A modalização epistêmica asseverativa na construção argumentativa de entrevistas de seleção de emprego

Abstract

The relationship between language elements and argumentation is conceived as being of indivisible nature, within the scope of Linguistics. In this article, we aim to investigate the argumentative function of the asseverative epistemic modalizers in the construction of employment selection interview genre, based on the analysis of a corpus composed of twenty - two employment selection interviews. It is also based on the studies about Discursive Modality proposed by Lyons (1977), Palmer (2001), Castilho & Castillho (2002), Koch (2010) and Nascimento & Silva (2012), as well as the study about linguistic argumentation by Ducrot (1988). The analysis reveals the argumentative function of the asseverative epistemic modalizers in the marking points of a commitment both by the interviewer and by the interviewee in relation to what was said. Such modalizers evaluate the sayings as incontestable, creating the image of a locutor committed and engaged with the content of its saying. Moreover, the argumentativeness of the interviews was not only generated by the use of certain words and expressions, which express the character of certainty in the statement, but also by the emphasis intonation resource and by the repetition resource, which functioned as assertive modalizers in some statements made by the interviewers (L1) and interviewees (L2).