Prescriptive, idealized standard norm and alternative usage-based norm and linguistic hybridity in translated articles from New York Times

Abstract

This article presents results from a study on hybrid linguistic norms in translated articles from New York Times made available on UOL website. According to Faraco (2008) and Bagno (2012), there is a difference between norma padrão (a prescriptive norm, but not based on usage) and norma culta (an alternative, usage-based norm). The first one combines normative rules that determine correct linguistic forms, but generally hard to follow by most users, while the second one brings together a set of linguistic forms frequently employed by users, because they are more intuitively accessible, although not subscribed by the conservative standard norm (norma padrão) commonly taught in grammar books and in writing style manuals. The research was meant to verify if journalistic texts translated from English have been as permeable to linguistic forms not subscribed by the prescriptive standard norm, as the ones originally written in Portuguese have proven to be.