O USO DE VOCÊ INDETERMINADOR DE SUJEITO – UMA ÓTICA DA GRAMATICALIZAÇÃO E VARIAÇÃO LINGUÍSTICA

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this paper, we introduce the pronoun you normatively registered as a pronoun referring to the second person, used as an indeterminating subject pronoun. There are studies performed on this phenomenon, with an analytical focus on oral records; but when it comes to linguistic variation, there is a certain stigma, since the approach occurs largely in the treatment of mostly informal registers. By this paper, through this analysis, we’ll prove that linguistic variation is a common phenomenon in the language from the perspective of grammaticalization based on Cazario, Martelotta and Votre, and we’ll show that the use of you indeterminator of subject is also common in formal writing. To do so, we’ll present the analysis of a lecture about literature transmitted by TV Cultura, in the sunday program Café Filosófico, where, commonly, the speech record is formal. Under the paradigm of grammaticalization, we’ll indicate the linguistic changes that contribute to the historical path of you and the causes that led you to use as subject indeterminator. In the lecture, we found 34 occurrences of you, and in 21 of these the speaker uses the pronoun to indeterminate the subject (including listeners, viewers and readers in general). Analyzes of these occurrences lead us to conclude that you can be used in the second person of singular and third person of singular or plural to indeterminate the subject. However, this use also occurs in the sense of us, in other words, indetermine a group subject that includes, even, the speaker himself.

KEYWORDS: You, Grammaticalization, Lecture