Code-switching em Akwẽ-Xerente/Português
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2015-03-12
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Universidade Federal de Goiás
Resumo
The Xerente inhabit the right margin of the Tocantins river, approximately 100 km north of
Palmas (TO), and the population comprises 3,600 individuals. After more than two hundred
years of contact with non-indigenous populations, the Xerente maintain their language and
unique cultural traits, a particular way to perceive and immerse themselves in real life. As a
consequence of this accelerated process of contact with non-indigenous populations, the
Xerente are now in a stage of high bilingualism (BRAGGIO, 2012), a situation that reveals
several phenomena, among them, one which is called code-switching (CS). Our work focuses
on this phenomenon. The goal is to attain a broad understanding of grammatical and
typological characteristics and the social and pragmatic motivations of CS in the Xerentespeaking
community. Data from the grammatical analysis, performed with the support of the
Matrix Language Frame Model (MLF) and 4-M (MYERS-SCOTTON, 1993a, 2002) models
show that, in the CS used by the Akwe, the matrix language (ML) is predominantly the
Xerente language, while the Portuguese language is relegated to the position of embedded
language (EL) within the bilingual projection of Complementizer (CP), the unit of analysis of
the MFL. Additionally, our data present samples of facts which previous studies applying the
MLF model have considered to be rare. It has to do with the isolated insertion of grammatical
morphemes presenting with the trace [-refers to grammatical information outside of Maximal
Projection of Head] and adverbs, which we see, along with the recurrent use of some names
and verbs from the Portuguese language (probably borrowings), as evidence of the advanced
degree of contact between the Xerente and the Portuguese languages. This reflects the
different weight of these languages in certain social domains. The configurations of this
contact are also revealed by the analysis of the sociolinguistic variables and the social and
pragmatic motivation of the CS, realized under the light of the Markedness Model (MYERSSCOTTON,
1993b), supported by Gumperz (1982) social and interactional approach and the
assumptions of the Ethnography of Communication (HYMES, 1972[1964], 1974, 1986). It is
then possible to determine that in the urban environment, among the younger population with
more schooling, there is a more intense and varied use of CS. In the topic variable analysis,
CS is mostly used in subjects regarding social domains related to the predominant
language/culture, exactly where there are instances of diglossic conflicts in which languages
find themselves in a situation of competitiveness, as pointed out by Braggio (2010). Among
the events analyzed, the ritual speech of the elders is, by far, that which presents the greatest
resistance to contact with Portuguese. However, in events that take place in the city, as well as
other events in which topics are related to that environment, we see CS being used more
frequently and presenting greater diversity/complexity. The phenomenon presents itself as a
unmarked or exploratory choice, precisely in these events, which gives Portuguese a series of
attributes that include the traces [+education], [+formality], [+authority], [+official] and
[+sociocultural status]. In view of that, we believe that a broad understanding of CS and of the
sociolinguistic configurations in which it takes place, can contribute to the academic
education of indigenous populations, in the sense that it will help in the preparation of
pedagogical materials. It will also help to establish goals for linguistic policies geared towards
providing vitality, and strength to the linguistic and cultural autonomy of the Xerente people.
Moreover, the paper also offers a contribution to sociolinguistics, to the study of languages in
contact and to the study of indigenous languages, most notably, the Akwe-Xerente language.
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Citação
MESQUITA, Rodrigo. Code-switching em Akwẽ-Xerente/Português. 2015. 245 f. Tese (Doutorado em Letras e Linguística) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2015.