Grammaticalization of verbs and morphosyntactic contexts
Keywords:
grammaticalization, verbal items, morphosyntactic context.Abstract
In this paper I investigate grammaticalized uses of some verbs (for instance, ver “to see”, sentir “to feel” and achar “to think”) in order to verify the relationship between grammaticalization
and morphosyntactic contexts. Then, I examine data of spoken Brazilian Portuguese from the 20th Century. The analyzed sample consists of interviews from two Projects: PEUL (Program of Studies on the Use of Language) and PEPP (Program of Studies on Spoken Popular Portuguese from
Salvador). Based on theoretical assumptions of the functionalist approach, I show that, in some cases, the morphosyntactic context contributes somehow to the result of the rammaticalized item.