The Portuguese NP a gente, meaning "the people," is undergoing grammaticalization and is acquiring characteristics of a personal pronoun, increasingly replacing first-person plural nós, meaning "we," in speech. In Brazilian Portuguese, this process seems to be correlated with a number of other ongoing morphosyntactic changes. In this study I compare data from Southern Brazil on the use of a gente in the 1970s and the 1990s. Quantitative analyses are conducted in terms of two methodological approaches: apparent-time and real-time studies. In the real-time analysis, two kinds of studies are discussed: a trend study, with two comparable groups of speakers, and a panel study, with the same speakers compared longitudinally. The linguistic and social embedding of this process is discussed in terms of the Labovian classification of changes as being "from above" or "from below." The term grammaticalization was apparently used for the first time in 1912, by Meillet, who defined it as "the attribution of a grammatical character to a previously autonomous word" (Meillet, 1912:131). Nevertheless, grammaticalization as an area of investigation started to develop only in the 1970s and 1980s. Grammaticalization studies were predominantly diachronic at first, but soon expanded to include synchronic and typological investigations (Diewald & Wischer, 2002:ix). Nowadays, the term is used to refer to a process of interrelated changes, as well as "to the degree of grammatical function a linguistic item has on a scale between purely lexical and purely grammatical meaning" (Diewald & Wischer, 2002:ix). Until recently, investigators were mainly concerned with conceptual and methodological issues or with the description of grammaticalization phenomena in single linguistic items, but now there is an increasing interest in understanding I am very grateful to Gregory R.

This is part of a project about several related morphosyntactic changesin Brazilian Portuguese using data from VARSUL data base. Two cities in RS areconsidered: Porto Alegre, the capital, and Panambi, a bilingual community. Thesample included 32 interviews stratified according to sex, age, and level of formaleducation. The variable investigated is verbal marking with first person pluralsubjects. The variants are: standard agreement (-mos ending) and twononstandard forms: zero and /s/ deleted -mo inflections. Supposing two differentvariable rules, we made three separate Varbrul analyses: a)contrasting the threevariants; b) contrasting zero inflection with both -mos and -mo endings takentogether; and c)contrasting only -mos and -mo endings. The distribution of thevariants was: 53% of standard tokens, 34% of -mo endings and only 13% of zeroinflection. Results showed different factor groups associated with zero inflectionand nonstandard -mo inflection, supporting the idea of having two separatevariable rules. The level of formal education turned out to be the only significantfactor group in common for both nonstandard forms. It was also highlighted in thethree-way comparison. Zero inflection was favoured only when the target wordhad antepenultimate stress, suggesting avoidance of this stress pattern. Thebilingual community had an effect only on zero inflection.

This paper contributes to recent work examining the role of identity, and in particular the uses of language for self‐presentation and the expression of individual identity, through the analysis of two sociolinguistic interviews from a community of German origin in southern Brazil. Drawing from a quantitative study of variation in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, we conducted a detailed analysis of the interviews of two women of different ages and social backgrounds. We first describe the social, cultural and historical context of the interviews, and then discuss how our two speakers use their linguistic resources to express varied, and at times conflicting, aspects of their identities. More specifically, we show how our participants seem to maintain certain in‐group, German‐linked features, yet also use out‐group or Brazilian features in order to index both the (local) German and (regional) Brazilian aspects of their identities. Our data and analysis highlight how participants’ identity and language use patterns can be better understood through close analysis of the content of their discourse.

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Apresentação

RESUMO: Este artigo visa analisar os estilos narrativos e os papéis interacionais de duas díades mãe-filho de três anos enquanto compartilham um livro de gravuras. As díades são bilíngues e residem na comunidade de Santa Maria do Herval (RS). Para identificar os estilos narrativos e os papéis desempenhados pela mãe e pela criança, analisa-se a contribuição de cada um para o desenrolar da história. Além disso, analisa-se qualitativamente o uso das línguas em jogo. Em uma interação predominantemente em alemão, constatou-se a adoção pela mãe do estilo elaborativo. Em outra interação em português com alternância de códigos para o alemão, a mãe adotou o estilo pouco elaborativo. Quanto aos papéis interacionais, as crianças foram estimuladas por suas mães a adotar o papel de co-narradoras da história. Isso se aproxima dos resultados das díades com crianças da mesma idade que interagiram em português na mesma comunidade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: narrativas; hunsrückisch; bilinguismo; estilos narrativos; papéis interacionais. RESUMEN: En este artículo se objetiva analizar los estilos narrativos y los papeles interactivos de dos parejas madre-hijo de tres años mientras comparten un libro de imágenes. Las parejas son bilingües y viven en la comunidad de Santa Maria do Herval (RS). Para identificar los estilos narrativos y los papeles desarrollados por la madre y por el niño, analizase la contribución de cada uno de ellos para el desarrollo de la historia. Además, analizase cualitativamente el uso de las lenguas en juego. En una interacción predominantemente en alemán, se observó que la adopción por la madre del estilo elaborativo. En otra interacción en portugués con alternancia de códigos para el alemán, la madre adoptó el estilo poco elaborativo. Cuanto a los papeles interactivos, los niños fueron estimulados por sus madres a adoptar el papel de co-narradores de la historia. Eso se acerca de los resultados de las parejas con niños de la misma edad que interactuaron en portugués en la misma comunidad. PALABRAS-CLAVE: narrativas; Hunsrückisch; bilingüismo; estilos narrativos; papeles interactivos.ABSTRACT: This paper aims to analyze the narrative styles and the interaction roles while two dyads (each constituted by the mother and a three-year-old child) share a picture book. The dyads are bilingual and live in Santa Maria do Herval (RS, Brazil). To identify the narrative styles and the roles played by mother and child, we analyze the contribution of each one to the progress of the history. In addition, we analyze qualitatively the use of the languages. In an interaction predominantly in German, it was noted the adoption by the mother of elaborative style. In another interaction, the mother took the low elaborative style. Regarding the roles in interaction, children were encouraged by their mothers to adopt the role of co-narrators of the story. This approximates from the results of the dyads with the same age that interacted in Portuguese in the same community.