The commentary as a genre system
Empirical validation of Sociodiscursive Interactionism through a computational model
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/h2d.7113Keywords:
Textual Genre, Commentary, Discursive Types, Sociodiscursive Interactionism, Text Mining, Genre SystemAbstract
This study examines whether the “commentary” constitutes a stabilized textual genre or a genre system, combining a theoretical framework grounded in Sociodiscursive Interactionism (Bronckart, 1997, 2008) with empirical methodologies from text and data mining. Drawing on three annotated corpora of portuguese written discourse (G&T Comenta, CETEM Público, and COMJUR), we conduct a multi-level analysis that articulates linguistic features (micro), discursive types (meso), and contextual variables such as activity and theme (macro). Results show that while the comment displays a wide range of textual forms, it can be characterized by recurring genre markers and specific configurations of discursive types. A classification model achieved 91.5% accuracy in distinguishing comments from news articles, with Activity and Discursive Types proving to be the most relevant predictors. We argue that the comment functions not merely as a single genre but rather as a genre system shaped by social practices and communicative intentions, challenging simplistic taxonomies. This research contributes to ongoing debates on genre identity, annotation strategies, and the integration of linguistic theory with computational tools for discourse analysis.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Miguel Magalhães
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