CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS: A BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY ON THE CONSTRAST OF BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN BRASIL, FROM 1988 TO 2010

Abstract

This study aims to map researches on Contrastive Linguistics in Brazil that emphasize the contrast between Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, from 1988 to 2010. The mapping was carried out with the following specific objectives: (i) categorize the researches in the analytical models of Contrastive Linguistics, (ii) identify the Brazilian institutions where those researches are carried out, and (iii) classify the researches according to the linguistic approach employed. This work consists of a bibliographical survey whose data were obtained from the theses database of CAPES in November 2011. The search criterion (without specific date) used the following search terms combined: Contrastive Linguistics Spanish, Contrastive Analysis Spanish, Error Analysis Spanish, Interlanguage Spanish, Transfer Spanish, Interference Spanish, and Fossilization Spanish. The output was a total of 111 studies, whose largest concentration is in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, featuring 27 and 64 studies, respectively. The preferred approach concerns the morphosyntactic aspects, namely the pronominal system of the two languages . The present study concludes that researches in Brazilian universities have developed important work on the morpho syntactic, lexical-semantic and phonetic-phonological aspects, however the work with pragmatic or discursive approaches is still incipient.