Anterioridade a um ponto de referência passado: pretérito (mais-que-) perfeito

Abstract

This research aims at dealing with anteriority to a past reference point, codified, in Portuguese, as “pretérito mais-que-perfeito composto” (pluperfect) and “pretérito perfeito anterior” (simple past) verb forms, using data from “Projeto VARSUL” (Variação Lingüística Urbana na Região Sul). Through the discussion of tense, aspect and reference point, some restrictions are established in order to define the variation context and allow the identification of verb forms as those variants which carry the same representational meaning. In so doing, this research is inserted in Linguistic Functionalism and Sociolinguistic Analysis. The results have characterized the phenomenon in question as a complex functional domain, influenced by motivations of a different nature: i) semantic ones (such as dynamicity and duration of temporal situation), ii) structural-semantic ones (such as causality and time), and iii) structural ones (such as formal parallelism). On the other hand, the phenomenon shows sensitivity to age, pointing to a possible linguistic change in progress.