On the dating of você, ocê and senhorita

Abstract

Knowing the date when a word first appeared in the language is not only helpful for linguistic dating purposes. This information is important because it can guide studies about the actuation problem and evaluation stages (WEINREICH; LABOV; HERZOG, 1968) of linguistic changes. The present study is an attempt to locate, historically and socially, the behavior of forms to address the interlocutor, using more grammaticalized variants of the pronoun (honorific form) vossa mercê, first in Portugal (você — you, en English) then in Brazil (você and ocê/cê — contracted forms of você ), correcting, updating and fixing the appearance dates of these occurrences. By referring to literature authors born between the 17th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century it was also possible to anticipate by half a century the dating of the noun senhorita (Eng. mistress), maybe an indicator of a new statute for women.