Efeitos de freqüência nas representações mentais

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the Brazilian Portuguese plural groups ending in ão, l and u final diphthong. Among these word groups, especially in informal situations, it is observed that some people adopt one plural form that is different from the one suggested by Brazilian Portuguese normative grammars, such as escrivões instead of escrivães (notaries public), sals instead of sais (salt plural), or degrais instead of degraus (steps). Through different experiments carried out with Brazilian native speakers, it is argued that a reorganization of these plural groups is happening, due to type frequency(linguistic paradigm) and token frequency (repetition of lexical items). Moreover, different models of mental lexicon are discussed, in order to verify which ones would best justify the data distribution for these plural classes. As a conclusion, we propose the existence of a plastic mental lexicon, remodeled based on the way language is used in dailycommunication. This conception is compatible with the Network Model (BYBEE, 1995, 2001) and with the Exemplar Theory (PIERREHUMBERT, 2000, 2001a, 2001b).