Punctuation functions in relative constructions on Classical Portuguese: uses and conventions

• Grant number: 18/01503-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: May 01, 2018
• End date: August 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Historical Linguistics
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Sanderléia Roberta Longhin
• Grantee: Aline de Azevedo Rodrigues
• 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
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/02194-3 - Comma functions in eighteenth-century relative clauses: evidences of multidimensionality, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate facts of the historical development of the Portuguese punctuation system, considering specifically the development of the comma usage functioning, based on a theory that considers punctuation marks as evidences of the multidimensional nature of language. We focus on the eighteenth century Portuguese, written in Brazil, period in which there is a significant oscillation in commas usage and also a variation in grammar prescriptions, suggesting a coexistence of several grammar rules possibly based on different punctuation functions. We chose the context of relative constructions for analysis due to the variation observed in the use of commas and because they can be motivated by semantic-pragmatic, syntactic and phonological aspects. This research is guided by a central question: what comma functions would be in competition throughout the eighteenth century and would have been decisive for a multidimensional configuration of the contemporary punctuation system? This question includes two more specific ones: 1) Considering the cases that were already subject to some standardization, such as the double commas usage in the explanatory and the absence of commas in the determinative, would there be some regularity in the variation of uses, with possible precedence of some function? 2) Did the grammar rules of the period succeed in the distinction between types and nuances of explanatory and determinative relative? In order to answer the questions, we will: describe variable uses of commas usage in relative constructions, aiming to identify regularities and motivations, considering the syntactic structure, the semantic aspects involved and the prosodic constituents that possibly organized the use of the comma; and analyze and systematize the rules about comma usage postulated in manuals, treatises and grammars, focusing on issues that are crucial to understanding aspects of the history of the punctuation system. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RODRIGUES, Aline de Azevedo. Punctuation functions in relative constructions on classical portuguese: uses and conventions. 2020. Master's Dissertation - Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências Letras e Ciências Exatas. São José do Rio Preto São José do Rio Preto.