The Grammatica portugueza, by Júlio Ribeiro, published in 1881, was the first compendium to introduce and analyze more broadly and consistently a Brazilian variant of Portuguese, being, therefore, responsible for grammatising the Brazilian Portuguese. This work aims to discuss and comprehend the conditions which made Ribeiro do these pioneerisms. To achieve this task, we studied the epistemological gash made by the author in the Brazilian grammaticography, once Ribeiro denied the main values of Rationalism and connected himself with Naturalism. This theoretical change – regardless the maintenance of the influence of the Prescriptisvist model, altered the way in which the traditional grammar should describe the language and it was, with effect, relevant to an inclusion, by the first time in a grammar, of marks of the Brazilian Portuguese. To accomplish this study, we theoretic-methodologically linked ourselves to the concepts of Auroux (1992; 1998a), especially concerned to the process of grammatization and to hyperlanguage, and also in relation to the significant importance exerted by the linguistic tools.

BSEHL 12(2018), pp. 195-217 Código UNESCO / UNESCO Nomenclature: 550614, 570111