Uma abordagem unificada da variação do plural de nomes do PB

Abstract

: This article addresses the consequences of sound change in different Brazilian Portuguese plural pattern with regard to the variation between plural forms related to the loss of phonological distinction between singular wordforms that present distinct expected plural forms from an etymological point of view. It is argued that the alternations observed for the same lexical item can be explained through the same cognitive mechanisms and by aspects of linguistic usage according to the usage-based Models approach (Bybee, 1988, 1995, 2010). Alternations in the following morphological paradigms are addressed: a) words ending in ão with expected etymological plural irregular, guardiães ~guardiões, and expected regular, cidadãos ~ cidadões; b) words ending in the Vw diphthong with expected irregular plural, vogais ~ voga[w]s, and twords with expected regular plural, degraus ~ degrais. To achieve the objective, studies carried out with children and adults speaking from the varieties spoken in Belo Horizonte e Rio de Janeiro (Cristófaro-Silva; Gomes; Huback; Oliveira, 2005; Huback, 2007, Gomes; Gonçalves, 2010; Severino, 2013; Gomes et al., 2021; Oliveira, Cristofaro-Silva, Gomes, 2022).