Clauses introduced by the connector quando and their role in the emergency of rhetorical relations in news articles

Abstract

This article presents a study of adverbial clauses introduced by the connector quando (when) in printed news articles in Brazilian Portuguese. The aim is to investigate the role of these clauses in the emergency of rhetorical relations. Within the assumptions of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST), we have come to the conclusion that the articulation of clauses by quando is rather complex in news articles. In this genre, most adverbial clauses introduced by that connector allow for the emergence of more than one rhetorical relation. Thus, these clauses help the journalist express that, from his/her point of view, the events represented are combined in a very complex way. Rarely are they organized according to a simple temporal, causal or conditional relation. Most frequently, the events expressed in the adverbial clause and in the nuclear clause establish overlapping rhetorical relations between them.

Keywords: connector quando, news articles, Rhetorical Structure of Theory (RST).