& O VSO DE DIUERSAS PARTES DO BRASIL SERA O MILHOR MESTRE: THE CONCEPT OF USAGE IN ANCHIETA'S LINGUISTIC THOUGHT

Abstract

Studying indigenous languages is, in a way, supporting the current social and political causes of native peoples. The article aims to discuss the concept of usage according to the linguistic thought of José de Anchieta (1534-1597), based on the text Arte de gramática da língua mais usado na costa do Brasil (Anchieta, 1990 [1595]). The term usage (uso) is documented at va-rious points in his grammar, which describes the Tupinambá language used in the intercultural catechesis activities of the 16th-century Portuguese America. The theoretical and methodolo-gical foundation employed in the research is Historiography of Linguistics, following the mo-del of Konrad Koerner (2014) and Pierre Swiggers (2019; Batista, 2019), aiming to investigate Anchieta's linguistic thought. The investigation's outcome reveals the relationship between the missionary's use of the term usage and theological-philosophical and grammatical conceptions that influenced his thinking. This demonstrates the prevalent linguistic thought in the missionary policy of 16th-century Portuguese America, within which his grammatical work is situated.