Pronouns "mim" (me) or "eu" (I) as subject in infinitive clauses introduced by "para" (for) in Portuguese spoken in inner of São Paulo State: is it a case of stable variation or a case of change in progress

• Grant number: 16/04771-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2016
• End date: November 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
• Principal Investigator: Gisele Cássia de Sousa
• Grantee: Aline Bianca dos Santos Gomes
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this research is to investigate, under the apparatus of the Variationist Sociolinguistics, (WEINREICH, LABOV & HERZOG, 1968; LABOV, 1972), the occurrence of the first person singular object pronoun (me) in the subject position of infinitive clauses introduced by "for". The data to be analyzed belong to the Portuguese spoken in the northwest in inner of São Paulo state, variety in which occurrence of me in this type of clauses is target of social stigma. On the other hand, the use of the first person singular subject pronoun (I), as prescribed by normative grammars, and the use of anaphoric zero are more neutral and not stigmatized in such variety. At this stage of research, in Scientific Initiation level, we intend to analyze the social distribution of these variants with the specific purpose of seeking to define the sociolinguistic nature of the phenomenon: a case of stable variation or a case of change in progress. At the same time, with the analysis of the data, we will seek to establish an initial set of linguistic factors supposedly relevant to the occurrence of each of the variants, to be analyzed in greater depth and correlated to social factors in a future research project, in Master's degree.