ABSTRACT
Between variation and change, as we know, not only language, but also the texts, with their structures, undergo changes over time. This article aims to analyze textual changes observed in letters of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. These documents are part of the corpus called “Rio Grande do Norte official letters” connected to the regional project History of Brazilian Portuguese in Rio Grande do Norte (PHPB-RN) and the national one: History of Brazilian Portuguese (PHPB). We perform a micro-analysis of these letters, built upon the ideas of Coseriu and on the studies about discursive traditions (KOCH, 1997KOCH, P. Diskurstraditionen: zu ihrem sprachtheoretischen Status und ihrer Dynamik. In: FRANK, B.; HAYE, T.; TOPHINKE, D. (Ed.). Gattungen mittelalterlicher Schriftlichkeit. Tübingen: Narr, 1997. p. 43–79. Tradução não publicada de Alessandra Castilho da Costa.; KABATEK, 2006KABATEK, J. Tradições discursivas e mudança linguística. In: LOBO, T. et al. Para a história do português brasileiro. Salvador: EDUFBA, 2006. p.505-527.), according to which, texts are shaped to follow their own tradition (COSERIU, 2007COSERIU, E. Linguística del texto: introducción a la hermenéutica del sentido. Madrid: Arco/Libros, 2007.). Firstly, we focus on the “letter” genre and its macro-structure; and afterwards, on the micro-structure clausula (valediction). This analysis shows some processes of variation and change which these official letters underwent, as well as how textual dynamics can indicate social change.
Variation and change; Discursive traditions; Rio Grande do Norte official letters; Diachronic corpus
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Source: Strube (1989 apud