“Maria eu observei nas palavras que mandastes dizer na carta que tu ainda duvidas do meu amor, mas você não tem razão de assim se expressar”: a variação dos pronomes pessoais Tu e Você em cartas de amor rurais do sertão pernambucano

Abstract

This work aims to present the results of research on the variation of the use of TU ~ VOCÊ in the syntactic position of subject in letters of love produced in the 50s and 70s by two nonillustrious couples from a rural community of the semiarid of the Pernambuco State. In order to analyze the alternation of the treatment forms, we consider the theoretical-methodological contribution of Historical and Variationist Sociolinguistics, aiming to verify the performance of the following factors: category of fulfillment of the filled and unfilled subject and the agreement paradigm between the syntactic elements Subject -Verb (SV). In the quantitative analysis, we were able to indicate: the productivity of the treatment form VOCÊ/TU (LOPES AND CAVALCANTE, 2011), used as a strategy of referring the second person of the discourse. We also identified the preference of executing the pronoun VOCÊ in a filled category, in the two decades observed, some peculiarities in the use of the traditional pronoun TU and the gradual increase of use of the innovative form (VOCÊ) over the years. Considering the agreement paradigm, we can see that, in the remaining documentation for the analyzed period, signs of the current subsystem of treatment used in the state of Pernambuco have been already present: TU/VOCÊ use with average agreement level (SCHERRE et al., 2009; 2015 and 2018).