Um resumo acadêmico gráfico vale mais do que mil palavras: análise crítica de um gênero multimodal polivalente

Abstract

This doctoral study (GAP / CAL nº 040187), adjacent to the Master degree (FLOREK, 2015), is part of a larger project aimed at the investigation of multimodal academic genres with a view to multiliteracies, advised by Prof. Dra. Graciela Rabuske Hendges (GAP / CAL nº 046194). We aim to investigate the graphical academic abstract (hereafter GA) regarding its form and function, identifying relations between the production (editors and authors), consumption (readers) and distribution (publishers) context, verbal and visual linguistic instantiation and mode as meanings form a unit of recognizable and replicable meaning. Critical Genre Analysis (e.g. MOTTA-ROTH; HEBERLE, 2015) theoretically supports this research and makes possible: i) investigation of phonology, graphology and graphical, semantics and pragmatic and context of situation of visual and verbal semiotic modes by Systemic-Functional Linguistics (e. g. HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004; 2014) and the Multimodal Discourse Analysis (KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2006); ii) culture context analysis through the approach from Genre Analysis of Swales (1990) and Socio-Rethorics (p. ex., MILLER, 1984; 2015; BAZERMAN, 1988); and iii) discourse investigation by Critical Discourse Analysis (p. ex., FAIRCLOUGH, 1992; 2003). From the methodological point of view, Grounded Theory (CHARMAZ, 2006) supports supports the construction and combination of theories throughout the collection and systematic analysis of relevant data. The analysis focused on Chemistry and Engineering. The contextual corpus brings together: questionnaires answered by editors and authors-readers of relevant scientific journals of the areas and documents on the practice of GAs (Instructions for authors, editorials, blogs and GA scientific studies). The textual corpus comprehends: 30 RAGs, from 15 scientific journals published by four publishers. The results show a communicative multi-purpose of publicizing science by virtue of the triangulation of forces among producers, consumers and distributors driven by diverse contextual requirements. Publishers have hegemony in defining the space got by GA and its formal patterns (e.g. prevalence of still images over verbal writing, combination of images of the article with each other or with new images, organization of information in diverse layouts). The interaction with the reader occurs predominantly through modality, with a tendency to abstract images, whose formality is broken by the colors used. Simple and complex (hypothaxis, parataxis and embedding) visual relationships reveal degrees of interdependence among focus group contents considered the GA minimum units. Titles and occasionally minor verbal texts – elements not mandatory in GAs – create congruence and expansion of visual information. Our main conclusion is that GA represents an informative-persuasive taxonomy of the cognitive process of producing a scientific research, especially with regard to the presentation of results and methodology, when the latter also appears as a discovery. GAs are highly persuasive in terms of composition and interaction with the reader, however, in terms of representation, there is a predominance of informational concern, with color being the maximum element of contents combination.