A gradação em narrativas infantis

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the different uses of Graduation in nineteen oral narratives produced by eleven children from 05 to 11 years, five females and six males. We observed how children manifest graduation in the different texts and which resources they use to express lexicogramatically each subtype of graduation. The collection of reports was performed during 04 months, from June/2011 to February/2011 in a shelter situated in Fortaleza. We have based this study in a functional perspective of the process of language acquisition to show how language development is grounded in the use made of language in a communicative process. We based our research in Givón’s cognitive and functional conceptions and Halliday’s systemic-functional to develop the notion of protogrammatics well as to provide the theoretical framework to guide our analysis; from the perspective of Appraisal Theory of Martin and White on the phenomenon of Graduation; and orientation of the proposals about language Acquisition that are based on the idea that the acquisition and development of language are given by inserting child in a given speech community, guided so discursive and pragmatic factors. Our results indicate that the use of graduation changes, besides experiential categories, evaluative elements, which manifests primarily by system Force. Children also use the Graduation as a form of textual organization, accentuating or attenuating certain information as, among other factors, the Informational Statute and Degree of Empathy. We also realize that different types of gradation occur at the same time in most cases and not in isolation.