A (inter)relação entre tempo e aspecto nos títulos de notícias de jornal

Abstract

The complexity of tense and aspect phenomena has enabled comprehensive discussions on linguistic description from diverse theoretical perspectives. Tense focuses on the external temporal situation, while aspect denotes the constitution of the internal temporal situation (Comrie, 1976). Considering the importance of tense and aspect in characterizing the style of the “news” genre, this study aims to analyze how the (inter)relationship between these two phenomena contributes to the construction of the communicative intention expressed in the titles of newspaper news. The theoretical-methodological approach of this research is based on studies of tense and aspect (Abraçado, 2022; Hopper; Thompson, 1980; Langacker, 1991; Neves, 2018; Travaglia, 2016), as well as investigations into textual genres (Bakhtin, 2020; Marcuschi, 2008; 2010), especially focusing on newspaper news (Sventickas, 2008; Van Dijk, 1986). The corpus is made up of news titles published in 2022 on the Instagram profile of the newspaper Mais Goiás. To analyze and interpret the data obtained, this study uses the documentary research method and the qualitative approach. The results reaffirm Comrie's notes that verbal tense refers to the external temporal constitution, while aspect refers to the internal constitution of the situation described. Mais Goiás news titles can consist of just one event or a main and a secondary event. In each of these situations, the (inter)relationship between tense and verbal aspect produces different effects of meaning in the constitution of the communicative project of journalistic news. Given this finding, it can be concluded that the relationship between the past tense and the perfective aspect in the corpus contributes to the objectivity, impersonality, and conciseness of the reports, making it possible to highlight the factuality and totality of the events described.