História de uma completiva: origem e desenvolvimento do complemento oracional introduzido por se do português

O propósito deste trabalho é investigar o percurso histórico da oração completiva iniciada pela conjunção se do português, que também introduz, nessa e em outras línguas românicas, uma oração adverbial condicional. Com base em registros de filólogos e romanistas, demonstra-se que a similaridade existente entre essas orações é resultado de gramaticalização da oração condicional que, no latim, passou a funcionar como oração completiva, em razão da extinção das partículas interrogativas que passaram a ser substituídas pela conjunção condicional latina si. Como oração completiva, a oração com se submete-se à gramaticalização, integrando-se à oração matriz de um modo que, conforme proposta de Hopper e Traugott (1993) e de Lehmann (1988), é próprio a construções completivas. A forma que tem essa oração de se gramaticalizar, incorporando-se à oração matriz, é, entretanto, diferente do que é previsto ocorrer a uma completiva introduzida por que, uma diferença que se deve, sobretudo, ao significado hipotético que a completiva com se preserva de sua fonte histórica. Demonstra-se, por fim, que, do português arcaico ao português contemporâneo, a gramaticalização do complemento oracional introduzido por se não se configura em mudança diacrônica, já que essa gramaticalização é atestada desde períodos mais remotos, em textos do século XIV.

Tenho feito/fiz a tese: uma proposta de caracterização do pretérito perfeito no Português

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A manifestação das diferentes modalidades no emprego do verbo auxiliar poder em português e em espanhol: análise do discurso de autoajuda

This paper aims to investigate the behavior of the modal verb poder as an auxiliary verb in text written in both two Romance languages, Brazilian Portuguese and Iberian Spanish. This research follows a functionalist language approach, more precisely the Dutch Functional Grammar tradition, based on the modality classification proposed by Hengeveld (2004). This author considers two main criteria: target of evaluation, and semantic domain of evaluation. Considering this classification, we analyze the use of the auxiliary verb poder in a corpus of self-help discourses, which currently enjoy enormous popularity in various parts of the world. Although in Portuguese the auxiliary verb poder is essentially an epistemic modal (cf. Neves 1999-2000) —which, according to the Hengeveld (2004), corresponds to the event-oriented epistemic modality—. However, our analysis show that, given the essentially optimistic nature of the discourse analyzed, the self-help discourse, the previously mentioned modal verb (poder) behaves predominantly as a participant-oriented facultative modal. This result demonstrates the importance of considering the context of occurrence of the verb poder in order to evaluate the effects of meaning associated with its use.

Percurso diacrônico de completivas introduzidas por 'como' no português

As a more extensive issue, this paper deals with the polysemy attested in all Romance languages between interrogative pronouns and subordination markers in complex sentences. It investigates, specifically, the behavior of objective complement clauses introduced by “como” (“how”) in constructions in which they occur as equivalent to the meaning of prototypical declarative complement clause introduced by the conjunction “que” (“that”). It analyzes complement clauses introduced by “como” and “que” occurring in representative Portuguese texts from the thirteenth to the twentieth centuries. The results of the comparative analysis between the two forms of clausal complement show that in archaic Portuguese “como” was used primarily to introduce complement clauses of factive verbs. When the complement clause is introduced by “como”, the content that is presupposed as true due to the meaning of matrix verb has reinforced this factuality. In the passage from the archaic to the modern period, there was a drastic decrease in the frequency of occurrences of complement clauses with “como”, which are replaced by the form of completive introduced by the conjunction “que” in the context of factual constructions. In contemporary Portuguese, this replacement is fully established. Complement clauses with “como” remain rare and limited to specific contexts in which “como” maintains its reinforcement function of factual meaning.

A trajetória das alterações semânticas nas línguas e os seus reflexos no campo do ensino de língua estrangeira e da tradução

The purpose of this study is to reflect on some formally similar lexical units belonging to different foreign languages that although having had the same origin, their meanings today are considerably different from their original meanings. This complex process is understood, however, when a diachronic path of these lexical units is established in order to find justification or probable occurrences for the causes that triggered the semantic changes observed. These reflections aim to foster discussion about the consequences of such changes in the emergence of the so-called “false cognates”.

Transposição de metros clássicos em língua portuguesa: histórico e estudo do caso das Odes e elegias, de Magalhães de Azeredo

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Lo sviluppo linguistico (L1): L'acquisizione degli articoli nei bambini italiani e spagnoli

This project focuses on the acquisition of Italian and Spanish as mother tongues. Chapter 1 explores some of the main theories concerning language acquisition in order to give a general overview about this field of investigation. Chapter 2 presents the main steps of the acquisition of Italian and Spanish during childhood as described by Camaioni (2001) and Hernández Pina (1990). Chapter 3 contains an analysis carried out on several transcripts of natural conversations between children and their parents. Particular attention was paid to understand how Italian and Spanish children acquire definite and indefinite articles between 18 and 30 months of age. The goal of this paper is to understand whether Italian and Spanish children follow the same pattern of language acquisition when articles are considered, given the undoubtable similarity of these two Romance languages. The results of this study suggest that the acquisition of articles by native Italian and Spanish speakers mirrors such similarity. Yet, Spanish children seem faster at learning new uses of articles (i.e. articulated prepositions), but at first they make many more mistakes compared to Italians. This suggests that Spanish children tend to make experiments with the linguistic items they already know in order to increase their linguistic competences. On the other hand, Italians seem slower at learning new features of their mother tongue, but the number of mistakes they make is generally lower, which suggests that they rather stabilize their competences before learning new ones. The analysis also highlights the importance of imitation in the process of language acquisition: children tend to repeat what they hear from their parents to learn new features of their mother tongue. Needless to say, this paper only aims at serving as a springboard for further investigation, since language acquisition remains a fascinating and largely unsolved process.

De l’expressió de la percepció sensorial auditiva a l’expressió del discurs reportat. El verb sentir en català medieval (s. XIII–XVI)

This study analyzes the process of semantic change by which the Old Catalan verb sentir developed from a meaning based on general perception to one implying auditory perception. In particular, the article shows that by the end of the 13th century the verb sentir had only semanticized the perception of non-linguistic auditory stimuli and had not fused completely with the meaning of the verb oir, as was the case with the evolution of SĔNTĪRE in other Romance languages (such as Peninsular Spanish). Our study has been based on data analysis of an electronic linguistic corpus using the concepts of E. C. Traugott’s Invited Inferencing Theory of Semantic Change (IITSC) (2012) and the concept of evidentiality.

Old University Hall from across State Street

On verso: J. Weare

Looking south along State Street sometime between 1880 and 1893

On verso: Birds eye view of campus with buildings - campus contains 40 acres of ground and is covered with some ten buildings located on different parts of it - It is in center of city pop. 10000

Museum

William L. Jenney, architect. Originally University Museum, built 1880-1881. Roof replaced 1894. Museum moved in 1928. Housed Department of Romance Languages after 1928. Building razed in 1958. Old University Hall on left.

Museum

William L. Jenney, architect. Originally University Museum, built 1880-1881. Roof replaced 1894. Museum moved in 1928. Housed Department of Romance Languages after 1928. Building razed in 1958. Handwritten on mount: So. wing Main Building. Museum. Front facing State Street i.e. West side. Library