Efeitos da palatização das oclusivas alveolares do português brasileiro no percurso de construção do inglês língua estrangeira

Abstract

This study had as its main objective to reflect upon alveolar stop palatalization /t, d/ → [tʃ, dʒ] phenomenon, characteristic of many Brazilian Portuguese (BP) dialects, in the construction of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) phonology. Grounded on the ideas proposed by Usage-Based Phonology (BYBEE, 2001), Exemplar Models (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001), as well as on the view of language as a Complex Adaptive System (LARSEN-FREEMAN; CAMERON, 2008), the basic hypothesis stated Brazilian EFL learners follow different construction pathways of the EFL phonology, depending on their regional dialect. This was an experimental research, following both a cross-sectional and longitudinal design. It had two research fields, Fortaleza-CE and Mossoró-RN, which differed on their BP dialect, the former a palatalizing dialect and the latter a non-palatalizing one. Subjects were also controlled by sex and EFL proficiency level. Lexical items which were susceptible to palatalization in both BP and EFL were selected, aiming to control token frequency, phonotactics and syllable stress. 5 experiments were used to collect data. For BP, P1 involved a picture-induced conversation, while P2 used a carrier-sentence reading procedure. For EFL, I1 involved the repetition of distorted audio tokens associated to pictures, I2 used a carrier-sentence reading procedure and I3 focused on a memory game. BP cross-sectional results relating to the emergence of palatalization in both regions emphasized non-categorical realization of the phenomenon: palatalized tokens were observed in RN and non-palatalized ones were found in CE. EFL cross-sectional data analysis indicated: a) the variable origin as an important factor of bigger or smaller palatalization emergence, as CE learners consistently tended to higher palatalization levels; b) the alveolar stop voicing pattern, as voiceless sounds tended to palatalize more frequently; c) the individual, as subjects from the same area and proficiency level realized the phenomenon with different patterns; d) the word, as lexical items with the same phonotactic structure allowed higher or smaller palatalization emergence; and e)phonotactic structure, as a few words allowed similar palatalization emergence in both study regions. Some variables were not so relevant for the emergence of the phenomenon, like sex, proficiency level and syllable stress. Finally, token frequency was not relevant at all in the EFL cross-sectional data. As regards longitudinal results, it was observed RN subjects tended to a low Palatalization Index (PI) as longitudinal data collection took place. CE subjects had distinct behavior. FM1 had great variation on his PI, with higher PI values than RN informants. FM3 had a relatively stable PI realization, with the highest palatalization level. Longitudinal data reinforced the value of variables such as the origin, the individual and the word on the emergence of EFL palatalization of Brazilian learners. Additionally, significant PI reduction during longitudinal data collection was not observed. Having these evidences in mind, it was concluded Brazilian learners follow through different EFL phonology construction pathways, depending on their regional dialect.