Variação linguística em codas silábicas: o apagamento do /R/ e a hipercorreção na escrita dos alunos de 6º ano

Abstract

This Master's dissertation aims to analyze the linguistic and social variables that condition the deletion of /r/ and the hypercorrection in post-vocalic position in the written activities of 6th grade students at a public school in Pedro Velho/RN, in order to acquire spelling and conventional writing skills in accordance to language standards. To this end, it identifies linguistic and extralinguistic contexts that favor these phenomena, describes them from the perspective of Variational Sociolinguistics, and proposes educational activities that minimize their effects on student writing. The theoretical references include studies in Phonetics and Phonology, Educational Sociolinguistics, and Variational Sociolinguistics, relying on authors such as Cardoso (2009), Pedrosa (2012), Bisol (2013), Roberto (2016), Seara et al. (2022), Bortoni-Ricardo (2004, 2005), and Labov (1963, 1966, 1972), as well as further contributions from Tarallo (1986), Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog (1968), Monaretto (2000), Bagno (2012), Callou (2015), Freire and Oliveira (2019), and Coelho et al. (2023). The research adopted a quantitative approach and action research methodology, combined with bibliographic research, educational workshops, as well as initial and final diagnostic assessments. Furthermore, data was collected using two types of dictation —one with 80 words to investigate the deletion variable and another with 20 sentences for hypercorrection— encoding 100 words that were stratified by linguistic variables (morphological class, vocabulary size, syllable coda, preceding context, and final syllable stress) and social variables (gender, level of education, and age group) and submitted to the Goldvarb X program to obtain the variable rule. The results show a significant reduction of the phenomena: in the initial assessment, the deletion of /r/ reached a 98.8% rate and the hypercorrection rate reached 100%, while in the final assessment, the rates fell to 46.2% and 30%, respectively, as a result of the educational interventions. In conclusion, the proposed activities were effective in promoting correct spelling and reducing variable patterns related to the deletion of the rhotic in syllable codas and the hypercorrection in the final position of words belonging to the verb class.