The Understanding of Sense Inscribed in Making a Difference

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present an analysis of an English language discourse by the Theory of Argumentation in Language (ANL) by Oswald Ducrot et al. For the accomplishment of the present work, the discourse Making a difference of a textbook of high school was chosen. For the analysis, the argumentative threads that constitute it, its units of meaning, are identified, based on concepts from the second phase of the ANL (Polyphony) and the third moment (Theory of Semantic Blocks). The paper concludes with some considerations on the construction of meaning in discourse, which is performed by the linguistic elements and is produced by a speaker to an interlocutor. This work offers theoretical subsidies for discourse studies and complements analyzes carried out in the light of other theories.