O estatuto variável das construções imperativas de 2sg no português brasileiro escrito dos séculos xix e xx

Abstract

In this article, we present some historical evidence (19th and 20th centuries) of the current synchronic variable statute of 2nd person singular imperative (vem/venha). Based on personal letters produced by well educated Brazilians from Rio de Janeiro, whose social profiles (affiliation, age group, level of education, profession) were reconstructed (CONDE SILVESTRE, 2007; HERNÁNDEZ-CAMPOY; SCHILLING, 2012), we attested the writers’ preference for imperative constructions tied to the subjunctive mode, when the 2nd person singular subject form (você) was used. We also attested that the imperative constructions related to indicative forms tu/você-subject in contexts of alternation (mixed subject letters) worked, probabilistically, as moderate influence contexts regarding the application of the variable rule analyzed. that The interpretation of the letters in which você-subject (tu/você-subj.) occurs suggest historical traces of the abrasileirado imperative even in written samples from the 19th century, as a repercussion of você entering in the pronominal system (LOPES, 2007; LOPES & CAVALCANTE, 2011).