Esta pesquisa investiga alguns aspectos do discurso gerado de uma modalidade de comunicação mediada pelo computador a lista de discussão com o intuito de contribuir para a compreensão da dinâmica que existe entre a tecnologia, os meios de comunicação, os modos de pensar e as formas sociais emergentes. O corpus vem de uma lista academica ativa, aberta e não-monitorada. Os aspectos do discurso focalizado neste estudo são a distribuição de tarefa de administração do discurso entre as tecnologias de software e as praticas discursivas dos participantes, a distribuição do discurso em unidade (enunciados) de tamanhos e funções diferentes a distribuição da produção do discurso entre os participantes; as características associadas com o modo oral presentes no discurso e a estruturação do fluxo de enunciados em conversações distintas. As investigações mostram que: 1) a relação dos participantes com o meio e problematica, por envolver tecnologia em rápida evolução, a adaptção de tecnologia de uma cultura para outra e a distribuição desigual de conhecimento; 2) as distribuições de mensagens e participações são altamente assimétricas, o queé tipico de sistemas complexos; 3) as marcas de oralidade colocam o discurso próximo ao de cartas pessoais, com uma tendência de ter mais marcas de envolvimento; 4) as marcas de oralidade parecem estar distribuidas desigualmente nas mensagens

This study investigates some aspects of the discourse produced within one mode of computer-mediated communication-a discussion list--with the purpose of contributing to an understanding of the dynamics that obtain among technology, Communications media, styles of thought and emerging social structures. The corpus is drawn from an active, open, unmonitored academic list. The aspects of discourse looked at in this study are: the distribution of the administrative tasks of the discourse between the facilitating software and discourse practices of the members; the distribution of message units of varying sizes and functional types; the distribution of discourse production among the members; the characteristics associated with orality found in the discourse; the structure of discrete conversations within the discursive flux. The investigation shows that: 1) the relation between members and médium is problematic, as it involves technology in rapid evolution, the borrowing of technology of one culture by another and the unequal distribution of know-how; 2) the message distributions and author participation rates are highly assymetric, a characteristic of complex systems; 3) the proportion of orality markers is comparable to that found in personal letters, showing a tendency toward a higher levei of involvement; 4) orality markers appear to be unequally distributed within the messages, indicating that they are motivated by discourse factors; 5) more extensive conversational structures are highly complex, making it impossible for the interfaces to represent them adequately. Special attention is paid to the construction of the corpus in order to avoid problems of comparability of results often found in the Hterature. Attention is also given to the concept of cohesion as a formative element of text. An evaluation is made of the concept of semantic cohesion and a two-tiered model of cohesion is proposed. The study ends with observations on the fimction of conflict and of metadiscourse in the formation and continuity of communities. Research dealing with the evolution and maintenance of complex systems which could be applicable to the study of communication in social systems are suggested.