Entre tons e palavras: considerações sobre modalização a partir da perspectiva enunciativo-dialógica bakhtiniana

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to discuss the modalization in the Portuguese language, using the theoretical point of view of Bakhtin’s Circle, that considers the discoursive and dialogical feature of the language. To achieve this aim, we will carry out a theoretical discussion alongside the analysis of an illustrative corpus of master’s degree theses from a Federal University’s Languages course. For this, we used the Bakhtinian concepts of intonation, utterance and word. We will divide the said main objective in three specific ones, which are: Observing the use of modalizers within a specific corpus; Analyzing how the subject marks their place in the world through their intonation, from the mechanisms of modalization present on the utterances they participate; Setting a connection between the categories of modalization and the concepts of the word of mine, the other’s word and the other’s word of mine. This study is justified by the importance of understanding the processes of the language, notably the modalization, not only as grammatical and structural processes, but also as ideological ones. Considering that the modalization happens in projects of saying that emerge in and through the interaction between subjects with a position in the world, it is necessary to investigate this language process in order to understand it as a form of expression of values, and not only as an isolated linguistic phenomenon detached from ideology. As a result, we noted that it was not possible to comprehend the modalization and its connection to the intonation if we were to analyze it as an isolated item. The student pursuing a master’s degree dialogues with several voices, refracting them in the student’s speech, over the course of the research. By evoking the words of another, the student builds a relationship with these words and, by doing so, intonates, sometimes positioning themselves in a more emphatic way for their reader, while at other times in a more careful way. We found that, in this process, the modalization plays an important part in the expression of the intonation, however, the use of modalizers by itself does not cover the entirety of the intonation.