Expressão do modo subjuntivo em cartas publicadas em jornais maranhenses dos séculos XIX e XX: um estudo de variação à luz da sociolinguística histórica

Abstract

This study aims to investigate, from a historical perspective, data on variations in the morphology of the subjunctive and indicative moods in personal letters and open letters published in newspapers in Maranhão, written between the 19th and 20th centuries. Specifically, it seeks to verify whether the indicative mood is used in contexts where the subjunctive mood is expected, if not prescribed by traditional grammars, with both forms being able to express the same semantic features. This study is justified from the point of view that the subjunctive, and the possibility of variation with the morphology of the indicative, is the subject of study (especially in its spoken form) in various regions of the country, but has been little observed based on data analysis in the historical context of Maranhão. To this end, we use the theory of Linguistic Variation and Change (Labov, 2008[1972]), especially the branch known as Historical Sociolinguistics (Romaine, 2009[1982]; Mattos e Silva, 2004; 2008; Hernández-Campoy and Conde Silvestre, 2012). The data analyzed were extracted according to the original spelling of texts written in the 19th and 20th centuries, made available at the Benedito Leite Public Library, then transcribed into an Excel spreadsheet, and statistically analyzed using the R program (R Core Team, 2025). The groups of linguistic factors, whose analysis is based on those already controlled in research of this nature, such as substantive subordinate clauses (classification of the clause, tense of the main clause, tense of the subordinate clause, semantic load of the verb in the main clause), adjectival clauses (classification of the clause, distance from the relative pronoun and the verbal form, animacy of the antecedent) and adverbial clauses (clause classification, type of subordinator), and among the extralinguistic factors, the year, decade, and century of publication of each cataloged document were verified. The results indicate that the subjunctive is productive in noun and adverbial clauses; however, it does not appear to be specialized for adjective clauses. Thus, regarding the intersection of subjunctive morphology across the three types of subordinate clauses, the subjunctive is maintained in contexts prescribed by normative grammar, correlating with certain types of subordinate clauses, certain types of verbs, and certain types of subordinating conjunctions. As for the genres analyzed, the overall results indicate that the subjunctive is not favored in the two letters analyzed.