THE GRAMMATICAL ASPECT IN THE MEBÊNGÔKRE (KAYAPÓ) LANGUAGE: AN INVESTIGATION IN THE FRAMEWORK OF FORMAL SEMANTICS

Abstract

This on-going work aims to investigate the grammatical aspect in the Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) language, spoken by approximately 2,120 people in over 30 villages in the Kayapó Indigenous Land in São Félix do Xingu, Pará. Despite being co-official in the municipality, there is a scarcity of studies describing its grammar, making the development of documentation, description, and analysis methodologies essential. The research focuses on the distinction between perfective and imperfective aspects, and linguistic data were obtained through controlled elicitation. The methodology involves grammaticality tests, truth value tests, and happiness tests. The analysis of the phenomenon is approached from the perspective of Formal Semantics, and the results are relevant both theoretically for linguistic science and empirically for the Kayapó community. The tests seek to understand how the Mebêngôkre language grammatically marks verbal aspect through auxiliaries in fixed positions in the sentence. Preliminary results indicate that aspectual expression in the language occurs through positional verbs, postpositions, locative expressions, and pronominal forms. The investigation includes the analysis of data collected by Mendonça Junior (2021) on the lexical aspect in the language. The research contributes to the production of didactic and reference materials for language teaching and its implementation in municipal schools. The results are promising so far, providing both theoretical and practical support for linguistic science and the Kayapó community.