Categorization, frame, and social values in a television program

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the role of textual mobilization of frames in the indexicality of social values by means of categorizations in an interactive conflict situation in the Brazilian television program Casos de Família. A sociocognitive-interactional approach to Textual Linguistics and a dynamic, discursive perspective of frames is assumed here. The methodology consisted of a quantitative and qualitative analysis of textual categorizations and mobilizations of social values frames. Results point to the emergence of depreciative and non-depreciative categorizations that collaborate to index social values mainly by the mobilization of Family and Work frames. Thus, the social meanings of family and work are, in the interaction under analysis, mobilized to mediate or sociocognitively organize the co-present participants as (not) being "family" and/or "workers". This study may contribute to the understanding of the textual-interactive nature of different types of explicitly conflict interactions, as well as the issues of impoliteness and verbal violence, regarding the social categorization and the indexicality of social values.