Missa do Galo, de Machado de Assis, e a avaliatividade implícita: um enfoque da linguística sistêmico-funcional

Abstract

Missa do Galo is a tale by Machado de Assis (1893) that deals with the dialogue between Nogueira, a young pensioner, and Conceição, the hostess, on a Christmas night. The focus of the narrative is not on actions, but on an unusual approach, in which a simple conversation can present a sublime and indirect game, apparently banal, but that intrigues Nogueira. It is assumed that nothing happened between the two, but the genius of Machado de Assis invites us to read the text in its underlings. By the way, the search for an implicit meaning in the text, but perhaps present in the discourse, requires the support of theories that make possible this relation, to reveal a camouflaged intention. In this sense, this study has the support of Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SLF), which offers a specific analytical instrument for the systematic examination of the motivations, purposes, assumptions and interest of the text producers. The objective of this dissertation is the critical analysis of the lexicographic choices made in the Missa do Galo tale in order to unravel what underlies the dialogue between Conceição and Nogueira. Guided by proposals from Critical Linguistics and with the support of the analytical context offered by SLF, the research examines two dimensions of the grammar of prayer: transitivity and Appraisal, associated respectively with the ideational and interpersonal functions of language, complemented by frame and intersubjectivity theories. In order to do so, the research tries to answer the following questions: (a) what can the lexicographic choices made by Machado de Assis in Missa do Galo, in terms of ideational and interpersonal metafunctions, reveal about the dialogue between Conceição and Nogueira? (b) what is the role of relational reading and meta-relations in this process? (c) how important is frame theory to explain the behavior of the protagonists? The analysis reveals a problem for the attribution of positive or negative attitude, since the same situation - say a tremor - is interpreted by Conceição as resulting from the physical contact with the boy, while for him, the tremor would be the result of the cold of the environment. And it is precisely this misunderstanding of interpretations that intrigues and arrests the reader