Portuguese Philology

Research Projects:

Editing and studying literary and non-literary texts in the Portuguese language

Description: This project, guided by the theoretical-methodological basis proposed for Philology or Textual Criticism, has the aim of i) performing critical editing and establishing or determining literary works of Portuguese language from the Archaic period to the 21st century; ii) developing reproduction and philological-linguistic studies of Portuguese manuscripts and printed materials (public and private non-literary documents), dated from different stages of the history of language.

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

 

The philology of modern manuscripts II: editing and linguistic study of texts for the history of Portuguese in São Paulo

Description: This project aims at the editing and linguistic study of manuscripts and texts from the São Paulo of the 17th and 18th centuries deposited in several documentary funds. First, we present language as a heterogeneous phenomenon to be studied from certain parameters. The objective is to show that in the organisation of a corpus, our first scope, we must ensure its representativeness as a portrait of a varied phenomenon. Therefore, we will do a search for distinct textual typologies, such as: crime processes, inventories, and wills, minutes of divisions, newspaper editorials, memoirs and historical diaries, private letters, official letters, letters of private administration, letters of public administration, letters from readers and editors of newspapers, serials, theatre, among others. Secondly, we will perform grammatical and discursive studies with this already philologically edited material.

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

 

Philological editions in Digital Brasiliana

Description: This research is part of the larger context of the Brasiliana USP and Brasiliana Digital projects, initiatives of the Rectory of the University of São Paulo, aiming to guard and develop the Brasiliana Library, at the building especially built for this purpose in the heart of the University. To this new physical condition, we add the construction of Brasiliana Digital (BBD), which will elevate even further the range of contents of the two collections for general and academic research purposes, according to what was proposed in the project ‘For a Digital Brasiliana Library.’ Since the end of 2008, the Research Group Brasiliana Language came in addition to the initiatives of Brasiliana USP, investigating ways to show and prepare the potential of the texts of the collection as the source of the language and the language in Brazil for which this material is naturally oriented to. We have collaborated with the larger group of Brasiliana USP in initial experimental research along with Brasiliana Laboratory, opened in early 2009. Our long-term objective is to develop tools for linguistic research based on the collection through the exploration of materials of interest and the development and application of methods of editorial procedures and of computational instrumentation for automatic extraction of information from earliest texts. We expect to establish the foundations for the exploration of the Brasiliana USP collection by scholars of history of language, as well as to form human, technological, and material bases for future exploitation of the collection by the research community. This project brings together undergraduate students in Languages and Literature around the initial challenge of preparing philological editions in digital media that allow the computational treatment of the earliest texts of the collection for future research.

Professor in charge: Maria Clara Paixão de Sousa (mariaclara@usp.br)

 

Philology of manuscripts and printed texts: editing methods and techniques

Description: This project aims at the philological work in the strict sense of Textual Criticism. We seek the practice of Philology as an editorial activity, using methods and techniques intended for editing texts or manuscripts printed in Portuguese. We are interested in issues related to original documents, copies, tradition, errors and varieties, types of error, authenticity, attribution, and dating. The procedures and editing of the text are complemented with studies on sciences related to Philology such as Codicology, Palaeography, Diplomatic method, and Material and Linguistic Bibliography.

Professor in charge: Sílvio de Almeida Toledo (tolnets@gmail.com)

 

Sources for the history of Portuguese Language: editing of manuscripts of the middle and classical periods

Description: The objectives of this project are the editing and study of manuscripts in Portuguese during the middle (15th and 16th centuries) and classic (17th and 18th centuries) periods in the history of the Portuguese Language. Based on a conservative edition, we then perform the survey and classification of texts, according to their diplomatic characteristics, description of codicological and paleographical aspects, and examination of traits that characterize the state of the language of the time.

Professor in charge: Sílvio de Almeida Toledo (tolnets@gmail.com)

 

Editing of manuscripts of the 17th to 20th centuries: formation of corpus of the History of the Portuguese language in São Paulo Project

Description: Project of editing of private and official letters, and those of private administration from the 17th to 20th centuries that has as its main objective to gather copies of texts that serve as research source for the History of the Portuguese language in São Paulo. When studying the history of a language, we are faced with several challenges, including the sources for the collection of linguistic data. This issue refers to the degree of proximity to the vernacular present in the texts of past synchronies. However, we believe that the analysis can be based both in official texts, more formulaic, with a high degree of control, and in particular texts, less formulaic and more close to orality. Having these two poles as a parameter, we can ensure an exploration of texts and their language marks with greater precision and care. The model of Discursive Traditions, besides Philology, provides subsidies to better understand the history of the texts. We must bear this aspect in mind so as not to confuse history of language and history of the texts. For instance, certain linguistic expressions can appear in a certain type of text, but not in another, simply because in that there is no reason to.

Professor in charge: Verena Kewitz (kewitz@usp.br)

 

Paulistas Witches: Philological Edition of Texts about Witchcraft

Description: This project aims to a philological edition of criminal proceedings on witchcraft of the eighteenth century, deposited in the Metropolitan Curia Archive of São Paulo. The collection includes 12 proceedings - between 1739 and 1771, that deal with witchcraft in São Paulo lands. Besides the issue of basic texts that will serve to the study of social and historical relations of this period, we intend to explore these documents linguistically, revealing morphsyntactic features of the Portuguese of that time.

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