What does "mesmo" really mean?

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1984-8412.2017v14n2p2008 The aim of this paper is to raise awareness on the meanings of “mesmo” in Brazilian Portuguese (PB), which have not been explored by the literature yet. We noticed that this lexical item can affect the meaning of the sentence in different ways depending on several factors, which will be discussed later on. In addition to the analysis of “mesmo” in PB – based on Ilari (1996) and Guimarães (2010) –, we will also present proposals for “even”, in English – following Horn (1969) and Kartttunen e Peters (1979) –, and for “même”, in French – following Anscombre (1973) and Ducrot (1972, 1981). These analyses may shed light on some issues concerning “mesmo” in PB. We will also examine phenomena related to pressuposition and conventional implicature, by Grice (1975).

Keywords

• Pressuposição
• Implicatura
• "Mesmo"