Banning ‘Bad’ Language Use: Building National Identity by Antagonizing

with Otherness

Leda Rodrigues*

Abstract: This article looks into representations of the Portuguese language in a

specialized magazine and into the implications to the construction of a national identity

of viewing languages as intrinsically pure, discrete and complete entities. We suggest

that the ideas displayed in the analyzed texts help create an image of the language as a

national asset to be defended from corruption. We discuss how such representations

may contribute to the construction and maintenance of a national identity and at the

same time relegate the actual genuine linguistic production of its speakers/writers to a

position of undesired otherness.

Keywords: discourse analysis, language, identity, otherness.

1. Introduction

Common sense statements about the lack of competence of the Brazilian

speaker of Portuguese have often bewildered us. It may be that the contact with

sociolinguistics was in fact what has made such statements sound so “obviously”

fallacious to us, but, if it is most improbable that we can assume to be able to trace back

the pattern of our own identifications with precision, it might be useful to try and look

into how this point of view may be able to sustain itself so broadly in our countrymen

(and women)’s minds.

Bearing in mind the strength of the media in the molding of cultural

identities, the national cultures into which we are born being one of its principal

sources (Hall, 1994), we have set out to examine an article in the current issue of the

magazine Língua Portuguesa, “Um plural invasivo”. We intend to look into its

appraisal of some Brazilian Portuguese speakers and writers’ inability to apply so-called

correct grammar rules with regard to the usage of the plural.

Taking into consideration Hall’s account of Bakhtin’s dialogic view of

language, namely, that “we need ‘difference’ because we can only construct meaning

through a dialogue with the ‘Other’ ” (1994:35, his italics), we would like to speculate

about how such negative representations of a national language contribute in the

construction of a national identity through otherness.

* Undergraduate student at the University of São Paulo.

2. The magazine

Língua Portuguesa has been on the market since 2005. On the

magazine’s site, under the heading “Sobre a Revista”, we can still find what seems to

have been its first editorial. It begins by stating that the Portuguese language is “um

universo desconhecido” and that “poucas vezes pensamos nela direito”, which could

imply that we either do not give it serious enough thought or that we are not able to

think “correctly” in it, a curious ambiguity for a founding text such as a first editorial.

We believe such ambiguity is in fact consistent with the content of the magazine, which

often shows articles that seem intent on demystifying stereotyped views of Portuguese

and the idea of language itself – such as “Degeneração e melhoria das línguas”, by José

Luiz Fiorin, in the same issue as the texts analyzed here –, but also has sections such as

“Lição de Casa”, which usually presents an openly prescriptive view.

If we agree that “a língua que usamos revela quem somos, e nem sempre

nos damos conta” – still according to its first editorial –, we understand that in

statements such as “o idioma é um universo amplo, porém acessível”, the use of the

definite article before “idioma” and its predication as “a” or “one universe” which is

“accessible” may lead to a representation of languages as unified and predictable, as if

meanings were fixed in them1.

The editorial concludes in a seeming defense of diversity: “ao falar, o

brasileiro expressa sua identidade, que nunca é uniforme, e o país respira sua

diversidade, que insiste em nos unir”. However, the very idea of “country” is in itself

homogenizing in that it builds an idea of unity despite all the conflicting groups that

might share the same physical or representational space – an undisputable scenario in

the case of our country. According to Menezes de Souza, “nowhere is this postulated

homogeneity to national cultures more difficult to digest than in postcolonial nations,

such as Brazil” (2006:107). That inclination towards naturalization is strengthened by

the use of the verb “breathe” which equates the country to an organic body, and in the

appositive clause “que insiste em nos unir”, which fuzzes out difference. That procedure

is actually expected in a “narrative of the national culture” (Hall, 1994:235), which is

often made up of the principles of “origins, continuity, tradition and timelessness”

(ibidem:294).

1 Still based on Bakhtin’s theory, Hall says that “meaning cannot be fixed and (…) one group can never

be completely in charge of meaning” (1994:236).

Next, we plan to move on to the article and see how it may contribute to

feeding in the idea of a Brazilian national identity by setting down certain uses of the

language as “foreign” and undesirable.

3. Undesired plural

In the section of the magazine not just coincidentally, we think, called

“Lição de casa”, the article in question seems to carry forward the tradition of

overrating grammatical aspects in the teaching of Portuguese, such as it has been done

in schools since the institutionalization of the language as the country’s official

language.

In 1757, the teaching of Portuguese became compulsory in Brazilian

schools, whereas the use of Língua Geral, a simplified version of Tupinambá, which

had been the language spoken by many of the blacks and Indians until then, was

suddenly banned (Vieira, 2006:30). Thus, the rise of Portuguese as a national language

originated with its imposition as a foreign language on a great part of the population

(ibidem). At the same time, its teaching developed from a grammar-focused teaching of

Latin, which had been the language learned in school by cultivated people until then.

The representations of language that many Brazilian speakers carry, therefore, must

have been heavily influenced by the way Portuguese has been taught.

The text in “Um plural invasivo” is preceded by three pictures. Recently

branded on our minds as a symbol of national tragedy, and occupying about half a page

(1/4 of the space dedicated to the whole piece), is the image of the TAM building hit by

an airplane a few months before the date of the magazine’s issue in question – smoke

still coming out of it as a gush of water puts out the last remaining flames in daylight.

Its caption says “O prédio da TAM próximo ao aeroporto de Congonhas, em São Paulo,

atingido por um Airbus da própria companhia, em julho”. Overlapping this image and

growing out of the first page towards the second is the outline of a corpse, as in a crime

scene, drawn over a black trapezoid shape, which partially covers another similar shape

in red. The title is shown in two lines: “Um plural” is written over a black stripe in a

black font only outlined in white – which provides for a visual correspondence between

the first line of the title and the drawing of the body outline. The remainder of the title

comes below, in slightly larger black font and with wider spacing, making it look a little

wider than the first line: “invasivo”. It is followed by the subtitle: “Por causa do inglês,

estão usando plural demais em casos desnecessários”. On the following page, at the top

left, there is a black and white picture of famous old-time Hollywood stars with the

caption: “Fórmula indiscutível: ‘O filme Casablanca teve a participação (não ‘as

participações’) antológica de Humphrey Bogart e Ingrid Bergman’”.

The text begins with a linguistic description of how newspapers and

magazines announced the number of victims in the airplane accident referred to in the

main picture. Next, it goes on to make a similar comment but now about a case of

murder. It challenges the use of the plural form of the words “morte”, “posição” and

“identidade” when referring to more than one person, claimed to be an incorrect

construction in standard Portuguese. It gives some more examples of similar misuses,

this time referring to texts about soccer – “‘as substituições’ de Elano e Robinho” – and

to utterances by president Lula – “‘as visitas’ dos exemplares Orestes Quércia, Salim

Maluf e Renan Calheiros, que lhe foram levar ‘seus apoios’ desinteressados”. After

arguing that such displacement of the plural – something not used by “bons autores”,

although characteristic of Latin –, is probably due to the influence of the “onipresente

inglês, que o herdou do latim” a long list of further examples is given under the heading

“Sem perturbações”.

The purpose here is not to discuss the soundness of such remarks, but to

analyze how an apparently “objective” account of linguistic usage may avail the

construction of a negative otherness that will serve as the second term in the binary

opposition2 of a narrative of the nation (Hall, 1994) that presupposes tradition and

purity.

3.1. Language crimes

The visual resources in the article, as exposed above, along with the

assortment of examples with which it begins, create a somewhat apocalyptic atmosphere

around its topic. Although partially justifiable on account of the semantic field of many

of the examples displayed throughout the text, the idea of death and tragedy suggested

in the picture – ingrained in our minds by the extensive display of images of the burned-

down building in the weeks following the catastrophe with the airplane – hardly

manages to make for an objective assessment of a linguistic occurrence. How could

such a strong take on language matters be then explained? According to Hall, “invented

2 “Binary oppositions are crucial for all classification, because one must establish a clear difference

between things in order to classify them” (Hall, 1997:236)

traditions make the confusions and disasters of history intelligible, converting disarray

into community” (1994:295).

Josué Machado (2007) takes advantage of a recent disaster of national

impact to build his argument in favor of unity through communion in language. But not

just any type of communion. The Brazilian speaker (and writer) of Portuguese should

conform to the immutability of a ready language, with clear boundaries in space and

time, as we can infer from the use of the adjective “indevido”; the choice of tense and

voice in the verbs “não costuma ser usado” and “não se justifica”, as well as their

categorical tone, something that also stands out in “embora exista em latim”, in the

passage: “esse plural indevido não costuma ser usado por bons autores porque não se

justifica em português, embora exista em latim”. Such perennial quality is also

suggested in the featuring of the language as a fortress in “português inatacável”; or in

the idea of a language born at a precise, identifiable moment, implied in the use of the

simple past in “em português, o plural latino/ anglicista não prosperou”.

3.2. A hypothesis

Contrary to the defense of national identity based on strict correlation

with the Portuguese language, which is in fact only one of the many languages spoken

in the country, S. Thiago criticizes current literacy programs for indigenous

communities in Brazil, which insist on privileging alphabetical writing, since

“indigenous cultures are cultures of ‘vision’ (…) in that for them, knowledge is

obtained by direct contact with images, not with spoken words” (2006:118). Postulating

signifying processes as an overlap of language and history, Vieira (2006), based on

Orlandi, points to the attachment to orality as a characteristic of Portuguese speakers

fostered by the abrupt imposition of the written form through the teaching of

Portuguese, since Língua Geral had been predominantly oral until the time of its

prohibition.

So it might as well be that the use of the plural in cases such as the one

mentioned in the article is a result of the influence of the centrality of image and orality

in indigenous discursive practices, incorporated into Portuguese through speakers of

Língua Geral and their descendants.

As further illustration, we would like to mention yet another article in the

same issue of the magazine that aims to attack the ‘bad use’ of the plural in Portuguese,

by the same author. In “Um divórcio infeliz”, Machado once more condemns the

incorrect use of the plural in the lack of agreement between subject and verb in the

second clause of the sentence “Equipe de emissora árabe foi obrigada pela prefeitura a

retirar instalações do local, onde montaram tenda”. The subtitle of the article suggests

that such usage is bound to make the sentence incomprehensible: “Quando o sujeito vai

para um lado e o verbo, para outro, cria-se confusão irremediável”. In fact, the first

paragraph goes on like this: “Já faz tempo, e o fato não importa, mas, sim, a forma.

Durante a visita de Bush a São Paulo, o jornal publicou a notícia de que ‘TV Al Jazira é

expulsa do Viaduto do Chá’” (grifo nosso). The political dimension of language is

ignored, and language is reduced to a mere code, whereas, according to Rajagopalan

(2001):

Languages are not facts of the matter as they were unquestioningly and somewhat

naïvely thought to be until fairly recently. They are, if anything, flags of allegiance (…).

In other words, one’s linguistic identity and the related issue of language loyalty can

only be understood properly if we approach them as issues shot through with political

implications. (Rajagopalan, 2001:88)

From a purely grammatical point of view, language is viewed one-

dimensionally, as the realm of objectivity and rationality, in the mode of late 19th

Century logicists, who considered meaning variations something to be avoided in a

“perfect language” (Frege, 1892/1978:63). Meaning and language are seen as separate,

as if the “correct” use of the latter could ensure the “transmission” of the former –

which, in the case of the news taken as an example, makes it seem as if the fact that a

certain TV crew was kicked out of Viaduto do Chá was all there was to be understood

from the “sentence” being “analyzed” in the article. The question which it triggers for

us is, however: is this kind of alienating remark all there is left for people concerned

with language to make, in terms of language analysis?

3.3. National as foreign

As much as the cause of such uses of the plural may not be satisfactorily

explained either by Machado (2007) or from the speculations outlined here, what we

would like to draw attention to is the way a certain representation of language is

reinforced in the article, which has profound implications in the definition of a national

identity.

We will now adopt the nomenclature proposed by Ghiraldelo in her study

of the relationship between Portuguese and the speaking subject. She states that “the

Portuguese language in Brazil (…) breaks into the mother tongue of the subject, the

national language and the official language” – the mother tongue being the language

first learned by a subject (2003:58, our translation); the national language that which

“allows communication between Brazilians of various regions”; and the official

language, which is an ‘imagined construction’ – since nonexistent as a concrete

manifestation by a real speaker (ibidem:59) – spread out by grammar books and

dictionaries (ibidem:61).

As for the mother tongue, it is always influenced by the language of the

people with whom the speaker grew up and can thus carry elements from more than one

variety and even from different languages, as when the speaker’s parents are first and

second generation immigrants – not an uncommon situation in a country like Brazil.

The Portuguese language that Machado sets out to defend from the

attacks of its own speakers seems to be the official language as opposed to the language

found in the real life examples that he condemns as incorrect. The author’s plead for

adherence to the rules of an imagined pure and complete language would conform to the

role of the mother tongue not as described above, but as defined in psychoanalytic

terms: “the mother tongue is the place of interdiction, where it is necessary that the

subject conform to the laws and rules of society” (Grigoletto, 2001:147, our

translation).

But sticking to the representational frame outlined by the article, the

language actually used in everyday exchanges around the country between speakers

from its different regions – the national language, as described by Ghiraldelo (2003) – is

representative of the otherness against which a national identification can be promoted,

when contrasted with the language we must seek, the language of completeness – the

official language.

Thus, what we could call the “real” Brazilian speaker of Portuguese, the

one who commits “crimes” against the language, is appointed as an “other” who must

be educated, set “back” on track, for the sake of a national identity.

If we can consider the existence of this split between an actual, plural

language and an imagined official one as the occurrence of bilingualism – in the sense

that the speaker is constantly urged to seek mastery of a language that is not his/hers – it

is as if the speaker became, in this process, foreign to his/her own language.

Ultimately, what the article claims is that just as the TAM building was

hit by an airplane belonging to their “own” company, Brazilian speakers of Portuguese

have been, through the careless usage of their language, the perpetrators of their “own”

destruction as a people. At the same time, the use of the image of an airplane invading a

building helps reinforce the idea of an excessive openness to outside influences, namely

the English language, as the subheading of the article makes explicit:”Por causa do

inglês, estão usando plural demais em casos desnecessários”.

4. Final remarks

Language is, in effect, an essential medium in the construction of

identities in general and especially in defining regional and national identities. In Brazil,

Portuguese has proven an efficient stepping stone for the creation and maintenance of

national identification under the historical contingency of a country built upon the

practice of immigration and cultural mingling. Similarly, the role of institutions such as

schools and the media in diffusing a narrative (or narratives) of the nation (Hall, 1994)

cannot be denied.

The two articles analyzed seem to fulfill this role. If on one hand, the

editorial of the magazine Língua Portuguesa states that Brazilian Portuguese cannot

help but be marked by the difference embedded in the diverse origins of the people who

speak and write it, the articles in question foster a representation of the official language

as opposed to this very diversity. However, since identities are constructed in

opposition to otherness, these texts seem to situate this otherness both in a foreign entity

as well as in the speakers of Portuguese themselves. In the text “Um plural invasivo”,

otherness is defined as foreign in that there is an alleged undue penetration of English

into Portuguese, but that only occurs as a result of our readiness to incorporate it.

Interestingly, the author does not seem concerned with showing how he

has reached the conclusion that the use of plural is actually due to the influence of

English and the concessive “embora”, in “embora exista em latim”, gives out the idea

that such origin would be a preferable one. In any case, Portuguese is shaped in

opposition to a foreign other and the Brazilian Portuguese speaker is summoned to

defend their language against change – which is relegated to the status of undesired

otherness – and to deny the principles of linguistic mutability and variety in the name of

a national identity.

Bibliographical references

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Appendix 1

Appendix 2