Reflexividade Linguística e atos metacomunicativos em conceptualizações culturais evidenciadas na fala-em-interação

Abstract

In this dissertation, we aimed to analyse the functions of metacommunicative acts in the interaction between Paraenses and Mineiros when they talk about their experiences in each other’s cultural group. Precisely, we investigated the functions of metacommunicative acts when participants communicate their cultural conceptualizations about their experience in each other's culture. In order to achieve such a goal, we have made use of the theoretical framework offered by research on reflexivity and metacommunication (LUCY, 1993; SILVERSTEIN, 1993; BUBLITZ, HÜBLER, 2007; VERSCHUEREN, 1999, 1998), so that the functions of metacommunicative and metalinguistic acts in talk-in-interaction could be investigated. We have also used concepts and analytical categories from Cognitive Linguistics (LAKOFF, JOHNSON, 2003 [1980], 1999, JOHNSON, 2007, CROFT, CRUSE, 2004) and Cultural Linguistics (WOLF, 2015, SHARIFIAN, 2011, 2015) to inquire the cultural conceptualizations conveyed by the participants of this research. Finally, we have used the theoretical background and the methodological tools provided by Interactional Linguistics (BARTH-WAINGARTEN, 2011; SELTING, COUPER-KUHLEN, 2018) in order to examine the participants' actions at the linguistic, verbal-gestural and body-visual levels concerning the interactional aspects of the abovementioned phenomena. Our corpus has been created from audio and video recordings of two speech events between Paraenses and Mineiros, one interaction in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and the other in Barcarena (Vila dos Cabanos), Pará. These interactional encounters have come from two 'elicited conversations' (KASPER, 2008, p. 281), in which participants have discussed topics such as 'family', 'friendship', 'politics', 'religion', and so forth. The material from the recordings has been transcribed with the support of the EXMARaLDA software (SCHMIDT; WÖRNER, 2009), following the GAT 2 transcription conventions (SELTING et al., 2016). We have identified cultural conceptualisations that threatened the ‘rapport management’ (SPENCER-OATEY, 2008, p.13), that is, the harmony of the interpersonal relationship in the conversation, what has caused the emergence of metacommunicative acts, either through insertions (explicit metacommunication), or through the overuse of contextual cues (implicit metacommunication). Such metacommunicative acts have functioned to guide the interlocutors’ interpretations and save their faces.