Abstracts - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa

MARTA FILIPE ALEXANDRE, UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA, ILTEC, PORTUGALEVALUATING THE DIFFERENCES, AND REPRESENTING THE SIMILARITIES - HOW DOPORTUGUESE SCIENTISTS CLASSIFY THEIR SCIENTIFIC AREAS?This paper proposes a linguistic analysis on the representation of scientific domainsby twenty-four Portuguese scientists. More specifically, the paper focuses on theanswers to the question “How would you classify your science?” given in thecontext of an individual interview regarding both the nature of science and thepractice of being a scientist in Portugal.The analysis is framed by systemic-functional linguistics (Halliday, 2004; Gouveia,2009), and uses transitivity and appraisal categories to scrutinize differences inrepresentation and classification. Following work developed in critical discourseanalysis (Fairclough, 2003), these differences will be related with particular ways ofthinking and acting within the scientific community.Preliminary analytical results indicate that the interviewees represent scientificdomains essentially as spatial references and assume both the point of view ofsomeone inside and outside them. From the outsider´s perspective, specific ways ofclassifying are developed, while from the insider´s point of view no classificatoryrepresentations are given; instead, explanations and narratives are given about thescientific activity developed by the scientists themselves.Keywords: representation, classification, transitivity, appraisal, scientific areas.Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse - Textual analysis for social research. London:Routledge.Gouveia, C.A.M. (2009). “Texto e gramática: uma introdução à linguística sistémico-funcional”,Matraga 24 (16), 13-47.Halliday, M.A.K. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Revisão ChristianMatthiessen. London: Hodder Arnold. [3ª ed.; 1 1985]PAPER SESSION 5B - ROOM 2 - WEDNESDAY, 27 JULYISFC38 Book of Abstracts Page 137 Lisbon, July 2011