O uso de discurso reportado por reclamados e reclamantes em audiências de conciliação do PROCON

Abstract

This study has as objective contribute for the fill of the gap that exists in the linguistic studies in Brazil regarding reported speech, since there are just few researches involving real speech data, mainly in institutional contexts, especially in the conflict situations. For theoretical purposes, we found support in an interactional perspective in Linguistics (GUMPERZ, 1999; COUPER-KUHLEN; SELTING, 2001; SILVEIRA, 2008) to investigate the use of reported speech by the parts - complainants and complainers - in the conciliation hearing on the PROCON (Department for Consumer Protection and Defense) of a city from Minas Gerais. We tried to focus the identification of the argumentative function, the strategies of facework and the footings assumed by the participants in the use of reported speech as a demonstration type (CLARK; GERRIG, 1990). The theoretical basis for the study of the argumentative function is mainly in the research of Schiffrin (1987), for the one of facework Penman (1990) and Silveira and Gago (2005) and for the one of footings Goffman (1998). The research is of qualitative nature and the following instruments were used to generate the data: audio recordings and transcription of these recordings. At first, we examined the main argumentative functions that the reported speech presents in the participants' speech - complainers and complainants - in a conciliation hearing at PROCON. Later, we focus in the analysis of the strategies of facework, on the reported speech as a type of demonstration and on the footings assumed by the parts to when they produce the studied phenomenon. The results indicated that complainants and complainers use the reported speech to present and to sustain their point of view. The litigant parts, in producing reported speech, use strategies of facework to protect their own face and to threaten the face of the other part. The results suggested, still, that the reported speech in our research context is also a type of demonstration, in other words, it is used to stage the contexts and reported actions. Finally, the analysis showed us that complainants and complainers encourage the own voice and the one of somebody else, through reported speech, to signal yours (mis-)alignment to the reported situation.