The Brazilian language issue and the appearance of Gladstone Chaves de Μelo

Abstract

The aim of this work, inserted in the field of Linguistic Historiography, is to relate the Brazilian language issue to the historical-epistemological context in which Gladstone Chaves de Melo initiated his metalinguistic production. The theoretical part of this article is based on retrospective horizon as established by Auroux (2006) and, whenever the material on focus allows, the discursive formation as proposed by Foucault (1969) is also approached. The research comes to the conclusion that Chaves de Μelo joined the prevailing climate of opinion in his time and he opposed the idea of “Brazilian language”. It is the conclusion of this work that Μelo was dedicated to preserving the linguistic ties between Brasil and Portugal, because he saw these links as exemplary norm.         

Full-text of the article is available for this locale: Português (Brasil).