Velhas soluções para novos problemas: o gradua(n)do em Letras e a diacronia – a flexão de número dos nomes

Abstract

In this text, we will show the importance of the Historical Linguistics for Portuguese teachers’ formation. We will see that the linguistics phenomena are explained according to the tools offered by the Linguistics segment. We will trace a summary of the Romance Philology to the beginning of the 20th century. We will explain how plural of nouns are explained in Portuguese, confronting to what is explained in textbooks, in Traditional Grammars and in the linguistics literature to what it can be offered to the Diachronic Linguistics. We will use examples, besides the plurals, in which the diachronic offers full and satisfactory explanations. The motivation for this dissertation is related to the very little importance that has been given to the Portuguese language studies of diachronic in Liberal Arts graduation. We support that the knowledge of those tools can help the teaching of the Traditional Grammar, turning it into more reflexive. That is the way the linguists want. The Traditional Grammar studies should not be put aside, but its teaching should be reinvented. To abstrain from studying it today, in the context that we introduced, it would be terrible to our students, because many public exams that guarantee a job, a stable one, require subjects related to the normative knowledge of that Grammar. In fact the national exams don't do that, but our students' objectives are not just limited to such exams, because many of them cannot wait for four years (at least) to look for a job. Many students consider the public exams the only way to have a professional growth and a financial development, and - consequently - social. We support the valorization of the Historical Linguistics because it was put aside, not for finding it more important than the other " Linguistics ", but for believing that the rediscovery of the Traditional Grammar teaching depends on a united work of all areas in the linguistics studies.