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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1094

Part of Session 177: Field methods in multicultural megacities (Other abstracts in this session)

Construction of sociolinguistic identity in Rio de Janeiro

Authors: Paiva, Conceição (1); Gomes, Christina (2)
Submitted by: Paiva, Conceição (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

The study of language change and variation in urban megacities finds several methodological difficulties.  The survey methods of Variationist Sociolinguistic (Labov, 1972 ) due to requirement for  representativeness of the speech community, are not able to gather the complex sociolinguistic dynamic that results from the close relationship between speakers of different varieties (Romaine 1980). One main problem concerns the analysis of the regional linguistic identity. In view of the diversity of different dialects in an urban diversified space, what linguistic phenomena can be considered characteristic of this speech community. Another question is related to how the speaker recognizes himself as member of this geographic space. This is the main focus of this paper based on the application of field methods in the megacity of Rio de Janeiro.

In the early 1980s, the Research group PEUL (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) organized a large random sample of Rio de Janeiro, controlled according to the social variables age, educational level and sex (Oliveira e Silva and Scherre, 1996, Paiva e Duarte 2003). The grouping of speakers according to these variables shows robust evidences about several variable processes and changes in progress in this community (Paiva and Scherre, 1999, Paiva e Duarte, 2006). However, these correlations don’t say anything about speakers’awareness and attitudes towards  these phenomena,

During the sociolinguistic interviews, the speakers were asked questions like: Are there differences in the way Cariocas speak? What can be considered characteristics of the carioca speech? A posteriori, this information was quantified  through a scale in which different levels of sensitivity to linguistic variation in general and to the  peculiarities of Carioca speech were distributed. The analysis of the phenomena more frequently quoted by the speakers allows to identifying the linguistic aspects considered as “typically Carioca”. The comparison between these quoted phenomena and the variable process identified in controlled quantitative analyses leads to the conclusion that carioca speakers have a low level of sensitivity about the process of variation and change that characterizes Rio de Janeiro.  The linguistic features considered as carioca particularities reproduces stereotypes as: “the carioca uses more slang than other Brazilian people” or  “the carioca palatalizes final /S/.

References:

Labov, W. (1972a)  Some principles of linguistic methodology. Language in society 1:97-120.

Oliveira e Silva, G. M. & Scherre, M. M. P. (1996) Padrões Sociolingüísticos: análise de fenômenos variáveis do português falado na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro: Tempo Brasileiro.     

Paiva, M. C. de & Scherre, M. M. P. (1999) Retrospectiva sociolingüística: contribuições do PEUL. D.E. L.T.A., 15 Especial: 201-232.  

Paiva Maria da Conceição A. de.; Duarte, Maria Eugênia L. Quarenta anos depois: A herança de um programa na sociolingüística brasileira. In: Weinreich, U.; Labov, W.; Herzog, M. I. Fundamentos empíricos para uma teoria da sociolingüística. Trad. Marcos Bagno. São Paulo: 2006. 131-151.

Romaine, S. A critical overview of the methodology of urban British sociolinguistcs. English World-Wide 1:163-98. QUARENTA ANOS DEPOIS.