A description of the pragmatic function of mas and aí in Brazilian Portuguese: analysis on the functional equivalents of German Modal Particles

Marceli Aquino

doi:10.22297/2316-17952023v12e02304

Authors

Marceli Aquino Universidade de São Paulo (USP) https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0518-7639

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22297/2316-17952023v12e02304

Keywords:

Modal Particles, Modality in Portuguese, Contrastive analysis of functional equivalents

Abstract

In this article, we introduce an investigation on the description of the modal function of mas and aí in Brazilian Portuguese. Using a cross-linguistic approach, we propose a shared pragmatic function of these items with German Modal Particles - MPs - (aber and doch), consisting in the discourse grammatical function of anchoring the utterance in an assumed dialogic setting (DIEWALD et al. 2017). Examples of an authentic corpus in Portuguese (from responses to an online questionnaire) were analyzed first within the 3-format semantic scheme (DIEWALD; FISCHER, 1998) and, secondly, within the Descriptive Format scheme (DIEWALD et al. 2017). Therefore, this proposal is original and unprecedented, since, in addition to analyzing, from a functional perspective, the particles of Brazilian Portuguese, it proposes, with a translinguistic approach, a pragmatic function of such items, so that they can be seen as equivalent to the German MPs. The results indicate that it is possible to describe a pragmatic function and formal characteristics of Modal Particles in Portuguese, emphasizing the importance of such description for the adequacy of the grammatical classification of modal elements in languages other than German, as well as a contribution for the learning and teaching of these linguistic phenomena in a plurilingual setting.

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Author Biography

Marceli Aquino, Universidade de São Paulo (USP)

Docente da Universidade São Paulo (USP). Doutora em Linguística Aplicada pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG).

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