A functional analysis of indeterminate Subject in Popular Portuguese spoken in São Paulo

Abstract

Using the theoretical and methodological tools of Functional Linguistics, this paper presents a quantitative analysis of pronominal and verbal forms expressing subject indeterminacy in Popular Portuguese spoken in São Paulo. Data consist of 23 interviews which are part of the Popular Portuguese Project in São Paulo. This data correspond to recordings of speeches of adults illiterate or that have only few years of schooling, immigrants as well as people who were born in São Paulo, who live in slams located in the capital. The analysis demonstrates that (i) there are many forms that express subject indeterminacy in Popular Portuguese; (ii) considering that indeterminacy is a matter of degree, there are forms that are more indeterminate than others which are accompanied by referential clues in text or context; (iii) these forms can have different functions according to the context in which they appear; (iv) they can refer from one to three grammatical persons when they reach a high degree of generalization.