Scalarity and concessivity: the evolution of mesmo in Classical Portuguese

• Grant number: 24/06516-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: December 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Historical Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Sanderléia Roberta Longhin
• Grantee: Ítalo Silva Scacalossi
• 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 aim of this project is to research aspects of the historical constitution ofarticulated concessive constructions with mesmo que and mesmo se in the light oftheoretical assumptions of Grammaticalization (NARROG; HEINE, 2021;BYBEE, 2010, 2015). Our interest lies in studying distributional and semanticproperties of the adverbial source mesmo. We pose the hypothesis that usages ofmesmo as a scalar focalizer would allow for a reading of an expectation drop due tothe type(s) of scale applied in specific contexts, which would help explain itshistorical transition between scalarity and concessivity. The research is carried outfrom a diachronic perspective, based on data extracted from texts in different genreswhich have been written over a time frame of two centuries ( 17 th and 18 th century).