Referenciação e texto

Abstract

In this article we return to an unfinished project to review the study of the functions of deictic and anaphoric processes carried out within the xx research group. In this project, initially entitled “referentiation and use” by Cavalcante (2009), an evaluation is made of the classificatory framework of the functions of referential processes proposed by autor1 (2008), with the aim of integrating types already described in the literature under common parameters. The work of classifying referential functions, making the classification criteria for describing the textual resources that speakers have and create to express themselves in a language more precise and homogeneous, is very valuable. We distinguish six major functions and sub-functions, which would cover the main referential processes in texts, discussing them with examples. But we also propose to go beyond this, because we see a crucial theoretical implication that emerges from observing referential processes in “use”, that is, in their textual role. For Cavalcante, to say “language in use” is to say how language functions in texts. This observation is important, insofar as Text Linguistics, from its beginnings, starting with Coseriu (1955-56) and in its developments and branches, with the Pragmatic Turn and the return to Rhetoric in the 1970s, advocates a study of language in use that the text demands. However, this common point does not put all approaches to Text Linguistics on an equal footing. The notion of text, in its turn, as in a cascade effect, is also the result of a particular reflection held by Cavalcante, which has been developed over the years of research, and is one of the great legacies left by her.