PROBLEMAS DA LINGUÍSTICA NORMATIVA BRASILEIRA

Abstract

This article is an exercise in epistemological criticism of this applied approach to language sciences that I call Normative Linguistics (NL). Apparently, postulating the existence of a field of normative studies within Linguistics sounds like a paradox. We are used to thinking of Linguistics as a descriptive science and that only Traditional Grammar is normative. My objective is to question the validity of these classifications and present some problems that Linguistics creates when trying to impose itself as the legitimate authority in matters of language policies. Such problems arise from contradictions that flood the field of NL when trying to apply positivist rationality to problems that are within the scope of social sciences as objects of study, but within the field of politics when seen as social practices. The difference between these domains is the guiding thread of the analysis of NL problems, carried out around four aspects: the epistemological contradictions of NL, the differences between linguistic competence and communicative competence, the relationships between linguistic standardization and power and the problems of pedagogy of linguistic variation. The problematization developed throughout the text allowed us to advance some conclusions regarding the limits of science, which normative linguists have difficulty recognizing.