A expressão variável do imperativo de 2ª pessoa do singular no português brasileiro: análise de cartas pessoais dos séculos XIX e XX

Abstract

This dissertation assumes the analysis of the sociolinguistic alternation between the imperative structures associated with the indicative (tu) and with the subjunctive (você) in letters from Rio de Janeiro, from the 19th and 20th centuries, as its prime goal, considering the variable statute of 2nd person singular imperative constructions in the contemporary Brazilian Portuguese (SCHERRE, 2007; SCHERRE, 2004; SCHERRE ET ALII 2000; PAREDES SILVA ET ALII, 2000). The focus of this analysis, methodologically oriented by the principles of Labovs quantitative sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1994, 2001) is also to identify tracks of the abrasileirado imperative (PAREDES SILVA ET ALII, 2000) in the Brazilian Portuguese past synchronies. Based on an ensemble of personal letters (friendship, love and family letters) produced by cultured Brazilians whose social profiles were reconstructed according to the historical sociolinguistics perspective (CONDE SILVESTRE, 2007; HERNÁNDEZ-CAMPOY; CONDE SILVESTRE, 2014), we reflected upon the linguistic variables (2nd person singular pronoun subject, the structure polarity, phonic parallelism, number of syllables) and social variables (social relations, period of time) which were shown relevant to the structural composition of the legitimate imperative (tu), regarding the aim to obtain historical evidences of the abrasileirado imperative in the 19th and 20th centuries. In general, we attested not only the prevalence of 2nd person singular imperative constructions tied to the subjunctive (você) in exclusive você-subject letters considering the high mastery of the standard norm by the writers of the letters but we also raised some historical evidences of the abrasileirado imperative, especially in mixed subject letters (tu/você-subject).