Labeling: a textual strategy of meaning construction

This article concerns the textual strategy of meaning construction named labeling, in which forms and nominal expressions are used as resources of construction and re-construction of speech objects. After defining labeling, the labels are classified into two main groups, the ones that nominate/categorize the content of former or subsequent clauses, and the ones that act on a meta-discursive basis in relation to what has been or will be said. The meta-discursive labels are also discriminated according to the qualification to the communicative act carried out by the characters to which the encapsulated text refers. The textual-discursive functions performed by the labels are also presented: cognitive, textual organization and argumentative orientation functions.42858