The ‘mas’ in Ricardo Araújo Pereira’s chronicles: the corrective and concessive counter-argumentative refutative values

Abstract

The ‘mas’, as well as discursive markers, is, generally, associated with a great discussion among scholars regarding the characterization, as well as the most appropriate terminology for its linguistic reference. It is known, however, that it is essential to establish a contrast relationship between two textual segments, although, in fact, it may be associated with several values. The object of this study is to verify whether, in Ricardo Araújo Pereira’s columns, the ‘mas’ is more used for its rectifying refutative value or for its counter-argumentative concessional value, following the work of Anscombre & Ducrot (1977). For this, we selected 24 columns and analyzed and classified each occurrence found. This analysis allowed us to conclude that there is a strong tendency towards the use of the counter-argumentative concessional ‘mas’, which can be explained having in mind the textual gender in which the occurrences arise. In fact, we can face cases where gender conditions the language and, therefore, the value of the ‘mas’ used.