Relações conjuntivas causais e sequência textual: narrativas da literatura infantil e juvenil em perspectiva sistêmico-funcional

Abstract

Based on the concepts of causal conjunctive relations by Halliday & Hasan (1976) and on the narrative textual sequence by Adam (1992 and 2011), this research aims to investigate the role of causal structures in the construction of literary narratives for children and youth. For this purpose, fifteen books of children's and youth's work by Sylvia Orthof, Pedro Bandeira and Ana Maria Machado, were selected as the corpus of analysis, being five books by each of these authors. The main objective is to investigate which moment(s) of the narrative sequence present(s) the highest incidence of causal conjunctive relationships - assuming that a more frequent use of these structures in texts will indicate a greater need for them in the constitution of these stage(s) of the narrative. The observed data showed a higher incidence of causal relationships in the penultimate stage of the narrative textual sequence, namely, the outcome, as it is a preponderant stage of the narrative plot, in which the predicate transformations that the characters undergo – understanding the predicate as the inherent properties or circumstances of the characters. The research combines reader training and linguistic analysis, demonstrating not only that causality is at the service of the narrative, but also that there are more ways to express the notion of cause than those listed by the grammatical tradition. It simultaneously contributes to functionalist studies of causality in Portuguese and to studies of cohesion through conjunction – in the systemic-functional sense of the term. It also confirms that children's and youth literature is not only an interesting and fruitful material for reading activities and linguistic analysis in the teaching of Portuguese, but also a valuable source for linguistic research in several areas