Manifestação do objeto direto anafórico em esfera escolar EJA: a gramática do letrado

Abstract

One of the most striking properties that distinguish Brasilian Portuguese (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) is the accusative use of 3rd person clitics. From a generativist approach, Kato (2005) observes that BP core grammar is augmented by a marked periphery (Chomsky, 1981), which incorporates 3rd person clitics, mainly due to schooling and its effort to encourage the use of written standard registers. Variationist studies indicate that, in BP, several different variants of anaphoric direct objects are attested: (i) clitics, (ii) strong pronouns, (iiI) repeated nominal expressions, and (iv) null objects, the last of which has been privileged (Duarte, 1989; Omena, 1979). In this study, the methodology by Pires (2005) is adapted for the elicitation of anaphoric direct objects in written narratives. The research has been developed with EJA students, comprising the control group students from regular schools. Elementary 9th and high schools 3rd grades were considered. The notion of literacy is assumed (Kleiman, 1995) as well as the hypothesis that the process for the learning of the written standard register is similar to the process for the acquisition of a second language. Moreover, in relation to EJA, it is assumed that a recovery even more costly for the use of clitics may reflect the longer periods the students are away from school and the accelerated character of the exposure to the program contents. The overall results obtained indicate, however, a similarity between EJA and the control group, in terms of percentage of the use of each variant, as well as in regard to clitic collocation in simple sentences. The distinction between the groups is related to the persistence in the use of the strong pronoun by EJA, and also less use of the intermediate position for clitic collocation in sentences with periphrastic verbs. In general, the influence of oral register is identified on the data collected. There is no consistency in the use of clitics, indicating that the learning of rules for the marked periphery of the language seems, actually, to be similar to pathway found in second language acquisition.