Grammaticalization of conditional conjunctions

• Grant number: 17/00654-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2017
• End date: December 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Historical Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Sanderléia Roberta Longhin
• Grantee: Raissa Tavares Niza
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to investigate aspects related to the historical constitution of the conjunction caso, based on the hypothesis that it might be derived from phrasal expressions involving the noun caso (sendo o caso que, nos casos em que, no caso que), through grammaticalization processes which affected its form and meaning. Our interest lies in understanding when and how the conjunction caso became part of the paradigm of conditional conjunctions in Portuguese. Therefore, we shall develop our research from a diachronic perspective, based on texts from different genres which have been written over a time frame of five centuries. (AU)