For a notion of sociofunctional domain

Abstract

Based on a question about the social dimension’s place in a socio-functionalist approach, the aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to reflect on the functional and social domains of language made up of multilayers, (2) to propose an interdomain articulation represented by a socio-functional model, and (3) to show its applicability to two phenomena in variation/change. The notion of functional domain is based on Givón (2001; 2002), Hopper (1991) and Görski e Tavares (2017), and the notion of social domain is basically anchored in Eckert (2008; 2016; 2018; 2019), Silverstein (2003), and Kiesling (2013). The interdomain articulation is illustrated with the use of interactive discourse markers sabe? (‘you know’) and entende? (you understand?) and the -STE segment added to verbal and non-verbal base, based on the works of Valle (2014) e Amaral (2020), respectively. We believe that we advanced in theoretical and methodological discussions on the interface between functionalism and variationist sociolinguistics by highlighting the social meaning and its articulation with the semantic-pragmatic meaning as well as proposing an integrated analytical practice.