Argumentative Strategies in the Action of Compensation for Moral Damages: a Study of an Initial Petition

Guided by the semiolinguistics theory, this work intended to investigate initial petition involving a claim for compensation for moral damages in consumer relations, verifying how the dimensions of the features of logos and pathos were used by lawyers to persuade the judge that the claim for compensation was valid. This study also aimed to investigate which socio-discursive imaginaries were expressed in these speeches. We came to the conclusion that the notion of communication contract is very striking and guiding in these speeches. It was also found a predominance of the dimension of logos and a regularity in the use of techniques from this dimension. We also found that the patêmica order arguments also had a great importance in the argumentation, as being the moral damage connected directly to the emotional shock of the applicant for the violation of his rights, the argument based only on the logos would be somewhat consistent. It was clear that the lawyer’s voice comes from the collectivity with which he shares values and principles