Emotions and intergenerational linguistic transmission: a case study

Abstract

Since mid-nineteenth century, immigration languages have become part of many societies in Brazil. Despite nationalist pressures, intergenerational language transmission managed to help some of them to survive, especially by its emotional appeal in intimate environment. Supported on studies on the relationship between language and emotion (AVERILL, 1982; HARKINS; WIERZBICKA, 2001; DEWAELE; PAVLENKO, 2002; DEWAELE, 2013; PAVLENKO, 2012), we present a case study that illustrates a real situation of lexical transmission driven by emotion. During a common enterprise, the displacement of a wooden house, a group of people talk in a Brazilian Portuguese (PB) variety influenced by traits of the Venetian language. At some point, something goes wrong and emotions arise. The protagonist starts cursing in his ancestors’ language, demonstrating that linguistic practices can remain within communities of immigrant descendant, even if the language has undergone the process of language shift, and that such practices are more likely to be manifested if they are motivated by moments that evoke emotion.