The vocabulary of the military dictatorship in Eulálio Motta’s

Abstract

This is a study of the vocabulary of the military dictatorship in nine pamphlets written by Eulálio Motta from 1960 to 1970. The corpus is a fragment of a larger research that allowed building an inventory of a diversified vocabulary that the writer has used to spread his ideas in the region of Mundo Novo-BA. Eulalio Motta was responsible for the production, circulation and reception of his pamphlets. These texts were read in public places, in villages and farms, reaching hundreds of people. Through its propagandistic action and the use of a vocabulary that ideologically shows a discourse in favor of the regime, Eulalio Motta spread a certain image of the military dictatorship in the Mundo Novo region. The lexical study presented here focuses on the vocabulary of Dictatorship and is subsidized by the structuring theory of lexical fields, based on Stephen Ullmann (1973 [1964]), Pierre Guiraud (1989 [1969]), Horst Geckeler (1976) Mario Vilela (1979; 1995) and especially Eugenio Coseriu (1964a; 1964b; 1967; 1973; 1976). This approach allowed us to observe how Eulalio Motta incorporated new words, excluded and gave new meaning to others in their linguistic uses, motivated by diverse interests. Furthermore, it allowed the knowledge of customs and socio-cultural values of backcountry men, expressed in their linguistic use.

Keywords

• Eulalio Motta
• Military Dictatorship
• Vocabulary