A emergência da gramática brasileira de português para estrangeiros e a contribuição de Hermine W. Topker (1942)

This study examines the Brazilian production of grammars tailored for the instruction of Portuguese as a foreign language (PFL), with a particular emphasis on the pioneer work A língua portuguesa para estrangeiros, which was published in 1942. The main motivation for this research is the scarcity of studies that examine this collection of materials from a historiographic perspective, aiming to understand how the linguistic thought mobilized in these works differs from or interacts with traditional grammatical. The objectives are: (i) to describe the process of constitution, production, and circulation of the Brazilian PFL grammars and (ii) to analyze Topker’s work, situating it within the scientific and pedagogical horizon of its time. The research is theoretically and methodologically based on grammaticography, which is the field that encompasses the historical examination of linguistic thought within grammatical traditions. It is presumed that the historiographic fact is a complex communicative act, which can be analyzed through the intersection of its constitutive elements (sender, addressee, code, channel, context and message). Methodologically, the research first contextualizes the formalization of Portuguese teaching as a non-native language in Brazil and its effects on grammatical production. It then proceeds to the examination of Topker's work in relation to these parameters. The results indicate that A língua portuguesa para estrangeiros inaugurated the systematization of Brazilian grammar of PFL, characterized hybridisms between consolidated normative models and the occasional incorporation of features of Brazilian Portuguese. The paper reveals a disconnect with the advances in linguistic thought during the scientific period and a greater focus on the pedagogical demands that guided grammatical production for teaching purposes.