A transitividade na conversação: uma abordagem funcional centrada no uso

This work investigates the phenomenon of transitivity in the conversation. We examined the behavior of complements in Brazilian Portuguese speech, and then compared the results with previous researches in the English language by Thompson and Hopper (2001) and in the Spanish language by Vázques (2004). In Brazil, there are no researches that treat this phenomenon in the discursive conversation, for that reason it justifies and reveals the importance of this research that aims to answer questions related to the transitivity of ordinary conversations. Thus, we describe, explain and analize the transitivity based on concrete linguistic data, provided by native speakers of Portuguese language, specifically, spontaneous talk of people from Natal-RN. We have used as theoretical assumptions the Functional Linguistics usage-based (LFCU), which gathers academics of North-American Functional Linguistics, inspired by Chafe (1979), Hopper and Thompson (1980), Thompson and Hopper (2001), Givón (2001), Bybee (2010), Traugott (2009, 2011), among others, as well as Cognitive Linguistics, presented by Langacker (1987), Taylor (1995), Tomasello (1998) and Goldberg(1995), among others. This data consists in conversations extracted from the corpus Banco Conversacional de Natal (FURTADO DA CUNHA). The results obtained from this work confirm the assertions defined by prior conducted studies on the transitivity in the conversation. The research showed that these three idioms, Spanish, Portuguese and English, despite the differences, they present a uniform behavior regarding their transitivity in the conversation. We intend, by this work, to contribute, in some way, to the comprehension of the focused linguistic phenomenon, likewise to build a finer scenario around of the transitivity in the Brasilian Portuguese

Estratégias de relativização no português brasileiro e implicações para o ensino: o caso das cortadoras

This work consists of a cognitive-functional approach of relativization strategies of Brazilian Portuguese (BP), this is, standard relatives (with preposition or without it) and non-standard relatives (copiadora and the deletion pattern), and it emphasizes the last one. We investigate the use of the relative construction strategies in spoken and written texts produced by speakers from different school levels in a specific situation: a face-to-face interviewing. Our database is the corpora Discurso & Gramática: a língua falada e escrita na cidade do Natal e a língua falada e escrita na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. We contrast the use of the standard relative to the deletion pattern in prepositional context, by considering cognitive, social and interactional motivations for the use of the deletion pattern instead of the standard one. Our research leads us to verify that the deletion pattern is fixing as the preferred relativization strategy in prepositional contexts, and, in this way, it brings out a grammaticalization process in working. For this reason, we propose to take this relative construction as a common way to structure a relative clause, in the same way we take the standard pattern. Finally, we discuss the treatment of questions related to the processes of teaching and learning of Portuguese language and some suggestions are given in terms of class activities. We expect that the development of this research may give both support for the Portuguese teachers and suggestions to improve the teaching and learning process of Portuguese language, contributing in special to the treatment of the syntax of complex clauses.

As construções adverbiais em mente: análise funcionalista e implicações para o ensino de língua materna

This research aims at investigating the constructions with adverbials in ly, based on the view of contemporaneous linguistic functionalism, such as proposed by Givón, Hopper, Thompson, Traugott, Furtado da Cunha, as well as the cognitivist notion of language, through construction grammar support upon the patterns of Goldberg and the prototypes theory. The cognitive functional approach adopted here considers the change as a proper and inherent phenomenon of language and understands the linguistic phenomenon as resulting from effective use of language. Another aspect to be considered to the realization of this study is the fact that the formation adjective + ly is a word construction mechanism really productive, which generates interests on linguistic description. In a particular way, our leading objective is to exam the constructions with adverbials in ly in the context of language in use, in its oral and written forms, looking for to apprehend the meaning multiple manifestations forged in the use. Bearing this in mind, we worked with data from the Corpus Discurso & Gramática (Natal). There are, in the data, adverbs ended in ly that take the signification of mode, as foreseen in traditional models, but there are also other significations, for instance, the modalizador in its different manifestations. The results show that this adverb is a linguistic mark that carries in its constitution the multissêmico and multifunctional character, which interferes extremely in the ordination of this category, assuming a position sometimes pre-verbal, sometimes post-verbal. Other aspect observed refers to the relationship between the adverb and the verb, with emphasis on the compatibility or restriction between them, option which is related to the semantic aspect. The data in analysis legitimate the use in different constructions with adverb ended in ly in various genres, as follows: personal experience narrative, retold narrative, local description, proceeding account, opinion account, both in oral as in written language

A aula de português no ensino médio: o ensino que se deseja, o ensino que se faz

Settled within the realm of a problematization towards teaching and learning the Portuguese language, this study aims to investigate the way how the Portuguese Language discipline is dealt with in Secondary School. We propose specifically to analyze the orientations of the official documents concerning the educator practice, examining the way the PCNEM proposal is approached in the didactic book, identifying the treatment given to language questions, analyzing the way the teacher uses the didactic book and verifying the relations between the official approach and the pedagogical practice. The analysis takes into account the several discourses concerning school literacy, considering the various political-educational instances which institutionalize the teaching of the mother tongue - where we locate the teaching that is wanted . In what teachers and students say in their activities and concerning them - the realm of the teaching that is performed - we presuppose that there are signs of the principles - or conceptions - that orientate what they understand by language, teaching and learning. Such evidences are considered within the interrelation of the enunciative places where this literacy is promoted: the public policies concerning education - focusing the language questions - the academic researches about those questions, the educator formation and capacitation and the very school practices in the complexity of their discoursive inter-subjectivity. The principles - or conceptions - are pursued in what is said (or not) about what is done (or not) in the classroom when dealing with the Portuguese Language. The corpus is made up of oral and written texts produced in Portuguese classes in the Secondary School at a public school in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Situated in the realm of Applied Linguistics, the research is conducted in a qualitative and interpretative perspective, following the ethnography of communication procedures and the contributions of the Functional Linguistics. In the observations, language conceptions were discerned, among others, besides beliefs and representations where the theoretical and practical aspects, professional roles, expectations and uncertainties were diluted.

Construções com tópico marcado em cartas pessoais brasileiras dos séculos XVIII, XIX E XX

This dissertation is a research on the marked topic construction (CT) in Brazilian personal letters from eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The goal of our research is to verify if CT are present in the writing of Brazilians born in the centuries in question. Our research focus is based on the assumptions of generative theory (CHOMSKY 1981; 1986), which states that grammar is internalized in the mind / brain of the writers, with the emphasis on studies of grammatical change, as pointed texts by Paixão de Sousa (2004), Carneiro (2005); Galves, Namiuti and Paixão de Sousa (2006) and Martins (2009). Our corpus was extracted from Projeto Para a História do Português Brasileiro (PHPB) and Cartas Brasileiras coletânea de fontes para o estudo do português. We selected forty-six correspondents who should be inserted into the two criteria set out in this research: to be Brazilian and be born in the centuries mentioned above, so that we could find legitimate topic constructions of PB. This work is based on researches by Pontes (1987), Mateus et al. (2003), Araujo (2006, 2009), Berlinck, Duarte and Oliveira (2009), which actively support us in the study of this linguistic phenomenon in Portuguese. The results show that the marked topic construction in our corpus appear on the writing of Brazilians since the second half of the eighteenth century, while the typical constructions in Brazilian Portuguese locative topic, subject topic and copy topic - are already reflected in the I-language of the writers born in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first of the twentieth century

Representações discursivas de Ficar e Namorar em textos de vestibulandos e pré-vestibulandos

This doctoral thesis investigate the way vestibulandos and pré-vestibulandos construct their discursive representations of Ficar and Namorar in their textual production. At the same time, aims to discuss its implications for the ATD and for the teaching and learning of textual production in the context of Portuguese Language classes. Its theoretical framework is inspired mainly by three sources: textual linguistics, the textual analysis of discourses (ADAM, 2008), as well as by frames semantics (FILLMORE, 2006; FELTES, 2007). The methodology is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches (VIANNA et al., 2008). The data is composed of 168 empirical texts written by the vestibulandos of PSV/2005 da UFRN, Natal, RN, and by secondary school students who attended Escola Estadual Juscelino Kubitschek (EEJK), Assú, in the 2008 school year. The results indicate different categories of discursive representations of Ficar and Namorar , such as designation of referents, prediction, aspectualization, spatial-temporal circunstances , and metaphor, which reveal the influence of factors such as: the encyclopedic knowledge, the culture, as well as the cognitive components related to textual production. These results point out to the necessity of a teaching practice which enables the interaction among students, the discussion of current themes, as well as the student involvement with different textual genres, mainly the work with textual production in the classroom, so that it enables the students do acquire the textual production strategies. Thus, the overall goal is the (re)construction of their discursive representations, so that they can cope with new contexts of communicative interaction.

A interpretação semântica dos auxiliares modais poder, precisar e dever: uma abordagem da semântica cognitiva

Apresentamos, neste trabalho, com base na semântica cognitiva, uma análise do significado, em contexto, dos auxiliares modais poder, precisar e dever. Analisamos 120 textos produzidos por candidatos ao vestibular e por alunos do ensino fundamental, como resposta da questão número três da prova discursiva de Língua Portuguesa do vestibular 2005 da UFRN, que pede aos candidatos para explicitar a diferença de sentido entre três frases, observando o uso desses três verbos. Consideramos que um item lexical não é incorporado a uma representação lingüística semântica fixa, limitada e única, mas antes, é ligado a uma representação lingüística semântica flexível e aberta que provê acesso a muitas concepções e sistemas conceituais dependente de cada contexto determinado. Com base em seu significado, um item lexical evoca um grupo de domínios cognitivos, que por sua vez, apresentam um determinado conteúdo conceitual. Isto implica em afirmar que a rede de significados lexicais vai variar conforme o conhecimento de mundo de cada um (LANGACKER, 2000). A relevância deste trabalho é proporcionar uma contribuição para a descrição semântica do português

O Uso de operações linguístico-discursivas da crítica genética na reescritura de textos

As a professor in Curso de Licenciatura em Letras, from Campus Avançado Profa Maria Eliza Albuquerque Maia (CAMEAM),do Estado do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte (UERN), in the town of Pau do Ferros, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, we had the chance to carry out several writing activities , as well as guiding re-writing activities for the texts produced. From this experience, we started looking at the need of reflecting upon the writing process in higher education. Thus, we aim at analyzing, in this research, the methodology used in the moment of carrying out the writing practices activities in higher education, investigating, in particular, the rewriting practices, concerning the operations used for carrying out such activities, as well as the sense effects produced from the alterations which were made in the texts. Our theoretical foundation is grounded on a conception of text as a verbal action , what reveals a socio-interactional view of the language (MARCUSCHI, 2008; SAUTCHUK, 2003). As the production of written texts, our research focus, we assume that, for this activity, we deal with distinct figures (active writer and internal reader), so that we can, apart from writing, reflecting upon our writing and, this way, deciding about operations which are carried out to make the alterations which are necessary to the rewriting of our texts (SAUTCHUK, 2003). Still about the theoretical foundations used in this research, we made use of the theories from the Textual Analysis of Discourse (TAD) which discusses the belief on the evidence on the existence of the texts, which is opposite to the fixist view of textuality which believes that the texts exist by themselves. (ADAM, 2008; [2005]2010). Under this perspective, we have also adopted, the concepts which come from genetics criticism which is concerned about the relation between text and genesis, using as objects documents which bring traits of the text in progress, on the ground that the text is the result of work in progress, and the writing practice, on the other hand, as an activity in a continuous movement (HAY, [1975]2002; DE BIASI, [2000]2010; GRÉSILLON, 1989; [1990]2008; [1992]2002; SALLES, 2008a). The methodology in this research is an ethnography-based one, an approach which focuses on the process, as well as is meaning-based. To understand the objectives proposed in our research, we made use of different procedures of collecting data which include an ethnographic study, such as: observation, note-taking, document analysis. The data which were analyzed were collected during the semester of 2008.2, in a first term classroom of Curso de Letras from CAMEAM, when we were able to collect twenty-one written texts and all of them were rewritten based on rewriting activities, what provides a corpus of forty-two texts which will be analyzed based on the linguistics operations identified by Generative Grammar and adopted by Lebrave and Grésillon (2009). From these analyses, we were able to confirm that writing is a process, and rewriting has become an extremely important activity for this process. Still due to these data, we observed that substitution was the most used operation by text authors. We believe that this result is justified by the fact that the substitution, according to what proposes the Genetic Criticism, constitutes the source of all erasure, from which one can easily make a change in writing. Regarding the operations of addition and deletion, we found that they were used in quantitative terms, almost equivalently, which can be explained when we see that the two operations require, by the author of the text, different strategies from those used for the replacement, what includes , respectively, adding or removing a segment. Finally, we found out that the shift operation was the least used, since it works with a segment that will not be replaced, added or deleted, but transferred to another place of text, which requires a greater ability of the author to perform this operation and not compromising the meaning of his/her writing. As a result, we hope to contribute to the reflection on the teaching of writing, considering, in a particular way, those with a Bachelor in Arts. Our analysis will contribute to the teaching of Portuguese language, specifically for activities that guide the production of texts in order to explore with students the ability to rewrite their own text

As práticas exitosas de leitura no ensino fundamental: vozes sociais de professores e de estudantes

The school is the social place which should provide the formation of critical readers. In this context, the role of the teacher is crucial when it comes to teaching reading. Thus, this doctoral research aims to explicit the reading practices evidenced from social voices of teachers and Fundamental School students from state public schools at RN that have successful results, according to IDEB 2009. Moreover, we seek to explicit, through the positions of teachers, the conceptions of reading underlying their reading activities, as well as elucidate the social voices related to teaching of reading that are present in the National Curriculum Guide for 9 years Fundamental School and in the Political-Pedagogical Projects of the educational institutions investigated. In order to accomplish this goal, we carried out observations in the classroom, applied questionnaires with teachers and students in the 9th grade of Fundamental School, in classes of Portuguese Language, and also performed dialogical meetings with the management and pedagogics schools teams. The theoretical foundation that guides the research comes from bakhtinian thinking (2009, 2010), which addresses the dialogical perspective of language and active responsive comprehension. Furthermore, this work is anchored in theoretical reflections of Antunes (2005, 2009) and Geraldi (2003, 2006, 2010) about the reading and writing in the country, which contribute to the resizing of the teaching and learning process of Portuguese Language. This study belongs to the field of Applied Linguistics, which investigates language as social practice in the context of learning mother language or in contexts where relevant questions about the use of language are evidenced. The parameters of qualitative research in a social-historic perspective are adopted seeking to understand the school context by the subjects involved in research. The research corpus is composed of: (i) information constructed through the use of questionnaires with teachers and students; (ii) information constructed from the observed lesson and dialogue with management and pedagogical teams; (iii) a set of selected information, i.e., empiricism built through documentary analysis of the National Curriculum Guide for 9 years Fundamental School (CONSELHO NACIONAL DE EDUCAÇÃO, 2010) and the Political- Pedagogical Projects of the investigated schools. The analysis of the sayings of teachers and students suggest reading practices from various texts, in particular, from the literary sphere, in activities involving discussions, reading and reading comprehension exercises, interviews, songs, seminars organizations, concerts, dramatizations, literary weeks, among other practices. Furthermore, these analyses reveal that teach Portuguese Language requires commitment, responsibility and satisfaction, as well as more grounded theoretical principles, which make teaching practice more efficient. The research also reveals that the success of the teaching-learning process occurs by virtue of the involvement of school s segments in the educational process, creating therefore a network of responsibilities. In this sense, this research may contribute to the production of knowledge that can guide and enrich the teaching and learning of reading, envisioning a pedagogical practice constructed from the relationship with the other, i.e., from the dialogism which provides formation of young people that exercise their citizenship

Tradução e adaptação transcultural do instrumento de avaliação prenatal selfevaluation questionnaire

Introduction: The human gestation period is 40 weeks. This is the essential time for maternal psychosocial adaptation, in which there is the intense transformation of a life without offspring into a life with one or more children. The Pregnancy Self-Evaluation Questionnaire (PSEQ) has 79 items, subdivided into seven subcategories: acceptance of pregnancy, identification with the maternal role, well-being of mother and baby, preparing for labor, control in labor, relationship with the mother and the relationship with the partner. Objective: To translate and cross-culturally adapt the instrument PSEQ to be used with Brazilian women. Methods: It is a cross-sectional observational study. We followed some methodological steps to achieve the cross-cultural adaptation of this measuring instrument. They are: translation, synthesis, back translation, analysis of the committee of specialists and pre-test. Another questionnaire was applied to characterize the socio-demographic and clinical status of the pregnant women (n = 36). The descriptive statistics was gotten through the average, standard deviation (SD), absolute and relative frequency. The statistical test used for the analysis of the internal consistency was Cronbach's alpha coefficient, using SPSS version 17.0. Results: The volunteers had low socioeconomic status, average age of 25.1 years (± 5.52), and average gestational age of 25.9 weeks (± 8.11). 58.3% of these volunteers had not planned their current pregnancy. The pretest showed that 75% of pregnant women found the questionnaire easy to understand. There was an average of 76.9 (± 3.23) answered items among the participants. Regarding the instrument PSEQ, the identification with the maternal role was the subcategory which showed the highest average 24.8 (± 5.6), while the relationship with the mother had the lowest average 15.4 (± 7.7). The internal consistency ranged from 0.52-0.89. Conclusion: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the PSEQ to Portuguese language were carried out with methodological rigor and can be considered an instrument with good internal consistency

Thermodynamic analysis of direct steam reforming of ethanol in molten carbonate fuel cell

Fuel cell as molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) operates at high temperatures. Thus, cogeneration processes may be performed, generating heat for its own process or for other purposes of steam generation in the industry. The use of ethanol is one of the best options because this is a renewable and less environmentally offensive fuel, and is cheaper than oil-derived hydrocarbons, as in the case of Brazil. In that country, because of technical, environmental, and economic advantages, the use of ethanol by steam reforming process has been the most investigated process. The objective of this study is to show a thermodynamic analysis of steam reforming of ethanol, to determine the best thermodynamic conditions where the highest volumes of products are produced, making possible a higher production of energy, that is, a more efficient use of resources. To attain this objective, mass and energy balances were performed. Equilibrium constants and advance degrees were calculated to get the best thermodynamic conditions to attain higher reforming efficiency and, hence, higher electric efficiency, using the Nernst equation. The advance degree (according to Castellan 1986, Fundamentos da Fisica/Quimica, Editora LTC, Rio de Janeiro, p. 529, in Portuguese) is a coefficient that indicates the evolution of a reaction, achieving a maximum value when all the reactants' content is used of reforming increases when the operation temperature also increases and when the operation pressure decreases. However, at atmospheric pressure (1 atm), the advance degree tends to stabilize in temperatures above 700 degrees C; that is, the volume of supplemental production of reforming products is very small with respect to high use of energy resources necessary. The use of unused ethanol is also suggested for heating of reactants before reforming. The results show the behavior of MCFC. The current density, at the same tension, is higher at 700 degrees C than other studied temperatures such as 600 and 650 degrees C. This fact occurs due to smaller use of hydrogen at lower temperatures that varies between 46.8% and 58.9% in temperatures between 600 and 700 degrees C. The higher calculated current density is 280 mA/cm(2). The power density increases when the volume of ethanol to be used also increases due to higher production of hydrogen. The highest produced powers at 190 mA/cm(2) are 99.8, 109.8, and 113.7 mW/cm(2) for 873, 923, and 973 K, respectively. The thermodynamic efficiency has the objective to show the connection among operational conditions and energetic factors, which are some parameters that describe a process of internal steam reforming of ethanol.

Instrumento de avaliação de fala para análise acústica (IAFAC) baseado em critérios linguísticos

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Desempenho de escolares com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem de ensino particular em habilidade fonológica, nomeação rápida, leitura e escrita

OBJETIVOS: caracterizar e comparar o desempenho de escolares com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem no ensino particular em habilidades fonológicas, nomeação rápida, leitura e escrita. MÉTODOS: participaram desse estudo 60 escolares de 2ª a 4ª séries de escola de ensino particular, distribuídos em 6 grupos, sendo cada grupo composto por 10 escolares, sendo 3 grupos de escolares com dificuldades de aprendizagem e 3 grupos de escolares sem dificuldades de aprendizagem. Como procedimentos, foram realizadas a prova de nomeação automática rápida, a de consciência fonológica e a prova de leitura oral e escrita sob ditado. RESULTADOS: os resultados desse estudo evidenciaram desempenho superior dos escolares sem dificuldades de aprendizagem em relação àqueles com dificuldades. Os escolares com dificuldades de aprendizagem apresentaram maior relação velocidade/tempo em tarefas de nomeação e, conseqüentemente, desempenho inferior em tarefas de consciência fonológica e leitura e escrita de palavras isoladas quando comparados aos sem dificuldades de aprendizagem. CONCLUSÃO: os escolares com dificuldades de aprendizagem apresentaram comprometimento na relação entre as capacidades de nomeação e automatização dos estímulos apresentados com a capacidade de acesso lexical, discriminação visual, freqüência de uso dos estímulos e competição para a apresentação do menor tempo possível na nomeação dos códigos necessários para o estabelecimento do mecanismo de conversão fonema-grafema, exigido para a realização da leitura e escrita em um sistema alfabético como o português.

Treinamento de habilidades fonológicas e correspondência grafema-fonema em crianças de risco para dislexia

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O ensino da língua portuguesa na televisão: uma análise através do programa afinando a língua

The present dissertation aims to an approach of the teaching of Portuguese language on television, trying to find how possible is the contribution of this communication media in the sense to give a higher classroom dynamism and to excite the students for that subject. The TV show Afinando a Língua (roughly, putting the language in tune ), a Canal Futura feature, have as one of these main purpose be shown on the classrooms as a tool that could enlarge the possibilities of a subject often took as particularly difficult. Blocked by the traditional grammatical teaching, the Portuguese lessons have been for years pictured as hermetic and far from the Brazilian speakers reality. So, people create myths around the language that earns adjectives as complicate and inaccessible and that Brazilians can t speak the Portuguese really good, because it only happens in Portugal, the original country of the language. These myths start exactly because the teaching orientation take their basis only on the standard language, in fact just one of the language variations by the way, anywhere in the world dictated by ancestral rules, once produced in Portugal. The regular school don t accept the Portuguese variation as a natural fact for a huge country as Brazil, with almost 190 million people, regarding it as a wrong way of talking. The repression that follows the students from the early school days make them repel the language supposedly learned at school. In fact, they normally face it as something unfamiliar, different from the language that they have use to learn at home, from the family and neighbors Instead of giving new possibilities for the language learning, the television, a powerful audiovisual device, only reinforces the idea that everyone, in any life situation, should talk the standard Portuguese, turning its back to the learning acquired much earlier that any person reach the school. This conservative attitude brings almost no changes, between the shows that try to teach the idiom and the traditional Portuguese lessons, wasting valuable tools that could lead to the possibility to open the classroom to the outside world, and to the wider knowledge of the differences from each Brazilian region culture, a positive attitude that could much enlarge the cultural and linguistic students universe