Aumento intenso no uso do conector daí em Florianópolis: mudança por difusão?

Abstract

Under the light of comparative variationist sociolinguistics, I take the connectors e, aí and então as variants of the discursive variable named “retroactive propeller sequenciation of information”, which is responsible for establishing a continuity and consonance cohesive link between utterances. I aim to reanalyze the distribution of connector daí regarding sex and age observed in Tavares (2003), correlating these factors in search for a more adequate explanation for the distribution patterns obtained. The data were draw from 48 sociolinguistic interviews from the VARSUL Data Base/Florianópolis (SC). These interviews were carried out with informants of both sexes and four age groups: 9 to 12 years old; 15 to 21 years old; 25 to 50 years old; more than 50 years old. The results show a vigorous shift in that the connector daí is frequent among preadolescents of both sexes and adolescent girls, but it is very rare among adolescent boys and among female and males over 25 years old. Such distributional patterns suggest change trough diffusion. This type of change occurs when speakers of different languages or dialects come in contact with each other. The adolescent girls were the first group to advance the usage of daí, so they can be considered leaders of the diffusion process.