Grammar forms in the Renaissance period: perception and a linguistic diversity approach in Fernão de Oliveira

Abstract

Taking as a parameter linguistic historiography methodologies (as the relationship between ‘climate of opinion’ and language production), the article reconstructs and interprets approaches to linguistic variation, perceived and discussed by Fernão de Oliveira, in the first grammar of Portuguese (1536). In search of building a linguistic identity, the pioneer grammarian sought, in the peculiar characteristics of the language, basis for the affirmation and elevation of the national character of the Portuguese people. With these in mind, this case study aims to locate Oliveira´s study in a grammatical tradition typical of the sixteenth century Renaissance period.