Systemic-functional analysis of violence against women in reports

Abstract

 In this article, we critically and sociosemiotically analyze how semantic complexes represent violence against women in the journalistic genre of reporting. The data is qualitative-interpretative and is taken from two reports by women who had been assaulted by their ex-partners, published in a special online section of reports in Veja magazine in 2021. We draw on the contributions of Social Semiotics (Halliday; Hassan, 1989[1985]; Halliday (1985); Halliday; Matthiessen, 2014[2004]), which focuses on Systemic-Functional Linguistics, interspersed with Systemic-Functional Grammar, according to Halliday and Matthiessen (2014[2004]), with an emphasis on the Hallidayian extralinguistic level (contexts of culture and situation, highlighting the variables of register, field, relation and mode). In addition, we selected the ideational metafunction, which represents people acting in the world and on others, disclosing their experiences in the transitivity system. The conclusion we reach, based on the contexts of situation and culture, mirrored by the ideational metafunction is the persistence of patriarchal culture, which perpetuates gender inequality and violence, gender stereotypes rooted in culture, among others, highlighting the need to provide the social body with the ability to reflect and question on the subject and the importance of critical interpretation of interpersonal relationships.