Mudança linguística no modo imperativo – uma análise multissistêmica

Abstract

From a corpus made up of dramatic texts produced in Brazil’s southeast region between 1850 and 1975, our research aims to study speakers’ usage of the imperative mood in the singular form during this period of time. Our intention was to investigate usage as it was at that time, aiming to discover whether or not it is still possible, in addition to variation, to observe a process of language change involving these verbal forms. To address this phenomenon, we have selected the multissystemic theory (Casilho, 2006), quantifying the data according to variationist sociolinguistics.

Keywords

• imperative mood
• language variation
• language change
• forms of address
• politeness
• multissystemic theory