Based on Patrick Charaudeau's semiolinguistics analysis, this article presents some key concept related to the production and reception of written discourse in the light of French discourse analysis. To situate the reader as regards the theoretical bases of this field, this article talks about the enunciation theory and the communicative act, the discourse participants, the notions of genre and script, and argumentation. Next, it illustrates these and other crucial elements to the construction of argumentation such as polyphony, subjective adjectivation, discourse markers, presupposition and implicitness in a text produced by a Portuguese/Literature undergraduate student. Finally, it establishes the importance of familiarizing Language undergraduate students with the concepts hereof described to enhance their written production.
written discourse analysis; semiolinguistics; argumentation