THE THE VARIATION OF THE FUTURE TENSE IN CEARA'S ONLINE NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

This article presents results of a Scientific Initiation research on the variable expression of the future tense, in 2 online newspapers in Ceará, coded by the forms: Simple Future and Periphrastic Future in the context of the written media. The theoretical contribution focuses on Variationist Sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1972, 2001 and 2008); (WEINREICH, LABOV & HERZOG, 2006), based on experience and observation of data obtained, in real situations of use, and on North American Functionalism (GIVÓN 1985, 2001), which deals with language as a communicative tool. We analyzed the motivations of the variable the following groups of factors: newspaper (O Povo x Diário do Nordeste), verbal regularity (regular x irregular), Mark of futureness (presence x absence) and notion of the future (immediate x distant). The results of the statistical analysis revealed a trend in the use of the simple future to the detriment of the periphrastic in two of the three linguistic factors, characterizing the preference of less marked forms in more formal contexts, which are the texts conveyed in the online written media, while the periphrastic form was linked to the immediate future factor, whose reading is demonstrated in instances when there is a commitment to the truth value of the statement.