The use of non-binary pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese: an exploratory study with data from social network X

Abstract

This paperwork aimed to verify and analyze the usage of a third gender mark in Brazilian Portuguese, which occurs by using neopronouns, such as ‘elu’, ‘ile’, ‘ilu’ and ‘el’, and in the expansion of gender-distinctive markers in the language, such as the use of -e at the end of names. The reason for this investigation is guided by the novelty of the phenomenon for the language and, consequently, in linguistic studies, forming a new area of research. For this purpose, we focus on studies over grammatical gender developed by Câmara Jr. (1970), Rocha (1998), Corbett (1991). It is also highlighted the studies by Benveniste (1995) and Neves (2000) about pronouns category, intending to comprehend the implementation of neopronouns and its relationship with a third gender in language. Besides Hall’s (2006) work which permeates issues of subject identity. Thus, based on data collection conducted on the social network X, through a scraping procedure, the uses of neopronouns in Brazilian Portuguese were analyzed. In this sense, the 364 neopronoun data points were subjected to statistical analysis using the R platform, where the proportion of frequency of use, the semantic context of these uses, and the nominal agreement pattern triggered by neopronouns were observed. As a result, it was found that the ‘elu’ system showed a higher frequency of use. Additionally, the uses of neopronouns were more relevant for a generic reference to subjects, encompassing binary and non-binary identities in the language, and had little impact on the language's agreement pattern.