Full text
| |
| Author(s): |
Edson Rosa Francisco de Souza
Total Authors: 1
|
| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem |
| Defense date: | 2009-00-00 |
| Examining board members: |
Mariangela Rios de Oliveira;
Marize Mattos Dall'Aglio Hattnher;
Sebastião Carlos Leite Gonçalves;
Angel Humberto Corbera Mori
|
| Advisor: | Ingedore Grunfeld Villaça Koch |
| Abstract | |
This study aims at analyzing the multifunctionality of the items assim 'thus', já 'already' and aí 'there' in Brazilian Portuguese, according to the theoretical approaches of Functional Discourse Grammar (HENGEVELD & MACKENZIE, 2008) and Grammaticalization (HOPPER & TRAUGOTT, 1993; TRAUGOTT, 1995; etc.), taking into account their deictic, textual and interactional functions. Grammaticalization is considered here as a process of linguistic change in which a lexical (or grammatical) item fulfills more grammatical functions, in the direction of the pragmatic component of the language (TRAUGOTT, 1982; TRAUGOTT, 1995, 1999; TRAUGOTT & KÖNIG, 1991). In other words, it is a process of change which includes, according to the authors, both the gradual increase of meaning pragmatization (inference) and the increase of the linguistic item abstratization (metaphorical strategies), which develops from the more concrete use to the more abstract/expressive use. Thus, based on the theoretical postulates of Grammaticalization and the ones of Functional Discourse Grammar, I aim at showing that the linguistic items assim, já and aí can be analyzed according to the levels (Representational and Interpersonal) and the layers (semantic and pragmatic) of organization of FDG, in such a way that the functional expansion of these elements in the levels and layers of FDG can be considered as a linguistic evidence that these elements are grammaticalizing in the language, fulfilling other grammatical and discursive functions through their path of change, in direction to the textual and interactional dimensions of the language. Considering the FDG semantic and pragmatic categories, I show that the more concrete uses of assim, já and aí, such as the ones of manner, time and place adverbs, respectively, are placed in the event layer, in the Representational Level, and as soon as these items fulfill other functions in the language, such as textual functions (anaphoric and cataphoric adverbs, episode introducer, relational adverb and coordinative and subordinative conjunctions) and discursive functions (Communicated content introducer, approximative operator of Referential and Ascriptive subacts, discourse marker and topic organizer), these elements start to operate in other layers in the Representational Level and in the Interpersonal Level, going through an unidirectional path of change, which goes from the Representational Level to the Interpersonal Level. This GR path of the current data of assim, já and aí is partially confirmed by the diachronic analysis of these adverbial elements in historical documents of the XII-XX centuries. The diachronic analysis, besides attesting the gradual feature of the change, shows several GR stages of the items assim, já and aí, specially the textual uses, which are maintained up until now. The analysis of the data is composed by 2914 occurrences from 38 interviews from IBORUNA database. From this total number, the item aí corresponds to 45% (1298/2914) and the item assim comprises 41% (1199/2914). The item já is the least frequent in the analyzed interviews, with only 417 occurrences (14% of the data). Generally speaking, the data analysis shows that, in terms of GR, the linguistic item assim is the most grammaticalized element in the collected data of Brazilian Portuguese, it, besides functioning in the semantic layers at the Representational Level, also functions in the higher layer of the Interpersonal Level, which is the one of the movement, defined as the most grammatical/expressive one. The linguistic item aí has interactional functions only until the layer of the discourse act, which is under the scope of the movement layer. Thus, compared to the other items under analysis, the item já is the least grammaticalized one, since its uses are more concentrated in the semantic layers of the Representational Level, with only some interpersonal uses. This functional configuration is confirmed by the GR criteria proposed by Hopper (1991), which shows that the linguistic items assim, já and aí are still in the process of change. This is confirmed by the GR parameters proposed by Lehmann (1995), which show that these items have still some autonomy in Brazilian Portuguese, since they also function as adverbs of manner, time and place. (AU) | |