Grammaticalization, variation, multifunctionality and everything: circumscription of the discursive-pragmatic variable and such
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2021e76845Abstract
Based in a variation-grammaticalization interface perspective, the goals of this study are: (i) to describe and exemplify two of the strategies that can be employed to delimit a linguistic variable – the strict variation perspective and the trajectory of grammaticalization perspective; (ii) to apply the trajectory of grammaticalization perspective to the delimitation of a discursive-pragmatic variable, the general extension. This variable can be understood as a functional macro-domain that brings together forms whose functions arose from a grammaticalization process which has evolved between two micro-domains. The general extensors taken as variants are E TAL (AND THAT) and E TUDO (AND EVERYTHING). The data were extracted from FALA-Natal Database. We show that discursive-pragmatic variables can be circumscribed according to the trajectory of grammaticalization perspective, particularly the one which takes into account the distinction between functional macro and micro-domains. This strategy can be applied to discursive-pragmatic forms to deal with their multifunctionality, ensuring a uniform treatment to variation at all language levels.
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