Title: Four Analyses on the Official Letters of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil)
Abstract: Between variation and change, as we know, not only language, but also the texts, with their structures, undergo changes over time. This article aims to analyze textual changes observed in letters of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. These documents are part of the corpus called Cartas oficiais norte-rio-grandenses (Rio Grande do Norte official letters) combined to the regional project called História do Português Brasileiro no Rio Grande do Norte (PHPB-RN) and the national project História do Português Brasileiro (PHPB). Four analyses were made from these letters, built upon the ideas of Coseriu and on the studies about discourse tradition (Koch 1997, Kabatek 2006), according to which texts are shaped to follow their own tradition (Coseriu 2007). After that, we focus on the letter and the letter of registration genres and their macro-structures as well as on the clausula (valediction) and the application expressions micro-structures. This analysis shows some processes of variation and change which these official letters underwent, besides how textual dynamics can indicate social change.