Social hierarchies, linguistic norm and variation in São Paulo
Keywords:
republican intellectuals of São Paulo, Brazilian Portuguese, cliticsAbstract
In this research we discuss the complex social and linguistic experience of a group of educated speakers, viz the republican intellectuals of São Paulo, at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. We attempt to observe how distinct ideologies and political militancy influenced their language production. The empirical patterns of clitic placement were described and
analyzed in texts written by four members from the informants group. This interdisciplinary proposal follows the theoretical assumptions of Variationist Sociolinguistics, in dialogue with History and the Sociology of Language. We support the hypothesis that standard Brazilian Portuguese in São Paulo
has characteristics that separate it from modern European Portuguese. Moreover, the linguistic forms that distinguish the written production of those intellectuals serve as differentiation markers among speakers, since they reveal the social status of the individuals and the effects of formal instruction on
their practices.