A ALTERNÂNCIA DO ITEM LEXICAL “CACETE” COMO EXPRESSÃO RETÓRICA

Abstract

This study presents, from the concepts of identity and linguistic diversity, the results of an observation theoretically based on the ethnography of communication (improved by the micro-ethnography) with a 26 year-old Portuguese speaker who was born in capital of São Paulo state and who lives in Cascavel, PR. On the perspective of the interactional sociolinguistics, we present how the speaker’s vernacular was observed in order to notice the idiosyncrasies in his communicative interactions. According to this in loco observation, the repetition of the lexical item “cacete” was noticed and we sought to understand its meaning when used by the speaker. In this analysis, we start from the observed/interviewee’s own explanation that the term is not used with a rude connotation as it initially seemed but as a rhetorical expression of the term “etc”. We can conclude that this rhetorical expression “cacete” is usually used by the speaker and it is also manifested in his vernacular through the oral expression present in the discourse of middle class youngsters from São Paulo.