The gramaticalization of capaz in brazilian portuguese and spanish
This article discusses different stages of grammaticalization of the expression capaz in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. In these languages, capaz can function as a predicative adjective (meaning ‘able’ / ‘capable’) and correspond to an abilitative modal: João é capaz de dançar tango / Juan es cap...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2021 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Institución: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) |
| Repositorio: | Cadernos de Estudos Linguísticos |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8661586 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/cel/article/view/8661586 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Capaz Modalidade Gramaticalização Modality Grammaticalization |
| Sumario: | This article discusses different stages of grammaticalization of the expression capaz in Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. In these languages, capaz can function as a predicative adjective (meaning ‘able’ / ‘capable’) and correspond to an abilitative modal: João é capaz de dançar tango / Juan es capaz de bailar tango. These sentences also convey an epistemic meaning: João is likely to dance tango. Brazilian Portuguese and American Spanish, but not European Spanish, still have a particular epistemic use of capaz, with a finite complement: (É) capaz que ninguém vá na sua casa / (Es) capaz que nadie vaya a su casa. Besides, there are constructions in Brazilian Portuguese where capaz functions as a discourse marker, indicating surprise/negative point of view of the speaker: Capaz que a Maria casou!. We propose that, at each reanalysis, capaz occupies a higher position in the clausal structure, establishing a characteristic grammaticalization path: loss of etymological sense > development of epistemic sense (bi-clausal structures) > acquisition of discursive function (mono-clausal structure). |
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