ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the reduction of the preposition para (to, for) to pra in Brazilian Portuguese. Sequences of (previous word + para or pra) selected from a corpus of spoken language were statistically analyzed to understand which factors could be playing a role in this reduction. A statistical analysis of the 30 most frequent sequences of (previous word + para or pra) was carried out to identify the factors that seem to influence this reduction. The concepts of string frequency (Krug 1998Krug, M. (1998). String frequency: a cognitive motivation factor in coalescence, language processing, and linguistic change. Journal of English Linguistics, 26(4), 286-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/007542429802600402
https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424298026004... , 2003Krug, M. (2003). Frequency as a determinant in grammatical variation and change. In G. Rohdenburg, & B. Mondorf (Eds.), Determinants of Grammatical Variation (pp. 7-67). Berlin. , Bush 2001Bush, N. (2001). Frequency effects and word-boundary palatalization. In J. Bybee, & P. Hopper (Eds.). Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure (pp. 255-80). John Benjamins Publishing Company. ), relative frequency (Torres Cacoullos 2006Torres Cacoullos, Rena. (2006). Relative frequency in the grammaticization of collocations: nominal to concessive a pesar de. In T.L. Face, & C.A. Klee (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 37-49), Cascadilla Proceedings Project. https://www.lingref.com/cpp/hls/8/paper1253.pdf (acessado 15 de dezembro, 2021).
https://www.lingref.com/cpp/hls/8/paper1... ), and token frequency (Bybee 2002aBybee, J. (2002a) Mechanisms of change in grammaticization: the role of frequency. In R. Janda, & J. Brian (Eds). Handbook of historical linguistics (pp. 602-623). Blackwell., 2002bBybee, J. (2002b). Phonological evidence for exemplar storage of multiword sequences. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24(2), 215-221. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263102002061
https://doi.org/10.1017/S027226310200206... , 2006Bybee, J. (2006). From usage to grammar: the mind’s response to repetition. Language, 82(4), 529-551. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4490266
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4490266... ) were adopted to verify whether frequency of usage in any of these forms would influence the reduction. Results show that relative frequency favors the reduction of para to pra, alongside word class, number of syllables, and stressed syllable. Based on this analysis, the lexical storage of multiword sequences is discussed, along with its effects for processes of linguistic variation and change.

Keywords:
chunking; lexical storage; multiword sequences; phonetic reduction; frequency effects