“Social networks and historical sociolinguistics”

variation in second-person pronouns in letters (1956-1994)

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze whether the diffusion of the forms of "você" (you) was already consolidated in the second half of the 20th century, as shown by Souza (2012), in letters from Rio de Janeiro. The sample consists of 129 letters from 1956-1994 exchanged between members of a family, whose daughter moved to live in Paris. The study is based on the theoretical assumptions of Historical Sociolinguistics (Conde Silvestre, 2007), the theory of Power and Solidarity (Brown and Gilman, 1960), and incorporates the concept of Social Networks in explaining change in past synchronies (Bergs 2005). The results showed that the canonical pattern tu-te-ti-contigo, more conservative, was evident in the letters of the family's matriarch (E) who participated in denser social networks. The also uniform forms você-o-lhe-com você prevailed in the father's (W) letters, who was involved in networks somewhat less dense than his wife. Unlike the parents, the daughter (A), a “citizen of the world” and belonging to quite diffuse and open networks, adopts the hybrid pattern (você-te-com você) currently prevailing in Rio de Janeiro's speech.