Análise de marcas linguísticas que expressam avaliações de atitude nas falas do coro em Édipo rei, de Sófocles

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to analyze the linguistic features that express attitudinal evaluations, through the subsystem of Attitude in the System of Appraisal (MARTIN; WHITE, 2005), in the speeches of the choir character in Sophocles‟ Greek tragedy Oedipus The King, translated from Greek to Portuguese by Mário da Gama Kury. The methodological steps are the following: a) description of the contextual configuration of the selected tragedy; b) examination and analysis of categories from the attitude subsystem in these speeches; c) examination of the evaluated referents; d) examination and analysis of lexicogrammatical elements responsible for the realization of attitudinal evaluations and e) analysis and interpretation of the evaluations, relating them to the chorus function in the overall work. Through the analysis, we realized that the attitudinal evaluations are predominant judgement, followed by affect and appreciation. The referents evaluated by the chorus are the gods, the king Oedipus himself, the Theban people, objects (tiara, throne), things (Sphinx) and places (Mount Cithaeron), events (crimes, marriage/incest, parricide, trials, turpitudes, emulation and time) and the oracles. These evaluations are realized by relational, verbal, material, behavioral and mental clauses; by Verbiage, Epithet and Attribute; by circunstances of manner and spatio-temporal location; by negative polarity and modality, as well as by modal adjunct. Thus, we conclude that, besides behaviors and affective feelings, the chorus function is to aesthetically evaluate objects, places, natural phenomena and the state of things - what is not mentioned by researchers of this work of Sophocles, although it is important due to the high occurrence of the linguistic features that express this kind of evaluation in the chorus speeches.