ESSE versus ESTE in Brazilian movies: substitution or specialization?

• Main Author: Hélcius Batista Pereira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2013-02-01
• Series: Filologia e Linguística Portuguesa
• Subjects: Linguistic changes; variation; demonstrative pronouns; specialization of forms; replacement of forms
• Online Access: http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/view/76195

This study aims at contributing to the discussion on the uses of demonstrative pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese. For this end, samples of Brazilian films were analyzed. It was found that in the endophoric uses and in the spatial exophoric uses there is a tendency to substitute “este” with “esse”. Based on these results, it was found that Marine thesis (2004) which defends that “Brazilian Portuguese” has a binary paradigm, in which “esse” has become specialized in endophoric uses and “este” has become specialized in exophoric uses is not correct.