O uso da dêixis pessoal como marcador de respeito: o caso do Changana, língua transfronteiriça

Abstract

Every human society has linguistic means to express or demonstrate respect for each other. This study aims to explore the differences and similarities between the Changana spoken in Mozambique and the one spoken in South Africa regarding the use of personal deixis as a marker of respect but on the basis of data obtained from written material. We start from the assumption that in Changana, because it is a cross-border language, there may be differences in the way the speakers handle personal deictical expressions to express respect in communication - social deixis. We agree with Crystal (1997) when he advocates that in every language in the world there are strategies for marking respect and what is distinctive is the way in which the differences in social levels of the speakers are codified in the grammar and vocabulary of each particular language. The data analyzed comparatively were taken from two Changan novels, one Mozambican and the other South African. These data revealed that there is a disparate use of respect markers between the two communities, and that there are contexts in which the two express the same characteristics, thus concluding that the range of devices that members of these communities described in the two works analysed (novels), use in expressing respect and courtesy comes from the appreciation of the social relationships they establish between them, the social roles they play, age, and gender.