For a cognitively plausible explanation of the conjunction in Portuguese

Abstract

The aim of this article is to generally propose a theoretical model to explain the conjunction “e” from a semantic, pragmatic, and cognitive point of view. If Robyn Carston’s (2002) contextualist analysis can be defended and show itself as the best option before of the problems inherent to other approaches, the primary pragmatic process called by Recanati (2010) “modulation” is a reality, at least in this case, in the semantic composition of natural languages. In other words, the evidence of the existence of at least one case in which optional contextual factors – the ones that, contrary to indexicality, are not demanded by strictly linguistic rules – affect the propositional content of utterances.