Signum: Estudos da Linguagem (Dec 2019)
From Present Subjunctive to Present Indicative: evidence of transition in writing from Santa Catarina
Abstract
This paper is based on a theoretical interface between the theory of variation and change an linguistic functionalism, and revisits Pimpão’s (2012) work to examine the variable context of the present subjunctive (PS) and present indicative (PI) tenses in a diachronic sample composed by letters to the editor published in newspapers from de cities of Florianópolis and Lages (SC) between the late 19th and the late 20th century, looking for contextual evidence of transition. A more refined investigation of the data focusing on historical periodization allowed us to identify, in addition to the increase in frequency of PI from de 1960s, the favorable contexts for the expansion of this verbal form (epistemic sub-mode with spreading temporal projection and direct objective substantive sentences with cognitive verbs, notably the lexical item achar (think/guess)) and constraint contexts (deontic submode with future projection and sentences with formal triggers, such as talvez (perhaps) and concessive conjunctions). The results of these factors that act in an imbricated way co-occurring with PS and PI in each period and over time support the idea that PI is slowly spreading to the functional domain of PS in gradual transition, in Santa Catarina writing.
