AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF GRAMMAR IN PORTUGUESE

Abstract

Guided by the concept of linguistic norm and its manifestations (COSERIU, 1962; ALÉONG, 2011), we turn to the study of the process of grammatical production of the Portuguese language in order to identify the grammatical instruments of that language, their behavior and textual and extratextual characteristics. To do so, we used the online collection of libraries from university centers in Brazil, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique, composing a corpus of 161 grammars. Among others, it was possible to observe that, despite the beginning of grammar production taking place in Portugal and being restricted to the country until the beginning of the 19th century, Brazil has been the main producer of grammars since the 19th century. However, African countries still seem to be on the sidelines today in the grammatical production of the Portuguese language. The low representativeness of female authorship and the low expressiveness of a descriptive approach in school grammar were other data that helped us to reflect on the standardization of the Portuguese language and future paths for grammatical studies. This and other information shows that, in addition to sketching the paths of Portuguese grammar, this study opens doors for future approaches that allow us to understand even more how the Portuguese standardization process took place and what demands are currently in force.