Polysemy in the uses of the verb 'ter': arbitrariness or iconicity? A question of point of view

Abstract

Bsed on the phenomenon of polysemy in the uses of ter, in which the verb shows categorical statuses of full verb and auxiliary, the aim of this research is to describe and to analyze the uses of ter in BP from a diachronic point of view. From a functional perspective, the auxiliary uses would have developed from one another, from the possession meaning of the verb. The hypothesis is that this development would not occur in BP; there would not be iconicity between ter and its functions; it would have occurred in a past, because many arbitrary linguistic phenomena result of past iconic structures. This research is based on a functional perspective of language, more specifically on assumptions of Heine et al. (1991), Hopper (1991) and others. The research uses language data from the 16^th to 20^th century, collected from Corpus do Português (available in: <www.corpusdoportugues.org.br>). The uses of the verb are described and analyzed considering their categorical status and the semantic value of the verb and afterwards they are quantified. The investigation shows existence of uses of ter with categorical statuses [+ auxiliary] and [+ full verb] in the texts concerning all periods. A change process in the uses of the verb is not identifiable in BP.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2018n46a1109