As denominações para ‘prostituta’ no interior do Nordeste – análise de dados do Projeto ALiB

Abstract

This study follows the perspective of Dialectology and Sociolinguistics, focusing on the analysis of simple and complex lexis to name the ‘prostitute’, based on oral data documented and made available by the Linguistic Atlas of Brazil Project (ALiB). The selection criterion for the data analyzed was the geolinguistic nature, delimiting the study of the spoken language to the territory corresponding to the interior of the Northeast Region, since the data for the capitals are already included in volumes 2 and 3 of the ALiB (Cardoso et al., 2014b; Mota; Ribeiro; Oliveira, 2023). The procedures for data analysis were defined based on the questions of the problematic that guide this research: identification of spatial variation, possible dialectal subareas and possible diagenerational and diasexual variation. The research is based on the theoretical-methodological assumptions of Guérios (1956), Labov (2008 [1972]), Ferreira and Cardoso (1994), Biderman (1996, 2001), Cardoso (1999, 2010), Monteiro (2000), Mota (2000, 2012, 2021), Calvet (2002), Welker (2004), Silva (2012), Thun (2017), among others. The data under analysis attested to the close relationship between language, culture and society, as they reveal cultural aspects of the speech community, the results indicate that there is a diversity of lexicons used within the northeastern geographic context, based on euphemisms and dysphemisms. And that there is more diagenerational than diasexual and diatopic variation, with the use of the simple expressions “prostitute” and “girl” prevailing beside the complex forms with the base “mulher […]” throughout the region.