Lexical analysis

Research projects:

 

Sociogeolinguistic study on the city of São Paulo - Part II

Description: This project aims to develop a lexical database of the Portuguese spoken in São Paulo, from the sociogeolinguistic point of view, aiming at the Lexical Atlas of São Paulo. In addition to the guidelines found in the studies of geolinguistic quality, published in the second half of the 19th century and in the first half of the 20th century, there is the theoretical reference of textual trends of Linguistics aimed to the study on the interaction. Thus, this project goes beyond the diatopic approach. After survey of social indicators, historical and geographical mapping of the region, and data collection, in this second stage we perform the semantic-lexical analysis of lexemes of high frequency and regular distribution.

Professor in charge: Irenilde Pereira dos Santos (irpefan@uol.com.br)

 

Ethno-terminology research: nature and functions of lexical units

Description: We analyse certain aspects of the universes of ethno-literary discourses, to the extent they are considered as an ethno-terminology object, as a subarea of Terminology. Etno-terminology studies lexical units in discourses of oral literature, popular literature, cordel literature, fables, legends, myths, folklore, and the discourses of special languages with low level of science and technology. The theoretical models of Lexicology, Cognitive Semantics, and Terminology, such as archi-concept, archi-term, archi-text, and archi-discourse, are the core of the research. Thus, we study the rules regarding semantic, syntactic, and functional status of the body of lexical units that characterise the universes of ethno-literary discourses in the context of Brazilian culture. These lexical units have very specialised sememes, formed with specific semes of the domain analysed, from narratives, crystallised to become true symbols of the themes involved. Thus, we verify that the thought and the value system are sustained and configure an axiology. Indeed, the lexical units of the universe of the ethno-literary discourse have their own and exclusive status. In fact, in the levels of noema and speech, include at the same time both functions: words and terms. On one hand, they associate reference, pragmatic, and symbolic aspects, according to semiotics, meta-semiotics and meta-meta-semiotics, the words themselves, and, on the other hand, they present characteristics of a specialty language, preserving semantic and social values and yet, constituting documents of the historical process of culture.

Professor in charge: Maria Aparecida Barbosa (mapbarbosa@uol.com.br)

 

ATB Project - Toponymic Atlas of Brazil. Regional Variants: Toponymic Atlas of the states of Tocantins and Minas Gerais

Description: The Toponymic Atlas of Brazil (ATB Project) aims to recognize the toponymy of the country, inserted in the state cartography (scale 1:50,000; 1:100,000), from the lexical, morphosemantic, and ethno-linguistic point of view. The study intercurrent of designations leads to the perception of the dominant socio-cultural reasons in Brazilian onomastics. The proposed method of analysis allowed also formalising theoretical principles for the discipline and the construction taxonomic models.

Professor in charge: Maria Vicentina de Paula do Amaral Dick (mariade@usp.br)

 

Treasure of the Galician and Portuguese Heritage Lexicon: Brazil

Description: The project aims to integrate, into a single computer-based database, lexicographic material with geographical referencing from different sources: corpora obtained in field studies, materials dispersed in dialect works, vocabularies of speeches etc. Many of these materials are unpublished and therefore are of difficult access to the scientific community. The project, whose general coordination is linked to the Galician Language Institute of the University of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain (Rosario Álvarez), counts with a participation of three committees (Galician, Portuguese, and Brazilian). The aim is to create a large database, accessible by the internet, with all the information organised into lemmas, with access to different registered variants for each lemma (phonic, morphological) and with the possibility to meet all the lemmas registered to express a concept. The Brazilian committee is coordinated by Silvia F. Brandão, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and with Vanderci Andrade Aguilera, of the State University of Londrina, with subcommittees distributed in the north, northeast, midwest, southeast, and south regions, of which participate researchers from leading institutions of higher education in the country.

Professor in charge: Irenilde Pereira dos Santos (irpefan@uol.com.br)