SPEECH FUNCTIONS IN ONLINE THERAPEUTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The present monograph aims to investigate the speech functions adopted in online therapy sessions during the pandemics of COVID-19. Thus, the interface between Applied Linguistics Studies and Professional Contexts Studies becomes necessary, considering that through language it is possible to identify instabilities, emotions, and feelings, as well as to identify patterns of lexicogrammatical constructions that project areas of possible collaboration between linguists and psychologists aimed at improving virtual assistance in crisis situations, as well as multidisciplinary scientific collaboration. Based on SystemicFunctional Linguistics (HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004, 2014), this study intends to analyse the speech functions realised in the context of online therapy sessions during the pandemics, taking into account the two primary speech roles: (i) giving; and (ii) demanding; and the commodity that exchanged, namely: (i) information; and (ii) goods-&-services. These categories branch into four functions: offer, command, statement, and question. In this way, SFL understands that the roles of interactants are defined by contextual variables, such as social and professional relationships. Considering the therapeutic approach employed by the professional – psychoanalysis –, the results of this study showed no abnormalities in the speech functions enacted during online therapy sessions during the pandemics. The therapist discourse is heavily backed by questions in the form of propositions, in order to foster self-reflection in the patient, whereas the discourse of the latter consisted mainly of giving information through statements, construing their own meanings and evaluations without the bias of the professional’s social judgments and values.