“Here, we do not talk like this not"

evaluative perceptions about double negation in Portuguese spoken in Maranhão

Abstract

Anchored in the theoretical-methodological precepts of Sociolinguistics, especially in Lambertian studies on Linguistic Perception, this article aims to investigate the evaluative perceptions of informants from Maranhão about the use of double negation in the Portuguese spoken in the area. To this end, we applied a Perception Test to 24 informants, sixteen from São Luís, capital of the state, and eight from Jamary dos Pretos, a quilombola community in Maranhão, stratified according to sex - man and woman -, age group - range I, 20 to 40 years old, and range II, 55 years old or more – and education level – grade I, elementary level, and grade II, graduated level. Based on these tests, 36 beliefs about the use of double negation in BP were identified, four of which were addressed in this article. These beliefs show that, although the double denial is recurrent in speaking of Maranhão, the participants of the research demonstrate a negative attitude towards the use of the structure, in addition to, in general, not recognizing themselves as its users.