Referential processes in the construction of the controversial modality: a study of tweets published by osmar terra mep

Abstract

This article aims to analyze, from the interface between Textual Linguistics and Argumentation, the use of referential processes in anti-vaccine speeches published on Twitter on the page of Deputy Osmar Terra. In this way, we discuss, based on the polemical modality, how the argumentative directions around the subject of discourse "vaccine" were constructed. Our corpus of analysis consists of tweets published in April 2022. The work constitutes an exploratory study, with qualitative research characteristics and deductive method, allowing us to observe that the argumentative marks manifest themselves through referential processes, such as the nominal forms, referential introductions and anaphores. We rely on the theoretical conceptions of Amossy (2017) to understand the notion of argumentation in the speeches, as well as the peculiarities of the controversial modality. Extending the View Between the argument and LT, we follow the theoretical assumptions of Cavalcante et al. (2020; 2022). In order to understand the concept of text as process, we rely on the assumptions of Koch (2015) and the studies of Monada and Dubois (2015), Cavalcante, Custódio Filho and Brito (2014), which highlight the importance of understanding referencing as a discursive activity. The study indicates that referential processes contribute to the argumentative dynamics of the text and the objects of speech is introduced, resumed, and (re)categorized depending on the communicative purposes of the enunciator. Furthermore, by means of textual strategies, traces of the polemical modality are revealed.