Pronominal constructions: comparing Bolivian and Brazilian students’s written producction

Abstract

This article builds upon the results of comparative studies between Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese conducted from different theoretical references, all of which focus on how languages work. Our research presents a comparative study of the written textual productions of Bolivian students and of Brazilian students. We work with one sample that had the participation of 100 informants who produced 200 texts in total. All the students come from São Paulo city public schools and are enrolled either in elementary school or high school. The question asked during the research has sought to answer this inquiry: What are the constructions in variation in Brazilian Portuguese in which we can find tendencies which differentiate, in writing, Bolivian students or children of Bolivian immigrants from Brazilian students who have no contact with the Spanish language at home? In the analyses we have conducted we have deemed significant the pronominal constructions in which the clitics are neither direct nor in direct objects. Among these constructions, two modalities have presented disparities between the two groups: (i) the quantitative difference in the occurrence of the clitic “se”; and (ii) the difference of the frequency of the occurrences for 2 verbs in their pronominal uses: “perder-se” and “sentir-se”.