Leila Barbara (April 9, 1938 – June 2, 2024) was a Brazilian linguist known for her work in

applied linguistics Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, Communication stu ...

and

systemic functional linguistics Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) is an approach to linguistics, among functional linguistics, that considers language as a social semiotic system. It was devised by Michael Halliday, who took the notion of system from J. R. Firth, his ...

, of which she was considered a pioneer in Brazil.

Biography

Barbara was born in 1938. She attended the

Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo The Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (, PUC-SP), locally known as ''PUC'' or ''Catholic University'' ('), is a private and non-profit Catholic university. It is maintained by the Catholic Archdiocese of São Paulo. The university is ...

(PUC-SP), graduating with a degree in Anglo-Germanic literature in 1960 and a doctorate in English in 1971. Beginning in 1965, she was a longtime professor at PUC-SP, where she helped found the school's applied linguistics program. She worked in various areas of linguistics, particularly systemic

functional linguistics Functional linguistics is an approach to the study of language characterized by taking systematically into account the speaker's and the hearer's side, and the communicative needs of the speaker and of the given language community. Linguistic fu ...

, with an emphasis on

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...

, though she also studied English and Spanish. She served as dean of the university from 1988 to 1992. Barbara died in 2024, in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Selected works

Books

* ''Sintaxe transformacional do modo verbal'' (1975) * ''Reflections on Language Learning'' (edited with Mike Scott, 1994) * ''Reflexão e Ações no Ensino-Aprendizagem de Línguas'' (organized with Rosinda de Castro Guerra Ramos, 2003) * ''Textos e Linguagem acadêmica: explorações sistêmico-funcionais em espanhol e português'' (organized with Estela Moyano) * ''Estudos e pesquisas em Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional'' (organized with Adail Sebastião Rodrigues-Júnior and Giovanna Hoy)

Articles and chapters

* "A Survey of Communication Patterns in the Brazilian Business Context" (with M. Antonieta A. Celani, Heloisa Collins e Mike Scott, 1996) * "Homing in on a genre: invitations for bids" (with Mike Scott, 1999) * "It is not there, but tis cohesive: the case of pronominal ellipsis of subject in Portuguese" (with Carlos A. M. Gouveia, 2001) * "Marked or unmarked, that is not the question. The question is: where's the theme?" (with Carlos A. M. Gouveia, 2004) * "Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional para a Análise de Discurso: um panorama introdutório" (with Célia de Macêdo, 2009) * "A representação de Dilma Rousseff pela mídia impressa brasileira: analisando os processos verbais" (with Maria Carmen Aires Gomes, 2010) * "Engajamento na perspectiva linguística sistêmico-funcional em trabalhos de conclusão de curso de Letras" (with Maria Otília Ninin, 2013)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbara, Leila 1938 births 2024 deaths Women linguists Linguists from Brazil Academic staff of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo alumni Systemic functional linguistics Applied linguists