56 Augusto Soares da Silva
internal uniformization and standardization is not crucial, because a stan-
dardized linguistic situation does not necessarily imply a stable internal
uniformity. There can be onomasiological changes within a standardized
linguistic situation; if this were not the case, linguistic change would be
impossible in a standardized linguistic context. The results in Figure 1
show that there are also fluctuations in internal uniformity in EP, especially
between 1970 and 2000. The theoretical hypothesis that EP reached a rela-
tive standardization situation faster does not mean that within EP changes
of onomasiological preferences ceased to take place. Nonetheless, fewer
changes are clearly observed in EP than in BP.
Another reason not to use internal uniformity necessarily as an indicator
of standardization is due to the fact that it is not possible to know how
much internal variation is normal or acceptable to consider whether a given
linguistic situation is standardized. It is, however, possible to overcome this
problem if we take one of the varieties as a reference point, in this case the
one which is hoped to exhibit fewer changes – EP. The results allow us to
reach, albeit to a certain extent, the conclusion that there are no significant
changes of internal uniformity in EP, except between 1970 and 2000 at the
level of the weighted measure. However, the same results disallow any
other way to take EP as the reference point, namely the idea that the level
of internal uniformity of BP is, by default, lower than in EP, precisely be-
cause this only happens in the 1950s.
We can thus conclude two things: first there are some aspects in BP in
the 1950s related to the terms studied which need further analysis – we
shall see this in the next section. Second, the greater increase in internal
uniformity in BP than that in EP may be interpreted, within the social-
cultural context of football, as increased standardization of Brazilian voca-
bulary related to football, in comparison with EP. This does not mean,
however, that EP has served as a role model for BP.
There is also another question related to the values of internal uniformi-
ty.^ Do the results of I/I’ calculations suggest a more recent standardization
of the Brazilian variety? There is no simple answer. Three reasons may
explain this strong rise in internal uniformity. First, the low values of I/I’
for B50 are highly correlated with the huge number of loanwords kept in
their original form (see the next section). Second, the popularity and inter-
national prestige of Brazilian football rose in the 1960’s after two World
Cup victories in a row (1958 and 1962). Third, as has already been men-
tioned, formal onomasiological variation has lost ground in both varieties,
and this is more perceptible in BP. All these reasons may possibly indicate
a greater standardization of the vocabulary of football in BP than in EP. But