PUNCTUATION ERRORS IN ENEM ESSAYS THAT GRADE FULL MARKS IN LIGHT OF THE HYPOTHESIS OF IMPLICIT PROSODY AND PROSODIC PHONOLOGY

Abstract

This article aims to discuss non-conventional uses of commas in ENEM essays that grade one thousand points in light of the theoretical assumptions of Prosodic Phonology and the Implicit Prosody Hypothesis. Based on the undertaken discussion, we defend that the unconventional use of the comma by the applicants presents prosodic regularities that can be guided by the mental organization of the speech prosody that the speakers have, which is, in some way, designed for writing, a fact that also explains the reasons why the evaluators were not aware of the inaccuracies in the investigated texts. The results showed that, although the use of the comma is generally associated with syntactic facts, it can act as a prosodic marker, delimiting the boundaries of intonational phrases.

Keywords: Commas; Implicit Prosody; Prosodic Phonology; Reading; Writing.