Portuguese Grammar and languages in contact

Research Projects:

Intonational phrasing in Brazilian Portuguese

Description: The Intonational phrasing in Brazilian Portuguese project, integrated to the International Intonational phrasing in Romance (http://www.fl.ul.pt/LaboratorioFonetica/intphraro.htm), aims to study the intonation structure of Brazilian Portuguese (BP), based on data from the São Paulo dialect. With the development of this study, which has as a theoretical base Intonation Phonology (cf. Pierrehumbert, 1980; Beckman & Pierrehumbert, 1986; Pierrehumbert & Beckman, 1988; Hayes & Lahiri, 1991; Ladd, 1996; Jun, 2005; among others), we intend to contribute to the expansion of knowledge about the intonational grammar of BP and to a greater understanding of functioning of intonational systems of natural languages.

Professor in charge: Flaviane Romani Fernandes Svartman (flaviane@gmail.com)

 

Studies of Creole languages and Portuguese in the Atlantic

Description: Portuguese overseas expansion led to the diffusion of the language of Portugal for the world. But the Portuguese language impact was not limited to that. In very specific historical conditions (almost always associated with the scourge of slavery or the plantation type production model or fortresses) languages that came to be known as Portuguese-based Creole arose. These creole languages (Portuguese-based) have the majority of Portuguese lexicon, but with regional influences (African or Asian) on phonology and morpho-syntax. Understanding the linguistic systems of Creole languages allows us, at the same time, to reassess a number of linguistic phenomena present in Brazilian Portuguese, but absent from European Portuguese. Therefore, the project aims to study the problem of creolistics, focusing on the Portuguese-based creolistics. The objective of the project is to investigate linguistic aspects (phonological, morpho-syntactic, and etymological) of the Portuguese-based Creoles of Curaçao, São Tomé and Principe, and Cape Verde, and the Portuguese spoken in the Atlantic region, in general, in contact with Portuguese-based creole languages or local languages.

Professor in charge: Gabriel Antunes de Araújo (g.antunes@usp.br)

 

Creole languages and Portuguese in contact in the Atlantic

Description: Portuguese overseas expansion led to the diffusion of the language of Portugal the world and this Portuguese linguistic impact is still being registered nowadays. In very specific historical conditions (almost always associated with the scourge of slavery or the plantation type production model or fortresses) languages that came to be known as Portuguese-based Creole arose. These creole languages (Portuguese-based) have the majority Portuguese lexicon, although there are regional influences (African or Asian) on phonology and morpho-syntax. Understanding the linguistic systems of Creole languages allows us, at the same time, to reassess a number of linguistic phenomena present in Portuguese of Brazil - and spoken in Africa - and absent from European Portuguese. Therefore, the project aims to study the problem of creolistics, focusing on the Portuguese-based creolistics. The objective of the project is to investigate linguistic aspects (morpho-syntactic) of the Portuguese-based Creoles, especially those from Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, and also the Portuguese spoken in the Atlantic region, in general, in contact with Portuguese-based creole languages or local languages. We also aims at the study of the contact Portuguese of northern Brazil, centred on a specific subvariety named ‘afro indigenous.’ We intend to compare, as far as possible, between the several varieties of languages of this Atlantic world.

Professor in charge: Márcia Santos Duarte de Oliveira (marcia.oliveira@usp.br)

 

São Paulo grammars in the history of Brazilian Portuguese

Description: This subproject is included in the thematic team project PHPP - Caipira Project II. Having as empirical support a set of texts of the Corpus of this Thematic Project, produced throughout the 19th (second half), 20th, and 21st centuries, our first objective is to describe and analyse phenomena of variation and syntactic changes that show convergences and contrasts between the Portuguese of São Paulo and other varieties of Brazilian Portuguese. The second objective aims at performing survey, collection, and digitisation of historical material, available in major centres of documentation, in cities of the state of São Paulo, in particular Campinas and Araraquara, and in the city of São Paulo itself. Work plan: the work plan we elaborated includes the following research themes: pronominal systems; prepositional systems; word order in declarative and interrogative sentences; causative structures; control phenomenon and exceptional case marking; completive of inflected infinitive; grammatical nature of auxiliary/aspectual; possessive-existential constructions behaviour, with emphasis on three aspects: (a) placement of locative terms, (b) verbal agreement and subject position, and (c) variation between ‘to have,’ ‘to be,’ and ‘to be with’ in temporal expressions; dative of possession.

Professor in charge: Maria Aparecida Correa Ribeiro Torres Moraes (torres.mariacida@gmail.com)

 

Language and culture of Macau

Description: Speaking about the Macanese culture leads us to think about Chinese culture and also Portuguese culture. Would the Macanese culture really be a result of the merging of two cultures placed side by side on the daily life of Macau? Culture involves routine and widely situations adopted by the Macanese community, therefore the rituals, customs, habits, beliefs, and also the language are prioritised in this project because they are the clues for understanding the culture. What is it like to be Macanese? Would the label have a semantic support linked to the geography of the state, as is occurs in Brazil? Would the habits derive from a colonisation increased and cared by colonisers or effects of daily actions and attitudes of a linguistic community? If space can be a relevant fact, would it have been designed so adjusted to political geography? What effects have these actions brought for the community of Macau? Does the language have a dynamic attuned to the language of Portugal or China? These themes are explained in this project. Studying language and culture as ways of crystallisation of everyday habits and communicative habits. Project funded by CNPq.

Professor in charge: Maria Célia Pereira Lima Hernandes (mceliah@usp.br)

 

Projeto de pesquisa Universal CNPq. Fluence and comprehension of reading in basic education: morphological, lexical and prosodic role. (inserido em 29/09 a pedido da Profa. Ieda)

The goal of this project is to investigate the knowledge processing of the morphology, the vocabulary and prosody and of its relation to fluency and reading comprehension throughout elementary school. The broader purpose of this project is to understand more deeply the development of three linguistic variables linked to lexical development which have been little studied together, bringing contributions about the development of reading skills. This study, as proposed, may assist in the investigation and consideration of theoretical models on the development of reading proficiency.

Professor in charge: Fraulein Vidigal de Paula (Psychology Institute – University of Sao Paulo) – Coordinator
Ana Luiza G. P. Navas (Phonology - Santa Casa/SP)
Maria Célia Lima-Hernandes (Grammatical Complexity - FFLCH-USP) - (mceliah@usp.br)

 

Morphsyntactic aspects of the Portuguese in a cognitive-functionalist perspective (inserido em 29/09 a pedido da Profa. Ieda)

Description: Analysis of morphsyntactic relationships established between a predicate and its argument (s) in different text typologies of contemporary Portuguese, in order to detect the processes of cognitive and pragmatic-communicative nature, which regulate trends of discursive manifestation of argument structure.

Professor in charge: Marcelo Módolo (modolo@usp.br)