Inclusive language and linguistic change in apparent time: a Sociolinguistic analysis in the city of Imperatriz/MA

• Autor(a) principal: Nascimento, Thaline Ferreira do
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Silva, Maria da Guia Taveiro
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.uem.br/ojs/index.php/ActaSciLangCult/article/view/69738
• topic: linguistic change in apparent time; linguistic attitude; non-binary language.; mudança linguística em tempo aparente; atitude linguística; linguagem não-binária.

The topic of gender diversity has been increasingly discussed, and the demand for non-binary language has become more common in linguistic research. Although some of the studies found have focused on a political stance regarding the use of non-binary language (Lau & Sanches; 2019; Fiorin, 2022), our research interest stems from the willingness to investigate the linguistic attitude (Coan & Freitag, 2011; Rodrigues, 2012; Freitag & Santos, 2016) of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) residing in the second largest city in the state of Maranhão and a possible linguistic change in apparent time. In light of this, the following research problem arises: how do speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) act regarding the use of non-binary language in the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão, and how might this be related to possible linguistic changes in apparent time? Thus, the present research aims to investigate the linguistic attitudes of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) from the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão, regarding the use of non-binary language, also known as inclusive language, considering a possible linguistic change in apparent time related to the use of this language. The methodological approach is quantitative-qualitative and descriptive, as referenced by Gil (2002) and Creswell (2010). It involves a sociolinguistic data survey, as we resort to direct questioning of individuals whose behavior or linguistic attitude we wish to understand (Gil, 2002). The main results indicate that only 38.30% of the informants accept the linguistic form of the word ‘coisinho’, which is given as an example of a word that does not vary according to prescriptive norms. Furthermore, only 34.04% of the informants accept the linguistic form ‘todes’. Considering the relatively low percentage of acceptance of these linguistic forms, we can conclude that there is still no ongoing linguistic change related to the use of non-binary language in the community of speakers in the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão.