Many languages present different ways of expressing sentential negation.

In some
languages the variation may lead to a change of the canonical strategy of negation, a process
known as Jespersen Cycle, for instance, as what happened with French and English. Currently,
Brazilian Portuguese (BP) has three strategies of negation, pre-verbal (No gosto de alho),
double negation (No gosto de alho no) and post-verbal negation (Gosto de alho no).
Besides Brazilian Portuguese, there are other languages that have alternative sentential
negatives. One of the target issues for linguistic studies about variation in sentential negation is
the motivation to the emergence of a new way to express sentential negation. Linguists have
explained this motivation in two ways. Some authors have interpreted the appearance of new
structures as a way to offset the phonetic weakening of the original negation (Jespersen, 2010
[1917], and Sousa, 2007). Others have considered that the new structures are determined by
conversational aspects (Schwenter, 2005, 2006, Awera, 2009, Lima, 2010, Goldnadel&Lima
2011, Lima, 2013, Goldnadel et al, 2013, Nunes, 2014). Lima, 2013, and Nunes, 2014 concluded
that in early stages the pragmatic function of Neg2 is to signal sentence topic maintenance. It
means Neg2 indicates that the speaker is willing to elaborate on some topic or subtopic already
presented in the previous discourse (maintenance and continuity). That can be seen in (1).
(1) I: E a adolescncia, como que foi?
And the adolescence, how was it?
S: A adolescncia no tem muita coisa boa no, porque o pai, ele era muito ruim,
n? E continua sendo assim, no comigo, mas com as outras Tm mais trs em casa.
The adolescence there were not many good things about it (not), because dad, he
was very protective, you know? And hes still like that, not with me, but with the
other girls there are more three at home. (BP)
(SC FLP 09, 1990)
Our work agrees with Goldnadel (2015) positing that Neg2 also presents a second
function, denial. In (2), the interviewer uses Neg2 to deny an inferred content that has appeared
in the previous discourse - that the interviewer used to live in the neighborhood.
(2) I: Deixa eu ver, que mais tem no bairro. Igreja ali no centro? Voc vai muito?
Let me see what else we have here in the neighborhood. The church downtown?
Do you usually go there?
S: A pracinha ali em cima, n? tambm.
The park over there, you know? Too
I: No conheo essa praa.
I dont know this park
S: Tem uma pracinha ali em cima que eles fizeram. Era um...
There is a park over there that they build. It was
I: No do meu tempo no.
Its not from my time (not).

By considering two functions for Neg2, we will analyze 36 sociolinguistic interviews

held by VARSUL Project from the three states of the South region of Brazil, a conservative
region, to verify the application of the functions.