Nominal Number Agreement in Portuguese Used in Oiapoque–AP

Abstract

This study presents a profile of research on the nominal number agreement in the context of linguistic contact that culminated in a thesis developed from oral data from speakers living in the city of Oiapoque (Amapá); three groups of users of Brazilian Portuguese were considered, Oiapoqueans who speak Portuguese as their mother tongue (L1); French speakers of Portuguese second language (L2) and indigenous speakers of Portuguese L2. However, in this text only the uses related to the first group will be approached. The linguistic phenomenon used was the process of nominal number agreement. The sample is composed of oral data from 18 Oiapoqueans, collected from spontaneous narratives and personal story. The theoretical-methodological assumptions follow the parameters of the variationist theory defended by Labov (1972). The results reveal a context of change in progress, triggered by the incorporation of more urban features into the city, which is reflected, above all, in the younger speakers who tend to make greater use of plural marks, in the constituent elements of the noun phrase, in the variety of the Brazilian Portuguese, used in Oiapoque.

Keywords

• linguistic variation
• number agreement
• brazilian portuguese