THE PLACE OF JOÃO HENRIQUE DE MATOS IN THE HISTORY OF THE APURINÁ LANGUAGE

A DISCURSIVE STUDY

Abstract

This work aims to indicate, through the historical materiality of the 19th century archive, the place of Lieutenant Colonel João Henrique de Matos in the history of knowledge about the Apurinã language. Formulations of the report of this military expedition through the tributaries of the Upper Amazon, which took place from 1841 to 1843, were analyzed. Based on the idea of discrepancy in Interdiscourse (cf. Pêcheux, 2014), these formulations describe the fitting/articulation of words of indigenous origin, considering memory traces of their specific exterior. Through this procedure, we conclude that Matos’s report (1845) does not present traces of reflection on the Apurinã language, although the fitting/articulation of indigenous toponyms in its discursive thread has, as unsaid, images of linguistic units, through which sustains the coherence of the term aporiná.