THE VERB “TOMAR” AS SUPPORT-VERB INTO THE ARCHAIC PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE

Discutem-se neste artigo as ocorrências do verbo tomar como verbo-suporte no português arcaico, tomando como corpus de análise o Orto do Esposo, texto religioso pertencente ao fim do século XIV ou começo do século XV. Objetiva-se investigar se, já na fase arcaica da língua portuguesa, essas construções apresentavam características semelhantes àquelas identificadas em textos contemporâneos. As construções aqui eleitas para análise se restringem àquelas que apresentam, no texto, verbos plenos correspondentes à estrutura tomar + SN (sintagma nominal). Excluímos, portanto, construções com predicados nominais autônomos ou nomes autônomos.

OVERLAPPING FACTORS IN THE ANALYSIS OF THE PRONOMINAL VARIATION NÓS/A GENTE

This article aimed to analyzed, from statistic results obtained after different rounds of the VARBRUL program, the overlapping factors in a joint analysis of the variables phonic projection, tonicity and verb tense in the study of the variation nós/a gente. The sample consisted of 24 interviews lasting 40-45 minutes each, made between 2007-2010 in Concordia – SC, and stratified according to gender, two age ranges (under 45 years and 50 years and over) and three levels of education (elementary school I, elementary school II and high school). By adopting the theoretical support of the Variation Linguistics we therefore sought to discuss methodological aspects related to overlapping factors of independent variables that are usually taken into account in the analysis of the pronominal variation nós/a gente in the subject position. Data were obtained through analysis of a corpus with 1553 occurrences of the surveyed pronouns: 770 of nós and 783 of a gente. Results showed that a joint analysis of the variables phonic projection, tonicity and verb tense significantly changes results, both with regard to the groups of selected factors and to the relative weight assigned to the analyzed variables. 

MULTI-WORD VERBS IN DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS FOR ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING

This paper aims to analyze the approach of multi-word verbs in free digital resources for English learning. Multi-word verbs, which are widely known as phrasal verbs, are verbal English verbal combinations, formed from a verb and preposition or adverb, or both. From a functional standpoint, these verbal combinations and their different particles behave differently in syntactic terms (Greebaum & Quirk, 1990 and Downing & Locke (2006). Learning about these differences can be of great importance to foster fluency in the language, mainly at higher proficiency levels. At present, with the growing demand for learning English, many digital environments were made available. This paper analyzes 07 major websites for English learning in Brazil, in order to investigate how the topic is addressed. As a result, we argue that more precision and concision are required to approach the theme. This can be achieved, for example, by employing the term multi-word verbs, together with a more precise definition of its functional syntactic behavior. This paper argues that this change of approach is especially important in digital learning environments, in which there is not always a direct mediation of the teacher or specialist.

WHEN ONE’S LIFE IS IN DANGER

This paper aims to explain the origin of the idiom “correr risco de vida” (when one’s life is in danger). It originates from a concrete fact, whose use is very old in Portuguese: kings used to record names of people to whom they had given benefits or deserved a position or land. When someone fell in disfavor with the king or betrayed him, he would cross the disloyal person’s name off the book (cross it out, strike it off the book). This would mean that the person no more existed tom the king. However, the reference of use of registered names on the Book of Life is found in the Bible, The Exodus, when Moses asks God to cross his name off the book He had written. By metaphor, both the verb riscar (which shifted to arriscar) and the noun risco were grammaticalized, having more abstract meanings: “endanger life” and “danger”, respectively.

A fé contra o crime: A bakhtinian analysis of the image of evangelicals in Brazil in the cover of Veja magazine

The present paper, based on the concept of surplus of vision discussed in some works of the bakhtinian Circle, as, mainly Bakhtin (2010a) and Bakhtin (2010b), has the main aim to analyse the image of evangelicals in a cover delivered by Veja magazine from the bakhtinian categories of exotopy, otherness and expressive intonation and, consequently, the meaning effects resulting from them. Therefore, anchored by the perspective of Bakhtinian Studies (BS), we analysed the magazine cover, seeking to apprehend the meanings constructed by this genre of verb-visual basis. To the constitution of the corpus of analysis, we selected the cover of the edition 1555, published on July, 15, 1998, entitled A fé contra o crime: Numa cruzada em presídios e redutos de traficantes, os evangélicos estão convertendo bandidos em soldados de Jesus, to analyse in which way the magazine, from its discursive place, appropriates the image of the evangelicals and represents it with its intonations in its statements. From the analysis, we can state that Veja constructs an image that tends to the homogenization of the evangelicals in Brazil, from its surplus of vision, with its tone of sarcasm, prejudice and vilification of this group, attempting to position the consumer/reader of Veja against the protestant sphere. The conclusion of this research, therefore, is that the exotopic position assumed by Veja with regard to its otherness, the evangelical discursive sphere, articulates axiologic aprehensions materialized in the form of intonation on the cover of the magazine that we analysed, disseminating, with the character of truth, the protestant group as integrant of mere dualities. Although the cover figures the group as an agent of change in society, this change gets the intonation by the magazine so that it seems false or, at least, incomplete, which equips the Veja readers of mistrust and, therefore, discredit to the actions of the discussed discursive sphere.

The alternation of pronoun forms te and lhe in personal letters of Ceará

This study aims to analyze the alternation of pronouns “te” and “lhe” for the 2nd PESS SING, in personal letters written in Portuguese in the State of Ceará, Brazil, during the twentieth century, in the light of the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1972, 1994). The sample to be analyzed is composed of 186 personal letters. It seeks to investigate the actions of groups of linguistic factors tense and pronoun position in relation to the verb in the alternation of social forms. Then are presented the results of this alternation by senders of the letters, in order to refine the analysis and describe the distribution of these forms by author. Data were submitted to the computer program GoldVarb X (SANKOFF; TAGLIAMONTE; SMITH, 2005) and indicate that the alternation “te”/“lhe” presents percentages rather balanced when considering the analysis of all the letters. In the analysis by sender, the results demonstrate that there are authors who only used “te”, and authors only used “lhe”, and authors that make the alternation “te” / “lhe” in their writing. 

The verbal agreement of 3rd person plural in Pelotas/RS

the article analyzes the variation in verbal agreement of 3rd person plural based on interviews of 90 informants who make up the VarX – Sociolinguistics Database Variable by Social Class of Pelotas/RS –, stratified according to gender, social class, age: 45 are males and 45 females; 30 of the upper middle class, 30 of the low middle class, and 30 of the low social class; 30 are between 16 and 25 years of age, 30 between 26 and 49 and 30 of the age group over 50 years.We used quantitative methodology based on the Windows interface for Varbrul and on data encryption form. The results show that, in Pelotas, there is variation in verbal agreement of 3rd person plural, but with predominance of the use of the mark, since the presence of verbal endings occurs in 4317 contexts (of a total of 5263), consisting of 82%, and in 945 contexts there are no agreement marks, totaling 18%. We also found, based of the social variables, that there is evidence of acquisition of 3rd person plural agreement, since there is a gradual increase in use of verb agreement marks, whose direction goes from the older to the younger informants, given that the younger have higher rates and relative employment of verbal endings of 3rd person plural.   KEYWORDS: Verb agreement. Pelotas. Linguistic Variation.