The use of digressions in oral texts

Digression occurs in a momentary action of suspension of a topic, in which a new and of more interest one is introduced in that moment, followed by the reintroduction of the original topic. According Dascal and Katriel (1979), there are three types of digressions: 1) the one based on the enunciation; 2) the one based on the interaction; and on 3) inserted sequences. This paper aims to investigate the use of these three types of digressions in oral texts produced by Capixabas speakers, extracted from typically labovian interviews from the PortVix database. The objective of this research is to observe to what extent the interaction, by employing this strategy, is a kind of reorientation of its meaning. The qualitative analysis of the data showed that digression is a conversational strategy which is widely used by the speaker and, despite its suspensory and fluctuating character, it should be considered a coherent event, provided that it decisively intervenes in the establishment, and maintenance of textual and interactional organization of the communicative event.