Author:

Maria José da Silva Fernandes

Abstract:

This study presents an analysis of one of the mechanisms of cohesion, cataphoric reference, which is characterized by introducing a referring expression before presenting its textual referent; in other words, an entity is evoked before being introduced into the cotext. The objective of this work is to categorize the types of cataphora and textual referents, identifying the categories of linguistic elements used cataphorically and the textual function of the referents. To this end, cataphoric occurrences were analyzed in which the referring expressions are personal, demonstrative, and indefinite pronouns, adverbs, numerals, and noun phrases, as they appeared in the corpus. The cataphors identified were classified into pronominal, nominal, and associative cataphora. The first presents a pronoun, numeral, or adverb as the referring expression and has an explicit textual referent; the second presents a noun phrase as the referring expression, and the textual referent is also explicit; the third received this designation because it does not explicitly present the textual referent, which must be inferred by the reader based on cotextual and contextual clues. According to the corpus, the referring expression in this type of cataphora is a pronoun. Textual referents were categorized as common nouns, proper nouns, noun phrases, simple and complex clauses, and entire texts. The functions of the textual referents were also analyzed. The theoretical framework adopted is that of Text Linguistics, especially studies on reference (MONDADA & DUBOIS, 2003), understood as a process negotiated in discourse. The corpus of this research consists of 193 journalistic texts, extracted from the newspaper Folha de São Paulo and the magazine Veja, published in the second half of 2008. A higher occurrence of pronominal cataphora (55%) was observed, followed by nominal (41.15%) and associative (3.85%) cataphora. In pronominal cataphora, the most frequent category is that of personal pronouns; in associative cataphora, indefinite pronouns predominate. In nominal cataphora, the most recurrent configuration of the noun phrase is determiner + noun + modifier. Cataphora occurs most frequently in the body of the text. Among the textual functions of the referents, the most recurrent are specification, explanation, and clarification. Based on the results obtained, it can be stated that the use of cataphora as a referential strategy has been a recurring practice in journalistic discourse, according to the sources analyzed, and that it contributes, among other possibilities, to the organization and progression of the text and the highlighting of specific textual segments. Furthermore, it can be used as a strategy to attract the reader’s attention.