The stative construction with the verb ‘to be’

Authors

  • José Romerito Silva Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2507-9742
  • Marília Campos Sabino Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.v25i52.40820

Keywords:

Stative construction. Verb to be. Usage-based Functional Linguistics. Construction Grammar.

Abstract

In this paper, our object of study is the stative construction with the verb to be – CE-Ser. We aim to analyze uses of this construction in contemporary Portuguese considering the lexicon-grammar continuum. In this sense, we differ, above of all, from approaches to which the verb to be is merely relational and meaningless. The analysis is of a qualitative-interpretative nature, based on Functional Usage-based Linguistics as well as Construction Grammar. The database comes from Corpus Discurso & Gramática (VOTRE; OLIVEIRA, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998; FURTADO DA CUNHA, 1998) and Banco Conversacional de Natal (FURTADO DA CUNHA, 2011), comprising texts in spoken and written modalities. The results indicate that the be-construction is instantiated by a gradient range of microconstructions, which are distributed between those in which to be is more lexical and those in which this verb has a purely procedural role. In this variety of uses, cognitive and discursive-pragmatic factors are implicated as motivating mechanisms.

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Author Biographies

José Romerito Silva, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

Professor Associado 2 da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). É vinculado à Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia (ECT/UFRN), ministrando disciplinas na área de Práticas de Leitura e Escrita, e ao Programa de Pós-graduação em Estudos da Linguagem (PPgEL/UFRN), atuando no desenvolvimento e na orientação de pesquisas em Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso junto ao grupo de estudos Discurso & Gramática.

Marília Campos Sabino, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)

Doutoranda do Programa de Pós-graduação em Estudos da Linguagem da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (PPgEL/UFRN). Atua na rede estadual de ensino do Rio Grande do Norte e participa do Grupo de Pesquisa Discurso & Gramática (D&G/UFRN).

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Published

2020-09-21

How to Cite

Silva, J. R., & Sabino, M. C. (2020). The stative construction with the verb ‘to be’. Gragoatá, 25(52), 757-784. https://doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.v25i52.40820

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 52 (2020): Grammar of constructions and interfaces

Section

Artigos

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