A relação forma e significado em versões da Bíblia

Abstract

This paper analyses the texts of two distinct versions of the protestant Bible, namely: Almeida, Revista e Corrigida (ARC) and Nova Tradução na Linguagem de Hoje (NTLH). In this sense, it investigates the linguistic-textual configurations of such versions with the aim of identifying relevant differences between them and the implications for attribution of meaning between the first and the latter. The Bible is a book of historic influence and its importance is not limited only to the religious realm, but is also considered by many as a work of high literary value. It currently remains in full and wide circulation in the historic, religious and cultural contexts. Furthermore, this book gathers important discursive and textual-linguistic aspects worthy of investigation, especially, if the fact of contrasting its different versions is considered. From the two biblical versions (ARC and NTLH), three distinct discursive genres are of interest (poem, parable and epistle), with five texts from each version, resulting in a total of ten texts. In this sense, we are also interested in the various typological sequences involved in the organization of the discursive genres selected, observing if the predominance of such sequences implies in greater or lesser facility/difficulty of comprehension. We also utilized as a support for analysis the reading protocols of diverse informants, taking into consideration the religious beliefs, the level of education and age, with an aim to verify if the formal differences of the selected texts and the social profile of readers could cause possible changes to the process of text comprehension. To carry out the analysis, we used Usage-Based Linguistics (or Cognitive-Functional Linguistics) as a theoreticalmethodological support, which encompasses contributions from the North American functional tradition and cognitive linguistics.