Word order in Brazilian Paulista Portuguese

Author(s)

Priscilla Barbosa Ribeiro

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2011-01-18

Examining board members

Marilza de Oliveira; Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar; Maria Aparecida Garcia Lopes Rossi

• Advisor: Marilza de Oliveira

Abstract

Word order has been the theme of many researches, but it still intrigues linguists. Diachronic studies have shown that in the history of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) the order SV (subject-verb) has been used in preference to the sequence VS (verb-subject), which was more common in earlier stages of the language (cf. Berlinck: 1989, Duarte: 1992, Torres Morais: 1993, among others). Focusing on the phenomenon of word order at the end of the 19th century, we analyze the subject position in relation to the verb in texts from the Escola Normal da Capital (São Paulo Normal School - ENC) and compare the data with texts produced by Brazilian and Portuguese writers, with the intention of identifying a linguistic referential model for the educational institution. The research corpus is composed of letters and minutes written by the teachers and principals of the ENC, prestigious public men at that time; hence this material can be taken as the expression of a standard linguistic variety. Aiming at analyzing the linguistic phenomenon within its production context, we did a survey and a characterization of aspects of the city and the institution (such as the board of principals and teachers and the student body, as well as the school curriculum, especially the Portuguese syllabus), with the purpose of conducting an analysis that is historical, social, cultural and linguistic altogether. (AU)