Protagonism in language in judicial familiar mediation

ABSTRACT: This article analyzes, in the scope of Applied Linguistics and in an interactional perspective, the phase called “Historicizing the Conflict”, one of the five phases identified by the research group Interação em Contextos Institucionais as recurrent in a mediation interview. This research analyses how the mediator and the parties in disagreement negotiate the spaces so that the conflict can be elaborated, worked through and transformed by those who seek justice to solve their family issues. The analysis of real talk-in-interaction data shows that formulation, reformulation and co-construction of narratives are the main means of the action of those involved in the context studied, and the identity construction of these actors is accomplished through language. Lastly, as well as the manuals of law postulate and through the study of narratives, we analyzed the empowerment and the exercise of protagonism of the interviewees.