This paper's theoretical framework concerns the Discourse Semiotics' assumptions, primarily its Tensive version (FONTANILLE; ZILBERBERG, 2001; FONTANILLE, 1998), which conceives the discourse as a field of presence, endowed with a sensitive core and horizons from which semiotic magnitudes are modulated in terms of presence and absence, i.e. a field in which magnitudes become tonic or atony regarding a proprioceptive nature instance. Our goal is to analyze three newspaper notes in order to monitor utterance presence modulations in a sentence. This study initially assumes that those modulations promote tension between co-occurring isotopies, impact their degree of depth, and specifically in these notes, they cause a gradable metaphoric effect in terms of semiotic existence mode. Examples analyzed here show the need for adopting a more complex treatment for relationships between utterance and sentence, mainly if one desires to consider the tension between both instances - always governed by semiotic existence modes.
Utterance; Tensivity; Depth; Metaphor
