Álcool é droga? uma análise dos objetos de discurso e das representações discursivas relacionados ao álcool em textos midiáticos online

Abstract

In this investigation, I propose a textual-discursive study related to alcohol in texts taken from brazilian online media. My analysis concerns texts collected from the online format of Superinteressante magazine, and from the website Papo de Homem, aiming at discussing how the discursive representations of alcohol are (re)constructed, as well as the implications of such (re)constructions in its understanding. Firstly, I analyze the discourse objects based on nominal forms, according to Cavalcante (2003), which unifies the vast nomenclature that there is about this subject. Secondly, based on Adam (2011), I problematize the argumentative orientationwhich comprehends such discourse objects, bearing in mind that not only they describe, but, above all, point at preferred interpretations of the producers of the texts, based on their speech projects, as well as the marks of enunciative responsibility that fundament this objects. The discursive element of m investigation is based on the notion of communication contract, proposed by Charaudeau (2005, 2009, 2010), from which I contextualize the linguistic marks in my corpus. The contract can be understood as a regulatory landmark that comprehends the conditions of production and interpretations of texts. Such conditions refer not only to identitary elements about the producers and the readers of a given text, but, also to the objectives that a text aims to fulfil, as well as the linguistic choices selected by it producers to compose their texts, among other aspects. My thesis is that, in the aforementioned vehicles, it is possible to find varied discursive representations – even contradictory – related to alcohol. Such differences might be explained by (i) the media contract to which they are submitted, and (ii) by the specific contracts that rule each of them. This proposal relates to the Applied Linguistics realm, area which discusses mundane problems that involve language use (MOITA LOPES, 2006). In this sense, understanding alcohol as something benefic or as a social problem is a matter that implicates language and involve discursive socially constructed representations in an interactive way.