This study promotes an analysis of personal letters from Pernambuco written in the 19th and 20th centuries, in order to verify the variable behavior from the use of imperatives in correspondence, as well as observe what other nonverbal forms can be used for the purpose of making requests, exhortations, ect., considering the ellipse processes of verbs, especially in the sessions of captivation of benevolence, recommendations and farewell of missives. With regard to verbatim imperative forms, we aim to verify which actions can be expressed through the verbs in the context of the letters analyzed. For this, we are based on the theory of Discursive Tradition (KOCH, 1997; KABATEK, 2006; COSTA, 2012), which characterizes textual, social and historically conventionalized, models that are part of the cultural memory of a community (LONGHIN, 2014) and cover different levels of abstraction and complexity of textual models. In addition to being a rich source for the study of the history of languages, personal letters are an effective example of the relation between existing traditions and innovation in the sociohistorical context and the use of imperatives in correspondence offers a cut of this relation. For the accomplishment of this analysis, were collected 60 correspondences produced between the years of 1901 and 1969. For the discussion of the data, we rely on the concepts of sociolinguistics (LABOV, 1994 apud LOPES, 2011) in the quantitative analysis of occurrences (or not occurrences) of imperatives in the sessions of captivity of benevolence, recommendations and greetings from personal letters. The results of this research point to the observation that the variation is "more systematic and predictable both structurally and socially" (LOPES, 2011, p. 365).
