universidade federal de santa catarina pós-graduação em letras ...

34Further research in English (Wolfson, 1978, 1979) and in other languages (e.g.,Spanish (Silva-Corvalán, 1983); Samaná (Tagliamonte & Poplack, 1988); Portuguese(Motta-Roth, 1990)) have tried to demonstrate how this structure holds for the genreacross languages and how the progression of the narrative towards the complicationsection correlates with variation at the microstructural level. Patterning in the use ofalternation of verb tense between the simple past and the historical present (i.e., presenttense referring to past action) in the complication section of the narrative was found tobe a discursive strategy to signal that the narrator had reached the crucial point indiscourse. The patterning of rhetorical sections along with patterning of tense alternationin the complication section was seen as defining features of the genre of oral narrative.In the 70’s, Sinclair and Coulthard developed the structural analysis of anothergenre, namely that of classroom interactions (Coulthard, [1977]1985). They recognizedrecurrent features in teacher-student conversations in terms of exchanges and determinedthat these exchanges consist of up to three moves –– Initiation, Response, and Follow-Up –– occurring more or less in a fixed order (i.e., the third element being optional insome contexts). These elements are arranged in a structure of anticipation that defineeach speaker’s next contribution and that can be studied by the discourse analyst in itsrecursiveness in classroom context.More recently, Hoey (1983;1994) vhas argued that prevalence of any recurringpatterns of discourse ought to be explained in view of the infinity of discourse patternpossibilities. Patterns of texts such as problem-solution, general-specific, are reflectionsof cultural patterns of the group that creates and adopts it in recurring situations. What