Um olhar sociolinguístico sobre a variação nós/a gente no falar Anoriense (AM)

Abstract

This research investigated the variable phenomenon “P4 pronominal expression”; in particular, the behavior of the variants nós and a gente in the subject function in the speech of 16 informants from the region of Anori, in the countryside of Amazonas, it is based on the theoretical-methodological assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics, according to Weinreich, Labov and Herzog (2006 [1968]). We also fundamentally consider Omena (1986, 1998, 2003), Tarallo (1986), Scherre (1998), Lopes (1993, 1998, 2003, 2004), Labov (2008 [1972]), Tamanine (2010), Vieira (2014), Araújo (2016), Mendes (2019), Ribeiro (2020) e Fernandes (2021). Based on these assumptions, we assume that extralinguistic and linguistic conditioning factors influence the use of the variants nós and a gente, described in this study. The specific objectives are as follow: a) to describe the variants of the variable phenomenon “pronominal expression of P4” in the speech of the inhabitants of the urban and rural regions of the municipality of Anori; b) to analyze the groups of linguistic and extralinguistic factors that condition the use of the variants nós and a gente in the speech of the inhabitants of the urban and rural regions of the municipality of Anori. The methodology used consisted of field research, speech data collection, graphematic transcription according to Preti's parameters (1999) and statistical treatment using the Goldvarb X program (Sankoff; Tagliamonte; Smith, 2005).The following groups of extralinguistic and linguistic factors were controlled: sex/gender, age group, schooling, location, subject completion, syntactic function, pronoun reference, verb agreement, verb tense, parallelism between subjects and phonic salience. As far as the groups of factors are concerned, after the appropriate exclusions and groupings, the program selected the following as favoring the application of the rule for a gente: age group (25 to 59 years; 60 years or older); education level (low: no education or up to elementary school I, and high: elementary school II to high school); subject completion (completed and null); verb tense (present indicative, present subjunctive, past perfect indicative, future past indicative, past imperfect indicative, past imperfect subjunctive, past perfect indicative, future subjunctive, infinitive, future present indicative and imperative); reference of the pronoun - extended I (determinate/indeterminate); parallelism between the subjects (yes and no); and location (urban and rural areas of Anori). The groups of factors sex/gender, syntactic function and verb agreement, which were not selected and excluded from the probabilistic analysis, were analyzed qualitatively and by percentage. Our sample included 1,351 occurrences of P4 variation. The general results indicate that the innovative form a gente is preferred by anorienses, corresponding to 64% of occurrences (864 cases), while conservative variant nós stands as second option, regarding 36% (487 cases).