I'd like to think I'd start by studying the cultures, the people of Brazil and Portugal, to do a linguistic study on the differences between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. I'd track their histories, get personal accounts, measure the dialects.
I'd want to know if cultural customs, how they treat time, and formality affected their languages. I'd also want to measure at what points in the dialects do their languages become confusing to speakers of the opposite tongue. I'd need to spend significant time in Brazil and Portugal to get good first hand experience and evidence of tidbits in their languages.
There are so many aspects I'd want to study it's hard to pinpoint where exactly to start. Drawing from this class, I'd like to focus on syntax as I've discovered the placement of pronouns varies in European vs Brazilian Portuguese. (Per my presentation, after and before verb, respectively). What caused this difference? Focusing on contextual differences could be helpful too: does context affect dialect?
This theoretical, deep-dive study would be so awesome in learning the history of the Portuguese language!
Replies
Hi Libby, I think your hypothetical research idea is really compelling. It was fascinating to listen to you talk about this in your final presentation too. And its great that you were able to connect culture, history, and syntax rather than just listing differences. Focusing on pronoun placement and when mutual intelligibility starts to break down sounds like an interesting research angle that could definetly create very meaningful sociolinguistic insights.