THE SPACE-TIME OF BRAZILIAN GRAMATIZATION: A DIALECTOLOGICAL AGENDA IN NATIONAL LINGUISTICS

Abstract

: This work proposes the discussion of the theme of spatiality in Brazilian Linguistics and its functioning in the relation language/subject/state in a period that goes from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. We work within a discursive perspective, as Orlandi (2001) says, using Auroux’s (2009) considerations on the grammatization process and on the technological instruments of this process, such as dictionaries and grammars. We try to investigate how these linguistic technologies produce discourses in a given Brazilian space-time, and how these discourses are related to the constitution of the Portuguese language. Within a language policy at the end of the 19th century, it is from this discourse on Brazilian spatiality that we can think of a series of practices that will distance the Portuguese language spoken in Brazil from that of Portugal, and, later, try to confirm the unity of a national language. Contradictorily, it is from this same imaginary unit that questions about the concrete diversity of the language spoken in the national territory will arise and gain strength. From our perspective, we perceive the construction and functioning of a dialectological agenda that will permeate Language Studies in Brazil.