Forms of address in Portuguese: lexicon and discourse

Abstract

The starting point of this work is the difficulty faced by foreigners who learn Portuguese as well as by those who speak it as a mother tongue whenever they have to use proper forms of address. Forms of address in Portuguese are very complex, as the work of Maria Helena Carreira (1997, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007) has repeatedly demonstrated. By analyzing a corpus of fiction, we will see the benefits that arise from combining linguistic description (both lexical and discursive) with a literary point of view to reach an efficient pedagogical approach, since fiction narratives use terms of address in very realistic ways. Departing from the original version in Portuguese and the French translation of the novel O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (1984), by José Saramago, we try to understand how the terms of address have been translated.