The concepts of language in general, language, rule, and law in the Grammatica portugueza, by Júlio Ribeiro

• Autor(a) principal: Prete, Mairus
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Domínios de Lingu@gem
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/dominiosdelinguagem/article/view/62019
• topic: História das ideias linguísticas; Júlio Ribeiro; Grammatica portugueza; Teorias linguísticas; Século XIX; History of linguistic ideas; Júlio Ribeiro; Grammatica portugueza; Linguistic theories; XIX century

The Grammatica Portugueza, by Júlio Ribeiro, has been a recurrent object of analysis in the work of several researchers who deal with the history of Brazilian grammaticography. This article aims to investigate how the concepts of language in general, language, rule, and laws are established by the referred grammarian in the second edition of his work, published in 1885. The specific objective of the investigation is to verify that the establishment of these four concepts occurs through different theoretical assumptions that cooperate with each other, catalyzed by the instrumental purpose that the grammarian assigns to his work. With the investigations, we found that integrating different theoretical assumptions characterizes the establishment of these concepts, as we assumed. We proved that the concept of language in general assumes the good expression of thought, in a way that pleases others, and the concept of rule encompasses the necessary goals for this good expression of thought. We also note that the concept of language assumes that it works in the same way as organic species, because they undergo selection and struggle for survival, and are governed by laws that can be described by comparing different states of the language. We conclude, finally, that the Grammatica Portugueza has a purpose to take to its readers, in a systematized way, the rules that systematize the good use of language in general, noticed in educated people endowed with the ability to make this good use, and the laws that govern the evolutionary functioning of the Portuguese language, learned in the comparison between different states of the language.