A gramática luso-brasileira e o método científico

Abstract

Our objective in this article is to analyze Pacheco Silva and Lameira de Andrade´s Gramática da Língua Portuguesa, and Adolfo Coelho’s A Língua Portuguesa, having as a basis the history of linguistic ideas in Brazil and verifying their similarities and dissimilarities. The former was elaborated in our country, in order to supply the gap created by Fausto Barreto’s Examination Program in 1887; the latter, in Portugal, in 1881 and a dividing water line, since it innaugurates the scientific method there. Once we believe that “men show more similarity to their time than  to their parents”, due to the fact that “these do not make history, rather, history makes them”, we first present a brief, historical retrospect, which visits the years that had preceded the creation of the compendia. We show that the XIX century was a moment of considerable transformation, both in Brazil and in Portugal and that thecomprehension of such transformations has enabled a better interpretation of facts. Furthermore, the article succinctly provides the authors` biographies, once, as Foucault says (1979), the author’s name is already a description of his work. Finally, we discuss the data presented. We can perceive that both grammars reflect the ambiguities originated in a period of transformations – since, at certain points, we feel the force of linguistic tradition superseding that of renewal.