(META)PRAGMATICS OF LINGUISTIC VIOLENCE: PATHOLOGIZATION OF TRANS LIVES IN COMMENTS ONLINE

ABSTRACT This article aims to construct contingent intelligibilities about interactive events marked by linguistic violence practiced against trans people, from the pragmatic (meta) analysis of speech acts in circulation in online commentaries. In this sense, the results of a qualitative, ethnographic-inspired research conducted by the author between July 2015 and July 2016 are presented and discussed in the comments section of the Brazilian news site G1, in three journalistic articles related to the staging of a crucifixion performed by actress and transsexual model Viviany Beleboni during the 19th edition of the LGBT Pride Parade in São Paulo. From the theoretical point of view, knowledge about the notion of language as performance, discussions about linguistic violence and the process of pathologization of trans lives are mobilized. In the analytical work undertaken, we focused on the interpretation of linguistic contextualization clues, indexicality dynamics and the processes of entextualization triggered by the participants in their online commentaries. Thus, due to the adopted view of the data generated, what is observed is the production of a pragmatic (meta) pragmatics engaged in the reestablishment of violent contexts, related to pathological medical-scientific discourses, with a view to providing illocutionary force with the acts of speaks transphobic, capable of subalternizing and hurting trans people through language. In this way, our research allowed us to highlight the potential of an undisciplined and decentralized model of language research, committed to the understanding of semiotic practices in the elaboration of social reality, particularly in times of high reflexivity and intense textual transits.