The Notion of Literacy in Sociolinguistic Theory and in Studies of Phonological Variation in Brazilian Portuguese: Contributions to the Discussion of Literacy and Education in Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Battisti, Elisa
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista da ANPOLL (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistadaanpoll.emnuvens.com.br/revista/article/view/1301
• topic: Literacy; Sociolinguistics; Phonological Variation; Letramento; Sociolinguística; Variação Fonológica

This paper aims to discuss the use of the notion of literacy in different proposals of sociolinguistic analysis and in studies of phonological variation in Brazilian Portuguese.  It adopts methodological procedures of bibliographic research (ECO, 2002 [1977]) and follows the notion of literacy by Kleiman (1995) as well as labovian sociolinguistic theories (LABOV, 1972) to select and critically appreciate the proposals of  Kroch (1978), Finegan and Biber (2001), Milroy (2001), Preston (2001), Irvine (2001), Eckert (2004, 2012), Coupland (2007) and the studies of Vieira (2002) and Link (2018), among others. The study shows that literacy explains the linguistic conservatism of groups of higher social status in their lower proportions of application of processes occurring below the level of social consciousness. Literacy also defines a certain type of register that may be subject to variation and gives rise to certain personae. Education, like literacy, plays a role in the frequency and diffusion of linguistic variables and influences the valuation of variable forms used in stylistic practices and in the construction of social identities.