Our Portuguese language is a system of different forms and meanings and their intertwining. For this reason, it is systematized in three modes of analysis of the elements that make it up:
• Morphology: it is part of the language that studies morphemes, that is, everything that tells us about gender and number of nouns; tense, mood, number and person of a verb and grammatical class.
• Syntax: is the part of the language that studies the way the speaker transmits information, the way he organizes and relates words in a sentence.
• Semantics: it is the part of the language that studies the meaning of words, the meanings they can take according to the context.
But what is language? Language, first, refers us to an organ of the body that is used in communication, and it is from there that we begin to understand that the written language today was once only spoken. Based on this principle of speech, we define language as the set of letters that form words with different meanings. And the relationship of these words and their meanings we call a system. Therefore, language is a system, that is, a set of elements that relate to each other and form a meaning.
Our language receives the adjective “Portuguese” because it came from Portugal, colonizer of Brazil. However, Portuguese from Portugal did not remain in its colony in a pure and simple way, but received a Brazilian connotation and, therefore, we speak of Portuguese from Brazil. However, not only was Brazil colonized by the Portuguese and speaks Portuguese, but also other countries: Madeira Island, Azores Archipelago, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Prince.
As we have seen, language, above all, is a social code, an arrangement of letters, which in combinations with each other acquire meaning for a particular social group. However, there is a linguistic convention, which remains in a society so that communication can exist between speakers. However, it does not mean that every individual will write and speak in the same way, since each one has its own particularity and purpose when communicating.
There is also a distinction between cultured and colloquial norms: the first is established by obedience to the norms and rules of communication, while the second refers us to the one closest to speech. Therefore, there is the study of the grammar of the Portuguese language, which is the investigation of the correspondence between what is said or written and the rules or laws in force for the use of communication in a cultured way, polished.
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By Sabrina Vilarinho
Graduated in Letters