"Retrospectivas e perspectivas da historiografia da lingüística no Brasil" ["Retrospective and Perspectives of Linguistic Historiography in Brazil"]

This paper discusses aspects of the emergence of linguistic thought as a disciplinary field of its own in Brazil. First of all, it identifies the emergence of a descriptive corpus of the grammar ofnative American languages produced by European missionaries from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. In the case of Brazil, it shows how this description is based on Latin as a reference model. Then, it analyzes how the work of Mattoso Camara breaks away from thistradition in the second half of the twentieth century by both inviting reflection on the history of Brazilian linguistics and asserting the disciplinary model set up by nineteenth-century linguistics. Finally, based on this analysis, it lays down the criteria and conditions that should guide research into the history of Brazilian linguistics.