Inovações lexicais com modificação sonora intencional no português brasileiro: uma análise a partir da Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso

Abstract

Human beings constantly seek to find meaning through words, one of the main forms of expression and social interaction. From this expressive need, beyond neologisms, emerge lexical innovations marked by phonetic-phonological modifications that attribute new connotations to vocabularies. This is observed in forms such as cabelitcho, gatim, and véia, constructed from processes of palatalization, deletion of the final unstressed vowel, and vocalization, respectively, which confer values of affectivity, humor, playfulness, or even euphemism. This work investigates innovations such as these in Brazilian Portuguese from the perspective of Usage-Based Functional Linguistics (UBFL), considering that language is a dynamic system, constantly updated by the creativity of its speakers, especially in digital contexts. The research corpus consists of written occurrences collected mainly from social media (Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok), categorized into five main characteristics: palatalization of plosives, deletion of final unstressed vowels, vocalization, depalatalization, and onomatopoeia. The methodology combines qualitative analysis – based on concepts from the LFCU (Language Pathology and Communication), such as perspectivization, analogization, constructionalization, frequency, and indexical function – and quantitative analysis, through perception tests applied to informants of different age groups and genders. The results show that sound processes transcend purely phonological conditioning, consolidating themselves as discursive-attitudinal resources that index social identities, reinforce affective bonds, and contribute to the conventionalization of new forms. Thus, sound intentionality expands the lexicon of Brazilian Portuguese and demonstrates the creative and active capacity of speakers to renew the language based on sociopragmatic and subjective motivations.