The “descaravélica” Language of the Wayrakuna Plurinational Movement

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze how syntactic and grammatical choices in the work Wayrakuna – Pollinizing Life and Sowing Good Living (2023) contribute to the understanding of the stylistic and ideological meanings of the Wayrakuna Movement. The theoretical and methodological framework is grounded in the Bakhtinian and Voloshinovian perspective on the complementarity of grammar and stylistics in language analysis. Following this approach, the first methodological step was to characterize the speech genres present in the work under analysis. The next step involved identifying relevant linguistic forms to determine the stylistic and ideological meanings of the Wayrakuna Movement, led by Indigenous women. Two Portuguese constructions were selected: the noun phrase “indígenas mulheres” and the prefix variations in the word “desenvolvimento” — “des-envolvimento”, “não-envolvimento”, and “re-envolvimento”. These forms were analyzed through both grammatical and stylistic lenses. The results indicated that the morphosyntactic inversion in “indígenas mulheres” foregrounds Indigenous identity over gender. Additionally, the variations of the prefix in “desenvolvimento”, “des-envolvimento”, “não-envolvimento”, and “re-envolvimento” highlight the need to restore society’s engagement with nature. Both linguistic choices reflected and refracted the ancestral Indigenous worldview.