The Syntax Of Spoken Brazilian Portuguese

by Earl W. Thomas

Overview

Increased personal contact among people of all parts of the world has underscored the inadequacy of traditional language study to meet contemporary communications needs. Linguistic science, in recent years, has responded to this breakdown of communications by emphasizing spoken, versus literary, language in the teaching of foreign languages.

Very real differences do exist between what is spoken and what is written in virtually every language. In Brazilian Portuguese, especially, the gulf between the two is wide: In many cases, the most cultured Brazilian is unable to comprehend with ease Brazilian literature written only fifty years ago.

THE SYNTAX OF SPOKEN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE is the first thorough analysis of the spoken language of contemporary Brazil, in English, for students and teachers of the language. Useful as a text in advanced language courses, the work is intended primarily for reference and as a research aid to future authors of Portuguese language textbooks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826512215
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	02/19/1987
Series:	Vanderbilt University Press Books Series
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Professor Earl W. Thomas has began teaching Spanish and Portuguese at Vanderbilt University in 1947. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Illinois (AB in Spanish 1936), he earned his master's degree (1937) there also. Ten years later he received the doctorate in Romance languages at University of Michigan. During the years in between his advanced degrees, Mr. Thomas taught Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Michigan, lived in Brazil as an Exchange Fellow, taught English at the Instituto Brasil-Estados Unidos in Rio de Janeiro, and served with the U.S. Coast Guard in the Pacific. He has also published NEW PERSPECTIVES OF BRAZIL with Vanderbilt Press in 1966.

Editorial Reviews

Every teacher of Portuguese should have a copy of Earl Thomas' book.
--John A. Hutchins, U.S. Naval Academy

From the Publisher