ALLIANCES AND CONFLICTS BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND LINGUISTICS: THE PRODUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF CONSENSUS ON THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE

Abstract

This essay examines the interplay between Grammar and Linguistics in the production and maintenance of consensus regarding the national language of the Brazilian state. Our discussion focuses on the reorganization of linguistic knowledge production brought about by the establishment of Linguistics as an academic discipline in universities throughout the 20th century. To this end, we analyze the newspaper column Na ponta da língua (On the Tip of the Tongue), conceived by Evanildo Bechara and published weekly in the newspaper O mundo português between 1990 and 2001. By examining the emergence of a third position in Bechara’s articles—one situated between Linguistics and so-called “traditional grammar”—two hypotheses are proposed: first, that the grammarian occupies a position aligned with the State; and second, that it was by the end of the 20th century that the descriptive paradigm became firmly established in Letters (Language and Literature) programs. From this point forward, the normative paradigm, considered incompatible with the scientific paradigm, began to be portrayed as entirely external to science. We seek to demonstrate how the description-versus-prescription dichotomy, responsible for securing the scientific status of modern Linguistics, paradoxically prevents it from making a scientific contribution to the development of a Brazilian standard norm.