Variação e estilo: uma investigação da concordância nominal em diferentes situações comunicativas

Abstract

Studies on style within the scope of Variationist Sociolinguistics are based on the principle that stylistic variation is related to attention to speech, the audience and the multiple social roles that speakers play in everyday life (cf. BELL, 1981, 2001; ECKERT, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2016; HERNÁNDEZ-CAMPOY, 2016; LABOV, 2008 [1972], 2001a; PODESVA, 2007a, 2007b, 2011; SCHILLING-ESTES, 2002). Combining those theoretical perspectives, this research analyzes, through an intraspeaker approach, the variation between the presence and absence of explicit plural marks in the inflectable elements of the noun phrase in natural speech situations. Our samples consist of approximately 16 hours and 41 minutes of oral recordings of two young speakers from Espírito Santo, a man and a woman, both aged 25 and over eleven years of schooling, interacting with different interlocutors, in everyday and institutional contexts. To understand the functioning of the noun phrase agreement process, three important variables were controlled at the linguistic level: relative and linear position of the elements within the noun phrase, phonic salience in the singular/plural relation of nominal items and preceding marks. At the stylistic level, firstly, it was examined the communicative situation and, later, a set of features that compose it: the interactive frame, the awareness of the recording, the discursive topic and the relationship between the interlocutors. The quantitative analysis of the data was performed using the computer program GoldVarb X (SANKOFF; TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005), which provided the statistical influence of linguistic and stylistic variables and complemented with an interpretative analysis of the interactional order of the “here and now” of the verbal exchanges. The results obtained from the analysis by individual indicate that, in the verbal production of both young speakers, there is a predominance of plural marking to the detriment of non-marking. The linguistic variables show that the items located more to the left in the noun phrase, the most salient ones and those preceded by marks favor the use of the plural morpheme. The communicative situation variable indicates that, even with upper educational speakers, there is a stylistic transit in which the use of concordance tends to increase or decrease depending on the configuration and events of the communicative event, that is, it is activated by a complex set of traits that involve speech monitoring, the listeners, the 16 discursive topic and the roles assumed in each interaction. The approach of the stylistic traits that integrate the communicative situation variable confirms what was observed in an interpretive way by statistically explaining that the non-conversational frame, the awareness of the recording, the institutional issues and the distance relationship between the interlocutors positively influence the insertion of explicit marks in the noun phrase. The comparative analysis between individual and community demonstrates the regularity of the structural dimension of variation in nominal number agreement and, finally, suggests that a possible direction for this variable process in urban communities is the stylistic plane. Therefore, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of noun phrase agreement and, especially, for studies of style in Brazilian Portuguese.