Entre o Semiárido e o Recôncavo baianos: a expressão de futuro no português falado em Feira de Santana - BA

Abstract

The variability in the expression of the future is a recognized characteristic of the Romance languages. It is remarkably productive in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Several linguistic studies point to the establishment of the use of periphrastic forms of future expression as diminishes the use of the synthetic ones. We have studied this phenomenon based on the principles of Variationist Sociolinguistics from quantitative and qualitative points of view in data extracted from 48 interviews of speakers from Feira de Santana - BA, a very representative community of the State of Bahia in terms of language, which is also important from demographic, economic and geographic points of view. The study considers language of the social borders of this community, bringing data of informants from the urban areas with graduate education and also, from poorly literate speakers from rural areas, as an attempt to obtain a picture of the current sociolinguistic polarization in Brazil. In our sample, we found 931 occurrences from five different forms futurity expression: the simple future (0.8%) (e.g. Eu falarei...), the present with future value (15.9%) (e.g. Falo sobre isso amanhã…), the periphrasis: ir in the present + infinitive (82.5%) (e.g. Eu vou falar...); the present progressive (0.3%) (e.g. Vou estar falando...); and forms with gerunds (0.5%) (e.g. Estarei falando....). For the less numerically expressive structures, we conducted a qualitative analysis, drawing attention to the importance of this type of investigation in the scope of Sociolinguistic research. Based on the data of the two dominant forms, we followed into the multivariate processing (needed to any analyzes in the quantitative sociolinguistic scope) using the Rbrul script ran in the R package. We considered the present forms with future value as rule of application because they are the only forms resistant to strong spreading of the future periphrasis. Twenty-two explanatory variables were submitted to statistical processing, of which 9 were returned as relevant to the selection of present as an expression of the future. None of the relevant variables are of social nature, since we dealt with a phenomenon that is more structurally than socially conditioned. We, then, realized that 3 of the relevant variables were closely linked to the occurrence of the ir verb, so, we decided to re-process it by isolating this context. As a result, the restrictive variable was selected in the most relevant position, confirming our hypothesis of the influence of this verb on the using pattern of the present form with future value. By examining the statistics of the other selected variables, we were able to draw up statements about the influence of future marks outside the verb for the occurrence of the present with future value. We inferred that certain semantic properties, which are internal to the verb and to the syntactic construction itself, as dynamicity and durability, also have a great influence on this productivity standard. We also concluded that the present occurs in specific contexts, sometimes concurrent, sometimes parallel to periphrastic forms, but always attending to the speaker's specific communicative needs, for example, by marking a higher degree of commitment to the fulfillment of the act, or to the degree of certainty the speaker wants to imprint to the discursive act. We thus completed the purpose of this study, contributing to a better understanding of the phenomenon and of the sociolinguistic configuration of PB.