The poetic and metalinguistic functions in text interpretation

Abstract

In this article, we pay tribute to the memory of the professor, supervisor and friend Paulo Mosânio Teixeira Duarte, whose inspiring presence was always, in many different environments, from the university to the bar, a promise of happiness for those who used to seek good and high-level conversations, guided by the power and spontaneity of a gaia(ta) science, specific to the cultured Cearense, who, in his case, did not take himself too seriously or let the social mask stick to his face. Devoted to “where neither time nor space” reflect on the mystery and meaning of life, the master was a spearhead, assessing himself, from good-humored to choleric, and assessing life as a philosophical experience. The text I present here is part of the remarks of a theme suggested by him for my Master Degree at UFC: the poetic function and semantic motivation. He had suggested the theme “the status of the noun phrase in Portuguese” for my dissertation. I imagined myself an expert on the subject going through my academic life and became discouraged. I wanted something more stimulating. He then proposed a research on poetic function and semantic motivation. I accepted, however, adjusting the practical focus of the research to the poetic production of the songs of a Brazilian artist whom I respect, admire and love: Caetano Veloso. It is in this spirit, therefore, that is, in a mixture of knowledge and taste, that we will proceed to the suggestion that there is a certain similarity between the metalinguistic and poetic functions, a suggestion encapsulated by Jakobson (nd), developed by Lopes (nd) and shared by the master Paulo Mosânio. Before, however, we will refer to other authors who glimpsed the approximation, in order to, at the end of the article, provide a comparative synthesis between them.