Estruturas do Português Brasileiro oral e a Educação de Jovens e Adultos: o caso das orações relativas e da concordância com sujeito pós-verbal

Abstract

This study focuses on oral Brazilian Portuguese (BP), observing two syntactic structures that show expressive variation in BP: relative clauses and subject-verb agreement, particularly with the postponed subject. Specifically, this work reflects upon the internalized grammar with which an individual arrives at school and the grammar of the standard written modality, which is highly dependent on schooling. A comparison is established between regular schooling (control group) and EJA (Youth and Adults Education), whose population may prefer some variants and might show greater difficulties to apprehend the rules of the standard norm. This study focuses on phenomena contrasting which traditional grammar requires and the usual preference in common PB usage. As a theoretical framework, this research is based on the generative theory (CHOMSKY, 1957 and later) and the concepts of the Sociolinguistics. Data are experimentally collected by means of elicited production paradigms (THORNTON, 1996), acceptability judgements, with Likert scale, and additionality by the application of school written activities. A questionnaire eliciting sociocultural information is also applied. Quantitative treatment of data is performed in order for a qualitative analysis to be offered. The results of the questionnaire show that both populations present a similar profile regarding reading habits and attendance to formal environments. As far as the production results for relative clauses, there are similar trends as well: low occurrences of standard relative clauses, particularly for the most complex types, OBL and GEN and expressive use of the chopped alternative. Acceptability results confirm that chopped relative clauses are well evaluated for the most complex types as well. Both groups show difference, though, in the acceptability of resumptive relative clauses: EJA accepts more. As far as production is concerned for subject-verb agreement, a clear development is attested at EJA, with low occurrences of redundant agreement in the lower grade and a non-distinct behavior with the regular school in the most advanced grade. As far as acceptability judgements, results indicate that the regular school participants evaluate redundant agreement better than the EJA participants, although for the postponed subject, no differences are attested. Thus, it seems that school requirements are strongly directed to ban stigmatized variants, but have no impact on some other non-standard registers. The school environment is largely responsible for putting the speaker in contact with the rules of the standard grammar, which are absent from students’ internalized grammar or are very rarely used by them, but some non-standard registers persist and seem not to be impacted by this school effort. Not all non-standard registers are put aside in the formation of a marked periphery (KATO, 2005) for a literate PB student. In this research, it was shown that relative clauses (chopped vs. resumptive strategies) and redundant agreement (with pre and post-subjects) were diversely affected by schooling. Our results confirm that the variants used by the students shall be considered by the teachers so that they may be contrasted and reflected upon so that, by means of an active methodology, students master different variants and feel comfortable in their own language