Commitment in legal texts: an analysis of connectors in the discursive genre of judicial conviction sentence

ABSTRACT The scope of this study is an examination of how connectors, as elements that can assume, or not, enunciative responsibility, function in the development of text argumentation, and in the author’s argumentative propositions. The theoretical framework is based on Adam, Gomes, Guentchéva and others; and the methodology includes the analysis of a corpus of thirteen conviction sentences from the district of Currais Novos-RN, issued in 2012. The data shows how connectors can indicate when and if a particular propositional content is taken up by the speaker, as well as expose the meaning effects of assuming responsibility or not. Thus, this work takes the lead of studies of the phenomenon in question, approached from the interface of Language and Law.