Usos de orações existenciais em teses de doutorado

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the use of existencial processes in academic writing with focus on achievements that occur in the Conclusion rhetorical unit, in the TACTESE database, organized by Figueiredo-Gomes and Bertuleza, in press. Existential processes represent what exists or happens. (HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004, 2014). The methodology used consists in a occurrences census of existential processes, using the Concord tool, from the Word Smith Tools computational suite (SCOTT, 2018). The data collection is carried out based on the processes list typified by Halliday and Matthiessen (2004, 2014) as neutral, with circumstantial and abstract features in English uses, which Fuzer and Cabral (2014) present in portuguese language achievements existential realizations. The results indicate that the most productive processes are those typified as neutral, such as (there) be (haver), exist (existir), have (ter), occur (ocorrer) and happen (acontecer); processes with an intermediate level of occurrence are lie (encontrar-se) and result (resultar), typified as processes with circumstantial features; and no occurrences of abstract processes are identified in Conclusions of doctoral theses. By way of conclusion, it is believed that such absence may be related to the level of technicality of the doctoral thesis text, since it doesn’t seem to admit realizations of abstract processes, which would be more predictable in narrative genres.