is a documentary research with a quali-interpretivist approach (Barros; Lehfeld, 2000, p. 70). By observing the analyzed data, we found that the anaphoric referential processes exert cognitive-discursive functions with argumentative, explanatory and descriptive relationships, more specifically the function of macrostructural organization, the focus of this study. The results obtained demonstrate that referential expressions are used in academic texts, such as scientific articles, for different purposes.