Era uma vez - coesão e legibilidade em histórias infantis para leitores iniciantes

Abstract

This present work studies how the modern children s stories are organized in texts, analyzing its textual functioning, and based on its referential cohesion, thematic progression and referenciation. Aside from that, we will verify the relation of those elements as facilitators of the textual comprehension (that produces the cohesion), considering the young readers, the potential readers of this texts. Modern children stories use referential cohesion and thematic progression, as well as more simple types of referenciation, as resources to simplify the comprehension (the prodution of meaning) of the young readers. Those resources are believed to cause consequences in the development of this readers and producers of future texts. The corpus of this research is formed by 50 (fifty) modern brazilian children stories, that are analised both in terms of quality and quantity. In a certain moment, after the organization of the theoretical referential about the matters of cohesion (referential cohesion, thematic progression, referenciation), those children stories are analised observing the number of ocurrences and the frequency of the referential cohesion, as defined by Koch (1988, 1989). In case of referential cohesion by means of substitution, they are made with the use of ellipsis and the pre-forms (pronominal, verbal, adverb and quantitative substitutes). In case of referential cohesion by reiteration, are observed the defined nominal term, nominalization, the synonymous or almost synonymous expression, the generical name, hyperonimous or class indicator, repetetion of lexical item and the referential form that classifies it. On the same perspective, are peformed the quantity analysis of the types of thematic progression, as were defined by Danes (1974): linear thematic progression, thematic progression with a constant theme, progression with a derived theme, progression by development of a subdivided theme, and progression by thematic leap. After this quantitative analysis of the referential cohesion, we proceed to analise what are the implications of those as assistant elements in the production of the text meanings. Following, we use the theoretical referential to make such analysis. Therefore, at the same time, we intend to trace the possible relations between the recurring types of cohesion resources, to verify their occurrence in the chosen texts (modern children stories), how this relation influences their own constitution, as well as what are the implications of the recurrent use of certain types of cohesion referentials and thematic progression, as text elements that assist in the textual comprehension. In fact, we verified that the more simple cohesion elements are the more recurrent in the chosen stories, and that helps the interpreting process of the beginner reader.