Repeticao lexical em narrativas escritas infantis

Abstract

The main goal of this dissertation is to investigate the use of reiteration in contiguous sentences by children while learning in their written language as well as the linguistic factors that interfere in their choice for mechanism of cohesion. To this purpose I established two basic procedures. First I analysed 558 texts that retell the famous tale Red Riding Hood. They make up the International Basis of Child Written Language. Four aspects were observed: a) the occurence of lexical repetition; b) its linking with referential functions; c) its distribution in the episodes of the narrative; d) its relationship with grafhic signs. Secondly 32 children at 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of Elementary School, were interviewed, being 16 from public and 16 from private school. I asked them to choose among three possible answers, that they find plausible to maintain the reference to a character mentioned in the previous sentence, taken from a version of the well-know tale. I came to the following conclusions, concerning to all of the subjects, regardlessly of the factors grade and school as far as reiteration is concerned: a) it is used for choice after the introduction and reintroduction of characters; b) it is established between the introduction of a character that contributes to the action and the beginning of the action; c) it delimits sentence bounderlines in the narrative; d) it is used instead of punctuation marks and imposes internal limits to the text.