ADDRESSMENT FORMS OF SECOND PERSON SINGULAR IN LETTERS OF SERIDÓ POTIGUAR
second-person singular pronouns; personal letters; sociolinguistics; power and solidarity
Based on variationist sociolinguistics, I analyze the variation between pronouns TU, VOCÊ and O SENHOR/A SENHORA in the expression of second person singular in the subject role. I make use of data from personal letters written between 1941 and 1944 by four individuals from Seridó, Rio Grande do Norte (RN), in Northeastern Brazil. I take into consideration two social factors, sex and age, and two stylistic factors, topic and text type. The analysis is based on Brown and Gilman's (1960) proposal that the selection of addressing forms is conditioned by relations of power and solidarity between interlocutors. In this version of the reserach for qualification, I present the initial analysis of the factor topic.