O presente do subjuntivo na fala de Salvador: um estudo variacionista

Abstract

The present work analyses, under the theory of Variation and Language Change (LABOV, 1972), the co-occurrence of present subjunctive forms, present indicative forms and alternatives structures, in contexts where the use of the first form is prescribed. An oral corpus of 716 synthetic structures derived from 24 interviews were used for the analysis. The interviews were made with the native speakers from Salvador, Brazil. It is hypothesized that verb forms and alternative structures are three variants which are part of a linguistic variable conditioned by structural factors (sentence type, verb modality, conjunction type and structure type) and also by non-structural factor (genre, age range, educational level). It is also assumed, by hypothesis, that subjunctive forms are preferably used by Salvador native speakers, as a case of stable variation. The objectives of the study were (a) to investigate to what extent Salvador native speakers use each of these three variants in the Imperative Context as well as in the Subjunctive Context; (b) identify the factors that significantly favor or not the use of these variants; (c) check whether alternative structures used by Salvador native speakers in contexts in which present subjunctive is prescribed are those present in the literature and whether any of these structures is preferred. The data were subjected to a quantitative analysis. The results revealed a predominant use of the subjunctive in imperative contexts (coordinated clauses; men; young and elderly groups; 'secondary education) and in subjunctive contexts (adverbial and subjunctive clauses; uncertainty and volition; women; young, average level of education). In addition, the phenomenon was considered a case of stable variable.