Microanalysis of Rio Grande do Norte Official Letters

Abstract

Between variation and change, as we know, not just language, but the texts, with their structures, also undergo changes over time. This article aims to analyze textual changes observed in letters of the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries. These documents are part of the corpus called “Rio Grande do Norte official letters” connected to the regional project History of Brazilian Portuguese in Rio Grande do Norte (PHPB-RN) and the national one: History of Brazilian Portuguese (PHPB). We do a microanalysis on these letters, set up on the ideas of coserian base came from the studies on discursive traditions (KOCH, 1997; KABATEK, 2006) amongst which that the texts are shaped so as to follow their own tradition (COSERIU, 2007). Firstly, we focalize on the genre “letter” and its macroscrutcture; afterwards, on the microstructure clausula (conclusion). Throughout our study, we noticed textual dynamics present in the analyzed letters significantly reflected processes of change in social dynamics.