Guidelines for a Brazilian Portuguese Corpus Composed by Texts Written for Children

The present study discusses the possible approaches between Corpus Linguistics and Pedagogical Lexicography in the development of a Brazilian Portuguese school dictionary for 4th and 5th grade children. Advanced lexicographical traditions, such as the English-speaking ones, usually explore corpus research as an important ally in the development of excellent lexicographical works, and this can be confirmed in the most diverse types of dictionaries published by them. In the case of school dictionaries, it is possible to find studies that demonstrate how the compilation of corpora written for and by children can be useful in the development of school dictionaries. Based on studies developed by English lexicography, the present work tried to transpose to the Brazilian reality guidelines and methods for the development of a corpus of texts for children, and found in public policies of textbooks a great ally in this task. Brazil, besides having a favorable environment for the study proposed here, due to the massive publication of school dictionaries by Brazilian publishers and the intense circulation of this product in the country's classrooms, also counts on the National Textbook Program as an adequate tool for the development of a corpus of texts for children, thus demonstrating a great potential to leverage research on Brazilian school dictionaries.