A negação como variável sociolinguística na cidade de Goiás - GO

Abstract

This study object is the phenomenon of negative sentence variation. Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth BP) is seen to have three different negative positions regarding the verb: pre-verbal (NEG+V) – NEG1; double marked, before and after the verb (NEG+V+NEG) – NEG2; and post-verbal (V+NEG) – NEG3. The objective of the present research is to describe the variation of the sentence denial in Vilaboense speech. Such phenomenon has been the focus of previous research, namely Avelar, Silva and Almeida (2013); Cavalcante (2007); Cunha (2001); Nascimento (2014); Rocha (2013) and Sousa (2012). Our study is oriented by Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1978; LABOV, 2008; WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 2006) and by the assumption that BP has become a unique language due to a series of factors, such as language contact throughout national history (AMARAL, 1976; BORTONI-RICARDO, 2021; LIPSKI, 2008; LUCCHESI, 2017). There are significant clues that the variation in the form of negation chosen by the speaker has been influenced by Bantu languages and motivated by pragmatic factors, such as economy and informational content, which pressure communicative contexts. We propose a language approach that relies on empirical evidence, which enables the observation of speech variation. Thus, we had to constitute a corpus for analysis. We used databanks from two study groups: Functional Study Group, at Goiás Federal University (GEF/UFG); and Study Group and Research on Sociolinguistics, at Goiás State University (Sociolinco/UEG/Cora Coralina). We used R (R CORE TEAM, 2013) so as to carry out the statistical data analysis (OUSHIRO, 2017). In the surveyed corpus, we found 1990 hits for NEG1 and 553 hits for NEG2, whereas NEG3 occurred only 91 times. We found out that NEG2 has an increased chance to occur when compared to the 2003 sample, with male informants and under 35 years of age in 2003. Regarding linguistic variables, we found out that when information is directly activated in discourse, NEG2 has an increased chance to occur in conjunction with evaluative and dialogical discourse sequences, absolute sentences and absence of discourse markers increases the chances of variation.