Managing the common ground: the pragmatic marker sabe in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This article analyzes the pragmatic marker sabe in Brazilian Portuguese from the perspective of Usage-Based Construction Grammar. It argues that this marker constitutes a mechanism of interactional monitoring oriented toward the management of the common ground and the intersubjective coordination between interlocutors. Based on a qualitative analysis of 1,524 occurrences extracted from Corpus do Português, two major functional patterns were identified. Use 1, preventive or corrective in nature, arises in the presence of a Potential Source of Misalignment (PSM), that is, a proposition that threatens the proper incorporation of information into the common ground by generating a risk of misinterpretation; in such cases, the marker recalibrates the discourse flow to ensure interpretive alignment. By contrast, Use 2 occurs in contexts of common ground stability, in the absence of a PSM, in which “sabe” takes on the role of a positive politeness marker, reinforcing affiliation between participants. The article thus advances the generalization that “sabe” constitutes an intersubjective resource sensitive to the state of the common ground, systematically associated with its maintenance or adjustment in the course of discursive interaction.