Cognitive morphology: the extent of generalizations about word formation between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese

• Grant number: 23/04653-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: March 07, 2024
• End date: January 06, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Linguistic Theory and Analysis
• Principal Investigator: Janderson Luiz Lemos de Souza
• Grantee: Janderson Luiz Lemos de Souza
• Host Investigator: Augusto Soares da Silva
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Braga (UCP), Portugal

Abstract

The main aim of this research project is to explore the extent, between the European and the Brazilian variety of Portuguese, of generalizations consolidated about word formation based on Cognitive Linguistics. One the theory's models, Cognitive Grammar, has been being the basis for innovative descriptions in relation to those established according to Generative Grammar, the modular and lexicalist model of Generative Linguistics. The agenda of investigation set by Generative Grammar has put forward a prospective approach on the basis of word formation rules, capable of implementing linguistic creativity in the realm of lexicon, conceived of as external to grammar. However, it has never overcome the asymmetry between lexical (derivation) and morphological (inflection) regularity. Instead, the more recent agenda of investigation set by Cognitive Grammar keeps the prospective approach but submits linguistic creativity to the constructions that configure every natural language, dispensing with the concept 'rule' together with the modular model of human cognition, and the traditional distinctions among inflection, derivation, and compounding. In my critical appropriation of Cognitive Grammar, the generalizations about word formation in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) are sensitive to semantic distinction, be it due to polysemy, homonymy, change, or modes of processing. Thus, the specific purposes of this project are: (i) to establish intellectual exchange with researchers devoted to the study of grammar under Cognitive Linguistics at the Catholic University of Portugal (UCP) in Braga, in the person of its supervisor, Full Professor Augusto Soares da Silva; (ii) to discuss the relevance of the distinction between polysemy and homonymy to word formation in European Portuguese (EP); (iii) to collect and analyse EP data that confirm or disconfirm the sensitivity of word formation to semantic distinction (differentiation) or distribution (variation); (iv) to internationalize the investigation I carry out in the line of research Language and Cognition of the Graduate Program in Language and Literature at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNFESP). (AU)