Neologia lexical: um estudo da fala e da vida de bilíngües português-fala dialetal italiana (RCI-RS)

Abstract

The present study explores the relation between lexis and culture through the analysis of neologisms by borrowing (Haugen, 1972; Guilbert, 1975) in lexical fields. The neologisms are verified in Portuguese in the speech of Italian descendants who live in a rural area of Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil. The data were collected from 24 sociolinguistic interviews of the BDSer corpus (UCS - DELE - Mestrado em Letras e Cultura Regional). The 42 units which were analyzed are borrowings from Italian dialects still spoken in the area. To establish the relation between cultural practices and lexical innovation, the data are structured in lexical fields which are, in turn, integrated in a network format, according to Biderman (1981). The research implied an ethnographical study in order to make possible the identification of social practices associated to the use of the units, justifying, thus, the organization of the lexical fields. The data were divided into two semantic networks which represent the basic cultural equipment of Bevilácqua, one of the studied communities.