Traços semânticos da referência à primeira pessoa do plural no português brasileiro: um estudo em tempo real

Abstract

In Brazilian Portuguese, the form a gente (we) tends to be associated with first person plural referents with a generic semantic feature, which is related to its nominal base origin. However, an increase in the use of a gente in contexts of a lower referential comprehensiveness has been evidenced by results of variationist studies, signalizing the loss of semantic distinction between nós (we) and a gente. Our thesis is that a gente is gaining space in referential contexts of lower comprehensiveness, causing a change in the frequency of use of the first person plural variants in function of semantic features. In order to support this thesis, we analyzed, from a perspective of a real time change of short span, the semantic features of the variants nós and a gente in two sociolinguistic samples collected at different times (the years of 2010 and 2018) in the community of practice Professor Alberto Carvalho Campus at the Federal University of Sergipe in Itabaiana/SE. To investigate the change in the semantic features of the first person plural forms, we considered the parameters: i) comprehensiveness of the referent; ii) referential group; iii) reference; iv) definiteness/specificity; v) inclusion of the interlocutor; vi) discursive sequence; and vii) kind of subject matter. The result of the analysis in real time of the frequencies of use of the variants nós and a gente indicates that the expression of the first person plural is going through a stable variation process over the considered period. The analysis of the occurrences of a gente at each time reveals that the frequency of use of the form has been increasing in contexts of lower comprehensiveness to refer to a paucal group in order to codify referents with the semantic feature defined, and in referential situations in which the interlocutor is excluded. This fact denotes a generalization process of the use of a gente in typical referential contexts of the canonic pronoun. The results in function of the discursive contexts demonstrate that the frequency of the form a gente is increasing in contexts of narrative sequence and with private subject matters, which corroborates the results in function of semantic features, since narrative sequencies and private discursive topics condition the presence of more restrict referents of first person plural, with lower comprehensiveness. The results confirm our thesis of a change in the semantic features of the variants of first person plural, demonstrating an increase in the frequency of use of a gente in contexts of lower referential comprehensiveness.