Portuguese Lexicon

Research Projects:

 

Morphology and lexicon in reading practices for PLE teaching

Description: This project aims at developing reading practices for PLE (Portuguese as a Foreign Language) teaching based on expanding the lexicon from the description and analysis of derivational processes involving the creation of nouns and verbs.

Professor in charge: Beatriz Daruj Gil (biagil@usp.br)

 

Lexical studies in literary discourse

Description: This project aims to verify how expressiveness is obtained with lexical choices and creations in the literary discourse. Analysing Brazilian literary texts, we intend not only to verify the effects of meaning derived from literary neologisms, but also from the lexical choice. The project relies on Lexicology, Stylistic, and Lexical Morphology.

Professor in charge: Elis de Almeida Cardoso Caretta (elisdacar@usp.br)

 

Observatory of Neologisms from Contemporary Brazilian Portuguese

Description: The Observatory of Neologisms from the Contemporary Brazilian Portuguese Project (TermNeo Project) aims to collect, analyse, and disseminate aspects of general neology and of scientific and technical neology of the contemporary Portuguese of Brazil. It should also prepare glossaries and terminological dictionaries in some of the areas studied. In addition to these main objectives, the project, from the observation of the data collected, also aims to: contribute to the development of research in terminology regarding study on technical and scientific neology; preparation of glossaries and terminological dictionaries; establishment of criteria for the elaboration of the terminology definition; establishment of criteria for the preparation of entries; comparative study of corpus (of disclosure and specialised) concerning terminological variation, the formation of metaphorical terms, and the employment of borrowings; use of textual bases for terminological applications; to contribute to the development of research in general neology regarding the study of the formation of lexical neology units; the most common formation processes; more productive affixal elements (prefixes and suffixes); the competition between foreign and vernacular elements in the evolution of Portuguese lexicon. Areas of expertise studied: Economics, Artificial Intelligence, Astronomy, Molecular Genetics, Meat Technology, Soy, Drug addiction, Education in the field. Since 2011, the terminology of Sustainable Development has also been studied in the context of the project. This terminology, linked to three sciences (Economy, Ecology, and Social Sciences), began to be studied in the project because of its links with Economy, the area that has been studied since the beginning of the constitution of TermNeo Project.

Professor in charge: Ieda Maria Alves (iemalves@usp.br)

 

Cultural and educational values in the metaphor of specialty: the multiple images of the global economic crisis in written press

Description: The project, developed alongside the Spanish team coordinated by Prof. Iolanda Galanes Santos, University of Vigo, represents the semantic and compared approach of an event (the world economic crisis), based on materials extracted from the contemporary written press. The project seeks to contribute to the study on economic terminology in Spanish and in Brazilian Portuguese, from a communicative perspective that considers the geographical, (micro)chronological, functional, and stylistic linguistic variation. It also aims to: elaborate a catalogue of images and educational metaphors about the economic crisis, which serve as a reference for the work of translators, interpreters, and cultural mediators; study the dynamic of economic concepts; harmonize the organisation of economic terminology corpora of written press due to the realisation of this project and other future projects.

Professor in charge: Ieda Maria Alves (iemalves@usp.br)

 

History and variety of the Portuguese language in São Paulo on the shores of Anhembi

Description: This project, which comprises the History of the Portuguese Language in São Paulo Project (PHPP, Projeto Caipira II Project): Team Thematic Project /FAPESP, process no. 2011/51787-5, from 2012 to 2017, aims to understand the processes of maintenance and change of the Portuguese language that has expanded to southeast, south, and central-western Brazil, to the paths of the waters of Tiete River, old Anhembi, among other waterways and lands. Therefore, the project is based on linguistic materials aspects of its functioning, as well as its history and social context, assuming that linguistic phenomena are inseparable from culture and social functioning (including ethnographic and imaginary aspects) in which they are integrated. Thus, linguistic and sociocultural data will be collected and analysed on the Middle Tietê region, in the municipalities of Capivari, Itu, Piracicaba, Pirapora do Bom Jesus, Porto Feliz, Santana de Parnaíba, São Roque, Sorocaba/São Roque/Araçariguama, and Tietê.

Professor in charge: Manoel Mourivaldo Santiago Almeida (msantiago@usp.br)

 

History of the Portuguese language in São Paulo Project (PHPP – Caipira Project II)

Description: The PHPP - Caipira Project 2 is an articulated set of subprojects within the field of Historical Linguistics of Portuguese and, therefore, in the research line of Diachronic and Synchronous Studies of Portuguese focusing on (a) collecting, organising, and making available diachronic corpora of the Portuguese language in São Paulo, to support research on this variety; (b) analysing such corpora in three areas: (i) study on grammar variation and change, from the functionalist angle; (ii) study on the formation of the formal and popular varieties and on the diffusion of the popular in the Middle Tietê region, in parallel with the sociohistorical outline of the Portuguese language in São Paulo; (iii) study on discursive genres and textual construction processes, under the critical-discursive and textual-interactive perspectives. Thus structured, the PHPP intends to promote a dialogue between linguistic theories, indispensable in the contemporary research of Historical Linguistics. The project is constituted from the so-called History of the Portuguese language in São Paulo Project, proposed, organised, and coordinated by Ataliba Teixeira de Castilho in 1975 at USP. Since then, the project has expanded across the country, with the involvement of regional teams, giving rise to the current History of Brazilian Portuguese Project (PHPB), in which eleven more states, besides São Paulo, participate. PHPP restructured in 2007, with funding from FAPESP in the Thematic Team Project modality (2007-2010). In 2011, the coordination of the project was assumed by Clélia Cândida A. Spinardi Jubran (UNESP/SJRP), as titular, and by Manoel M. Santiago-Almeida (USP), as an understudy. In 2012 the PHPP- Caipira Project was approved again by FAPESP as a Thematic Team Project (2012-2017, Process no. 2011/51787-5), also depending on scholarships from CNPq, FAPESP, UNESP, and USP. The team presented depend only on professors of the Philology and Portuguese Language Program, in addition to the titular coordinator. The production and guidelines listed are related only to M.M. Santiago-Almeida.

Professor in charge: Manoel Mourivaldo Santiago Almeida (msantiago@usp.br)

 

Dérom Project – Review of Ibero-Romance etymologies

Description: The community of specialists in Romance Linguistics, especially the specialists in etymology, need a new dictionary similar to the Romanisches Etimologisches Wörterbuch to the present day. To this end, an international team was constituted, especially franco-German, coordinated by Eva Buchi and Wolfgang Schweickard, aiming to investigate about 500 etyma of the inherited common lexicon using the method of historical-comparative grammar and reconstruction through phonological, semantic, stratigraphic, and variational analysis.

Professor in charge: Mário Eduardo Viaro (maeviaro@usp.br)

 

Portuguese Language Etymology 

Description: The research group linked to NEHiLP understands that, unlike what happens with most European languages (English, French, Spanish, and Italian), the dictionaries of the Portuguese language are quite flawed regarding their etymological data. Sufixal and prefixal derivation are mistaken with etymology, the etymon of the word is mistaken with its remote origin, there is not enough care with etyma of agraph languages and we know very little of Arab influence, not to mention the abundance of fanciful etyma that de-characterise etymological study as a scientific project. The media and the Internet contribute to the dissemination of unrealistic solutions, without academic studies in the field of Historical Linguistics and Philology exposing their conclusions on the subject. As happened with Stylistics, etymological research of scientific quality were very productive until the 1920s, when they were at their peak, however, historical and ideological events promoted the oblivion of many techniques and results. Grounded in linguistic research, etymological studies came back mainly from the 1990s and today there are important tools for developing quality research at academic level, which may contribute to the change of the vision of society on the subject. Thus, this research on dating of the first occurrences of Portuguese words, presented by NEHiLP, is the first step towards the creation of a new etymological dictionary of the Portuguese language.

Professor in charge: Mário Eduardo Viaro (maeviaro@usp.br)

 

InterLEC – Interfaces between lexicon, education, and culture

Description: This project aims to deepen the studies on existing interfaces between lexicon and culture, and lexicon and education. In this sense, we will seek to describe and analyse the lexicon according to different approaches in these relations, demonstrating how they can generate interesting findings and contributions to different areas of knowledge.

Professor in charge: Mariângela de Araújo (araujomar@usp.br)