ELAC, a very erudite and educational post, thank you for that.
On another issue, who or what translated the transcript? Has anyone actually seen the original, Portuguese recording? If so, could you provide a link please?
When it was first shown here in Brazil it was in English and translated on-the-fly during the official presentation in parliament. Apparently that was how it came from the NTSB, but the crew and controllers spoke in Portuguese and I have to say that these translated versions make very little sense to me in linguistic terms.
I realise that a Portuguese version would be of limited interest to the majority here, but it would clear up a number of ambiguities for those of us who do speak the language.