DICIONÁRIO DE MEDICINA POPULAR (1890)

O DISCURSO MÉDICO DA OBRA ATRAVÉS DE UMA LENTE ENUNCIATIVA

Abstract

Dictionaries of popular medicine make up a genre of works from the 19^th century that is marked by the dynamics of science-medicine and the position of power that both perform in society. With Dicionário de Medicina popular (1890), by the doctor Pedro Luiz Napoleão Chernoviz, as a corpus, this paper examines, with a linguistic perspective, the concept of scientificity, its relationship with Medical Discourse and the way in which an aspect of authority emerges from it and attaches itself on a genre of works that is based on allocating definitions. To that end, authors like Austin (1990), with his concept of illocutionary forces based on performativity, and Clavreul (1983), with his perspective of medicine’s influence as discourse, were considered. At last, an enunciative analysis was conducted upon selected excerpts of the Dicionário (1890), considering ideas of both referred authors, but through the lens of concepts brought up by our readings of Benveniste (1989, 1991) and Flores et al (2008) about the neutral status of the third person. Elucidating, therefore, the visible disparities of object delimitation in the contemplated entries, such as the variability of scientific definition of an item of physical order (cataract) compared to a more abstract one (madness).