Verbal agreement in Brazilian Portuguese in Maceió/AL,Brazil

Abstract

In this article we analyze the verbal agreement in Brazilian Portuguese spoken in the urban area of Maceió/ AL, based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of the Sociological Linguistic Variation, by William Labov (2008 [1972]) in order to describe and analyze the pattern of agreement of the speakers of Maceió. To this end, we used data from the Portal -Linguistic Variation in Portuguese Alagoas project, with recorded and orthographically transcribed interviews of 36 employees, men and women of three age groups and three levelsof education. Social variables ‘gender’, ‘age range’ and ‘schooling’ were selected; and as linguistic variables ‘subject’s position in relation to the verb’, ‘intervening elements between subject and verb’ and ‘nature of the subject’. We conclude that verbal agreement in Maceió is directly proportional to schooling and that there is an interaction between the variables gender and age group. From a linguistic point of view, the process is favored by the 1st person of the plural and disadvantaged by the 3rd person of the plural. The variables ‘subject position’ and ‘intervening elements’ were not statistically significant.

Keywords

• linguistic variation
• syntax
• alagoas variety