“Vai pensandinho aí”: characteristics of the diminutive gerund in Brazilian Portuguese
This study analyses the structure of the gerund + diminutive, as found in expressions like Está chovendinho ('It is raining lightly'), which are common in Curitiba, Brazil. The goal is to analyze its semantic-pragmatic characteristics, proposing a comparison with conventional implicature....
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | Brasil |
| Institución: | Universidade de Brasília (UnB) |
| Repositorio: | Caderno de Squibs |
| Idioma: | portugués |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/58747 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/cs/article/view/58747 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | gerúndio diminutivo aspecto verbal implicatura gerund diminutive verbal aspect implicature |
| Sumario: | This study analyses the structure of the gerund + diminutive, as found in expressions like Está chovendinho ('It is raining lightly'), which are common in Curitiba, Brazil. The goal is to analyze its semantic-pragmatic characteristics, proposing a comparison with conventional implicature. We analyze certain properties of the gerund and the diminutive, understanding that this combination provides clues for comprehending the case in question. Our data reveal a semantic restriction of gerund+diminutive constructions in contexts without activities; the occurrence of this construction in different periphrases; and an impossibility of associating it with conventional implicature. We conclude that, despite progress in characterizing the phenomenon, further investigation is needed into its semantic-pragmatic contribution in Portuguese. |
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