The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the deletion of rhotics in infinitive forms of verbs,
in written data of the final grades of Elementary Education II students. The theorectical
approach of this study is based on Usage-Based Phonology) (Bybee, 2001, 2016) and the
Exemplar Theory ((PIERREHUMBERT, 2000, 2010). The frequency and the usage are
foundational in the models based on the use and “the frequency is responsible for the
strengthening or weakening of the stored items” (HUBACK,2007,p.143). The assumed theory,
in this study, has made it possible to analyze the type, ocurrence and deletion frequencies. The
corpus of this research is formed by the Banco de Dados Escritos – BADESC. The BADESC
is made up by text productions in the Elementary Education II, from the 6th to the 9th grade, of
three public schools in the city of Porto Nacional TO. To carry out the research, only the
productions of the 8th and 9th grades were used. The data inventory was accomplished with the
help of the WordSmith Tools 8.0 software. From the collected data, it as possible to identify the
type and of occurrence frequencies, to verify the relationship between the frequency of the verbs
and the deletion, to analyze the verbs with the largest number of deletions and to observe if the
extension of the word and the schooling are the deletion constraints. The data unveiled that the
verbs ending in –ar presented larger frequencies of occurrence and type, as well as of deletion.
The results pertaining to the deletion of the rhotic showed that there had been the maintenance
of the rhotic in 84,15% of the verbs and the omission in 15,85% of the verbs. As of the analysis,
we surmised that, concerning the frequency of ocurrence and the deletion of the rhotic, the verbs
of high frequency were not the ones that undertook the largest number of deletion, but rather
the ones of low frequency. That datum emphasizes the influence of the three more frequent
verbs: ser, fazer and ter, thus suggesting that the fact of being a more frequent verb did not
interfere on the deletion of the rhotic, in written form. Traversing the word extension, we
remarked that the polysyllable verbs were the more productive to the deletion of the rhotic.
Conversely, we realized that the monosyllable ones were the least cleared. In terms of
schooling, the productions of the 9th grade presented a larger percentage of deletion with regard
to the 8th grade productions.
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