Explodir de tanto ódio: análise funcional-construcionista de [Xefeito DE Yintensificador Zcausa]GRAD

Abstract

On this research, we investigate a strategy of intensification of concepts. It corresponds to the cause-effect degree construction with an intensifier (henceforth, CGCEI), which licenses tokens such as derreter de tanto amor, morrer de tanto trabalhar and brilhando de tão feliz. Our goal is to analyze this constructional pattern in formal and functional terms, based on linguistic uses in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. For that, our theoretical support is the Usage-based Functional Linguistics (Furtado da Cunha; Bispo; Silva, 2013; Rosário; Oliveira, 2016; Bispo; Lopes, 2022; Furtado da Cunha; Bispo, 2023), which incorporates theoretical assumptions and operational concepts from Construction Grammar according to Goldberg (2003, 2006), Östman and Fried (2005), Traugott and Trousdale (2013), and Hilpert (2014). In methodological terms, this is a synchronic and descriptive-explanatory research with deductive-inductive reasoning. The empirical material consists of 444 tokens of CGCEI, produced between 2012 and 2019, collected from the Corpus do Português - NOW sample. The analysis of the instances of use leads us to conclusions. In constructional terms, the CGCEI is formalized as [XEFFECT DE YINTENSIFIER ZCAUSE]GRAD, being, as such, a schematic, productive and partially compositional pattern. From a morphosyntactic point of view, the scheme recruits several phrases: VP and AdjP for slot X; VP, AdjP and NP for slot Z. Slot Y, in turn, recruits adverbial forms - tanto or tão - or pronominal forms - tanto(a). From a semantic-cognitive point of view, we verify the intensification of notions of abstract referents, events, and attributes. In addition, we understand that the conceptualization of the intensifier degree linked to the constructional pattern of CGCEI is anchored in metaphorical and metonymic processes, based on frames of IMPACTING EXPERIENCES. In the discursivepragmatic field, we identify the mobilization of invited inference and (inter)subjectivity in uses of CGCEI to achieve, in discursive terms, effects such as empathy, antipathy and persuasion.