Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton September 4, 2018

The politeness of você in European Portuguese

  • Víctor Lara EMAIL logo and Ana Guilherme

Abstract

The employment of você in current European Portuguese is not clear. Although Brazilian Portuguese has specialised it as an informal pronoun in certain geographical areas within the country, the European variety presents its use in contexts which seem to be contradictory: informal address, formal address and pejorative address. Due to the lack of an in-depth study on the evolution of this form, we have collected data from three different corpora that reflect the real usage of você throughout the twentieth century, since it is from the nineteenth century that você started specialising as an informal pronoun. The results show a decreasing use of this pronoun and a certain degree of polyvalence due to a gradual marginalisation experienced for over one hundred years. As a consequence, the strategy of null subject plus 3sg has emerged as the unmarked politeness strategy in current European Portuguese.

References

Aalberse, Suzanne & Wessel Stoop. 2015. The exceptional loss of the pronoun T. Journal of Pragmatics 88. 190–201.10.1016/j.pragma.2015.07.003Search in Google Scholar

Abadía de Quant, Inés. 1992. La relación pronominal-verbal de segunda persona singular en el español de Corrientes durante el siglo XIX, su comparación con la situación en Buenos Aires. Revista argentina de lingüística 8. 31–46.Search in Google Scholar

Bechara, Evanildo. 1991. As fases escritas da língua portuguesa. In Dieter Kremer(ed.), Actes du XVIIIe congrès international de linguistique et de philologie romanes, III. 68–76. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.Search in Google Scholar

Benigni, Laura & Elizabeth Bates. 1977. Interazione sociale e linguaggio: Analisi pragmatica dei pronomi allocutivi italiani. In Raffaele Simone & Giulianella Ruggiero(eds.), Aspetti sociolinguistici dell’Italia contemporánea, 141–165. Rome: Bulzoni.Search in Google Scholar

Bertolotti, Virginia & Magdalena Coll. 2003. A synchronical and historical view of the tú/vos option in the Spanish of Montevideo. In Silvina Montrul & Francisco Ordóñez(eds.), Linguistic theory and language development in Hispanic languages, 1–12. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Search in Google Scholar

Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511813085Search in Google Scholar

Brown, Roger & Albert Gilman. 1960. The pronouns of power and solidarity. In Thomas Sebeok(ed.), Style in language, 253–276. Cambridge: MIT.Search in Google Scholar

Carreira, Maria Helena Araújo. 2002. La désignation de l’autre en portugais européen: Instabilités linguistiques et variations discursives. In Maria Helena Araújo Carreira(ed.), Instabilités linguistiques dans les langues romanes, 173–184. Paris: Université Paris 8.Search in Google Scholar

Carreira, Maria Helena Araújo. 2003. Les formes allocutives en portugais européen: évolution, valeurs et fonctionements discursifs. Franco-Bristish Studies 33/34. 35–45.Search in Google Scholar

Carreira, Maria Helena Araújo. 2007. Le pronom d’adresse portugais você : Valeurs et évolution. In Alexandra Cunita, Coman Lupu & Liliane Tasmowski(eds.), Studii lingvistica si filologie romanica: Hommages offerts à Sandra Reinheimer Ripeanu, 15–19. Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti.Search in Google Scholar

Carvalho, Ana Maria. 2010. ¿Eres de la frontera o sos de la capital? Variation and alternation of second person verbal forms in Uruguayan Border Spanish. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 29(1). 1–24.Search in Google Scholar

Châtelain, Émile. 1880. Du pluriel de respect en latin. Revue de Philologie 4. 129–139.Search in Google Scholar

Cintra, Luís Felipe Lindley. 1972. Sobre formas de tratamento na língua portuguesa. Lisbon: Horizonte.Search in Google Scholar

Clements, Clancy, Patrícia Amaral & Ana Luís. 2011. Spanish in contact with Portuguese: The case of Barranquenho. In Manuel Díaz–Campos(ed.), The handbook of Spanish sociolinguistics, 395–417. Malden: Blackwell.10.1002/9781444393446.ch19Search in Google Scholar

Clyne, Michael, Catrin Norrby & Jane Warren. 2009. Language and human relations, styles of address in contemporary language. New York: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511576690Search in Google Scholar

Coimbra, Isabel & Olga Mata Coimbra. 2013. Português sem fronteiras 1. Lisbon: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Coimbra, Olga Mata. 2011. Gramática ativa 1. Lisbon: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Cojocaru, Dana. 2003. Romanian grammar. Bucharest: University of Bucharest.Search in Google Scholar

Cordial–Sin. Corpus Dialectal para o Estudo da Sintaxe / The Syntax-oriented Corpus of Portuguese Dialects. http://www.clul.ul.pt/en/research-teams/212-cordial-sin-syntax-oriented-corpus-of-portuguese-dialects.Search in Google Scholar

Cunha, Celso & Luís Felipe Lindley Cintra. 1992. Nova gramática do português contemporâneo. Lisbon: João Sá de Costa.Search in Google Scholar

De Jonge, Bob & Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen. 2012. Forms of address. In José Ignacio Hualde, Antxon Olarrea & Erin O’Rourke(eds.), The handbook of Hispanic linguistics, 247–262. Malden: Blackwell.10.1002/9781118228098.ch13Search in Google Scholar

De Vogelaer, Gunther. 2006. Actuation, diffusion and universals: Change in the pronominal system in Dutch dialects. Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik LXXIII(3). 259–274.Search in Google Scholar

Dias, Ana Cristina. 2011. Entre nós, método de português para hispanofalantes, níveis A1/A2. Lisbon: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Duarte, Inês. 2010. Formas de tratamento: Item gramatical no ensino de Português Língua Materna. In Ana Maria Brito(ed.), Gramática: História, teoria, aplicações, 133–147. Oporto: Fundação da Universidade do Porto.Search in Google Scholar

Evans, William. 1969. You and thou in Northern England. South Atlantic Bulletin 34(4). 17–21.10.2307/3196963Search in Google Scholar

Faraco, Carlos. 1996. O tratamento você em português: Uma abordagem histórica. Fragmenta 13. 51–82.10.24206/lh.v3i2.17150Search in Google Scholar

Faria, Rita & Freire Nogueira. 2009. O fenómeno da delicadeza linguística em português e em inglês. Lisbon: Faculdade de Ciências Sociais Humanas.Search in Google Scholar

Fernández, Elisabeth. 2012. La oposición vosotros/ustedes en la historia del español peninsular (1700–1931). Granada: Universidad de Granada.Search in Google Scholar

Ferreira Montero, Hélder & Frederico João Pereira Zagalo. 2003. Português para todos 1. Lisbon: Luso-Espanhola de Edições.Search in Google Scholar

FLY. Forgotten Letters (Years 1900-1974). http://cards-fly.clul.ul.pt/.Search in Google Scholar

Fontanella de Weinberg, Beatriz. 1979. La oposición cantes/cantés en el español de Buenos Aires. Thesaurus XXXIV. 72–83.Search in Google Scholar

Fontanella de Weinberg, Beatriz. 1999. Sistemas pronominales de tratamiento usados en el mundo hispánico. In Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte(eds.), Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, 1399–425. Madrid: Espasa.Search in Google Scholar

García, Érica, Bob de Jonge & Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen. 1990. (V)os-(otros): ¿dos y el mismo cambio?. Nueva revista de filología hispánica 37(1). 63–132.10.24201/nrfh.v38i1.774Search in Google Scholar

Gili Gaya, Samuel. 1946. Nos-ótros, vos-otros. Revista de filología española 30. 108–117.Search in Google Scholar

Greenberg, Joseph. 2005. Language universals. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110899771Search in Google Scholar

Hammermüller, Gunther. 2003. Adresser ou eviter, c’est la question. Comment s’adresser quelque’un en portugais sans avoir recours à un pronom ou à une autre forme équivalente. In Coloquio Pronombres de segunda persona y formas de tratamiento en las lenguas de Europa, 1–11. Madrid: Instituto Cervantes.Search in Google Scholar

Hatton, Timothy & Jeffrey Williamson. 1994. What drove the mass migrations from Europe in the late nineteenth century?. Population and Development Review 20(3). 533–559.10.2307/2137600Search in Google Scholar

Head, Bernard. 1978. Respect degrees in pronominal reference. In Joseph Greenberg(ed.), Universals of human language, 151–211. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Heap, David. 2003. Atlas lingüístico de la Península Ibérica (ALPI). http://www.westernlinguistics.ca/alpi/.Search in Google Scholar

Hickey, Raymond. 2003. The German address system: Binary and scalar at once. In Irma Taavitsainen & Andreas Jucker(eds.), Diachronic perspectives on address term systems: Pragmatics and beyond, 401–425. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.107.16hicSearch in Google Scholar

Howe, Stephen. 1996. The personal pronouns in the Germanic languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110819205Search in Google Scholar

Hummel, Martin, Bettina Kluge & María Eugenia Vázquez Laslop. 2010. Formas y fórmulas de tratamiento en el mundo hispánico. Mexico DF: El Colegio de México/Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz.Search in Google Scholar

Johnson, Mary & John Grinstead. 2011. Variation in the voseo and tuteo negative imperatives in Argentine Spanish. Upenn working papers in linguistics 17(2). 99–104.Search in Google Scholar

Jucker, Andreas & Irma Taatvitsainen. 2003. Diachronic perspectives on address term systems. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.107Search in Google Scholar

Koch, Peter & Wolf Oesterreicher. 1990. Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französich, Italienisch, Spanisch. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.10.1515/9783111372914Search in Google Scholar

Kocher, Margaret. 1967. Second person pronouns in Serbo-Croatian. Language 43(3). 725–741.10.2307/411813Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor. 2012. Ustedes instead of vosotros and vocês instead of vós: An analysis through the Linguistic Atlas of the Iberian Peninsula (ALPI). Dialectologia Special Issue 3. 57–93.Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor. 2015. Los tratamientos en Andalucía occidental y Portugal: Estudio geo- y sociolingüístico de un proceso de gramaticalización. Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor. 2016. When agreement is for covert but not for overt: The case of ustedes plus second person inflections in Peninsular Spanish. Isogloss 2(2). 95–111.10.5565/rev/isogloss.23Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor. 2018a. Relaciones de caso y extensión de la concordancia en el español peninsular y el portugués europeo. Revista de Filología Española 98(1). 85–110.10.3989/rfe.2018.04Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor. 2018b. Imperativos y cortesía en las lenguas romances de la Península Ibérica. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 95(1). 1–24.10.3828/bhs.2018.1Search in Google Scholar

Lara, Víctor & Elena Díez del Corral. 2015. Los clíticos de primera persona del plural en las lenguas romances de la Península Ibérica: Una visión dialectal. Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 131(4). 950–977.10.1515/zrp-2015-0069Search in Google Scholar

Lemos, Helena. 2000. Comunicar em português. Lisbon/Oporto: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Lopes, Célia Regina dos Santos. 2003. A inserção de a gente no quadro pronominal do português. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.10.31819/9783865278494Search in Google Scholar

Lopes, Célia Regina dos Santos. 2008. Retratos da variação entre você e tu no português do Brasil: Sincronia e diacronia. In Cláudia Roncarati & Jussara Abraçado(eds.), Português Brasileiro II: Cotato linguístico, heterogeneidade e história, 55–71. Niterói: EUFF.Search in Google Scholar

Lopes, Célia Regina dos Santos & Sílvia Cavalcante. 2011. A cronologia do voceamento no português brasileiro: Expansão de você-sujeito e retenção do clítico-te. Lingüística 25. 30–65.Search in Google Scholar

Loregian, Loremi. 1996. Concordância verbal com o pronome tu na fala do sul do Brasil. Florianápolis: Universidade de Santa Catarina.Search in Google Scholar

Menon, Odete Pereira. 1995. O sistema pronominal do português do Brasil. Letras 44. 91–106.Search in Google Scholar

Menon, Odete Pereira. 2006. A história de você. In Marymarcia Guedes, Rosane de Andrade Berlinck & Clotilde Murakawa(eds.), Teoria e análise lingüísticas: Novas trilhas, 99–160. Araraquara: Cult.Acadêmica.Search in Google Scholar

Modesto, Artarxerxes & Tácito Tiago. 2006. Formas de tratamento no portugués brasileiro: A alternancia tu/você na cidade de Santos. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo.Search in Google Scholar

Navas, María Victoria. 2015. El barranqueño: Un modelo de lenguas en contacto. Revista de Filología Románica 8. 225–246.Search in Google Scholar

Nowikow, Wiaczeslaw. 1994. Sobre la pluralización de personas gramaticales en las lenguas románicas: ‘nos,’ ‘vos’ – ‘nos alteros,’ ‘vos – Alteros.’. Anuario de lingüística hispánica 10. 283–300.Search in Google Scholar

O’Flanagan, Patrick. 2008. Port cities of Atlantic Iberia c. 1500–1900. Aldershot: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar

Oliveira, Carla & Luísa Coelho. 2007. Gramática aplicada do português como língua estrangeira, nível inicial, elementar A1, A2, B1. Lisbon: Texto Editores.Search in Google Scholar

Paulston, Christina. 1984. Pronouns of address in Swedish: Social class semantics and a changing system. In John Baugh & Joel Sherzer(eds.), Language in use: Readings in sociolinguistics, 268–291. New Jersey: Prentince Hall.Search in Google Scholar

Pereira, Sandra. 2003. Gramática comparada de a gente: Variação no Português Europeu. Lisbon: Universidade de Lisboa.Search in Google Scholar

Pike, Ruth. 1972. Aristocrats and traders. Sevillian society in the sixteenth century. Cornell: Cornell University Press.Search in Google Scholar

Raumolin-Brunberg, Helena. 2005. The diffusion of subject you: A case study in historical sociolinguistics. Language variation and change 17. 55–73.10.1017/S0954394505050039Search in Google Scholar

Rini, Joel. 1999. The rise and fall of Old Spanish ‘y’all: Vos todos vs. vos otros. In Paul Lloyd, Diana Ranson & Roger Wright(eds.), Essays in Hispanic linguistics dedicated to Paul M. Lloyd, 209–221. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta.Search in Google Scholar

Rosa, Leonel Melo. 2006. Vamos lá começar, nível elementar. Lisbon: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Rumeu, Márcia Cristina de Brito. 2012. A inserção do você no português brasileiro oitocentista e novecentista: Reflexos de uma mudança lingüística socialmente encaixada. Lingüística 28. 147–190.Search in Google Scholar

Sanchís Guarner, Manuel, Lorenzo Rodríguez Castellano, Aníbal Otero & Luís F. Lindley Cintra. 1962. El Atlas lingüístico de la Península Ibérica (ALPI). Trabajos, problemas y métodos. In Actas del IX Congreso Internacional de Lingüística Románica (Universidade de Lisboa (31st March – 4th April 1959), Boletim de Filologia, 113–120. Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Filológicos.Search in Google Scholar

Scherre, Maria Marta Pereira, Edilene Patrícia Dias, Carolina Queiroz Andrade, Nívia Naves Garcia Lucca & Adriana Lília Vidigal Soares de Andrade. 2012. Tu, você, cê e ocê na variedade brasiliense. Papia 21. 117–134.Search in Google Scholar

Scollon, Ron & Suzanne Scollon. 2001. Intercultural communication, A discourse approach. Malden: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar

Siewierska, Anna. 2004. Person. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511812729Search in Google Scholar

Silva, Vera & Lúcia Paredes. 1998. Variação e funcionalidade no uso de pronomes de segunda pessoa do singular no portugués carioca. Revista de Estudos da Linguagem 7(2). 121–138.10.17851/2237-2083.7.2.121-138Search in Google Scholar

Spitzer, Leo. 1947. Vosotros. Revista de Filología Española 31. 170–175.Search in Google Scholar

Tavares, Ana. 2011. Português XXI, nível 1. Lisbon / Oporto: Lidel.Search in Google Scholar

Teyssier, Paul. 1989. Manual de Língua Portuguesa (Portugal–Brasil). Coimbra: Coimbra Editora.Search in Google Scholar

Tuten, Donald. 2008. Factores socioculturales en el desarrollo de vuestra merced/usted. In Concepción Company & José Moreno de Alba(eds.), Actas del VII Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española, 2189–2199. Madrid: Arco Libros.Search in Google Scholar

Vázquez, Pilar & Maria Albertina Mendes da Luz. 1971. Gramática portuguesa. Madrid: Gredos.Search in Google Scholar

Watts, Richard. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511615184Search in Google Scholar

Zilles, Ana Maria. 2005. The development of a new pronoun: The linguistic and social embedding of a gente in Brazilian Portuguese. Language Variation and Change 17. 19–53.10.1017/S0954394505050027Search in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2018-09-04
Published in Print: 2018-09-25

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Downloaded on 24.3.2023 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/shll-2018-0012/html
Scroll Up Arrow