“Sair fora” as a Grammaticalized Resultative Construction in Brazilian Portuguese: An Empirical Study Grounded in Cognitive Linguistics

Authors

  • Heronides Moura Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.
  • Alcione Alves Hülse Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.v31i70.70718.pt

Keywords:

Cognitive Linguistics, Grammaticalization, Resultative Constructions, Verb-Particle Constructions, Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

this article investigates the functioning, productivity, and semantic organization of the construction sair fora and its synonymous variants in Brazilian Portuguese, based on authentic data extracted from the X platform (formerly Twitter). Grounded in Cognitive Linguistics, particularly in constructionist approaches, the study provides evidence that the schematic pattern [V + fora] constitutes a resultative construction already grammaticalized in the language, whose productivity appears to stem from motivated analogy. The analysis of 1.403 occurrences distributed across 15 types suggests that the variant forms instantiate the same constructional schema with the meaning of evasion/abandonment, and that they differ in terms of the manner-of-motion features that their respective verbs incorporate into the action. The results point to the existence of a prototypical nucleus – sair fora – from which radially organized semantic extensions develop. The study further supports the hypothesis that Brazilian Portuguese exhibits a hybrid pattern of motion-event lexicalization, revealing the presence of resultative patterns analogous to those found in satellite-framed languages. 

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Author Biographies

  • Heronides Moura, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.
    Possui graduação em Licenciatura em Letras pela Universidade Federal da Paraíba (1985), mestrado em Lingüística pela Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (1988) , doutorado em Lingüística pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas (1996) e pós-doutorado pela Sorbonne Nouvelle (2000). É professor Titular da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, onde atua desde 1990. É coordenador da Pós-graduação em Linguística da UFSC (2012-2014). Coordena, também, o NES (Núcleo de Estudos em Semântica Lexical)
  • Alcione Alves Hülse, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.

    Doutoranda em Linguística

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Published

2026-08-05

Issue

Section

(v. 31, n. 70) - Linguagem e Cognição: Abordagens Contemporâneas

How to Cite

“Sair fora” as a Grammaticalized Resultative Construction in Brazilian Portuguese: An Empirical Study Grounded in Cognitive Linguistics. (2026). Gragoatá, 31(70), e70718. https://doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.v31i70.70718.pt