Categories of Global Semantics Applied to the Analysis of the Slogan “Our Flag Will Always Be Green and Yellow”

Abstract

If the effects of meaning (re)constructed through discourse are based both on the socio-historical context that justifies their existence and on their material manifestation (the texts themselves), then focusing analytical attention on the enunciation-utterance set (process-product) is pertinent for understanding controversial content. Based on this statement, this paper presents an interpretative proposal that considers both the linguistic functioning and the historical inscription of its corpus: a banner with a political/nationalist motto (with the slogan “Our flag will always be green and yellow”) displayed on the wall of a residence during Brazil’s federal and state election period. To this end, the theoretical basis chosen was an enunciative Discourse Analysis, mainly focused on global semantics and the concept of adherent enunciate created by Maingueneau. We propose that this banner becomes an adherent statement because, by being attached to the residential wall, it ties that house to the idea of a place of political resistance/polemic. The analysis reveals that the observed text echoes statements referring to so-called right-wing or even far-right groups, intensifying the controversy with the opposing political positions.