The phoric predicate construction in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This article analyzes the phoric predicate construction with the verb do (fazer), in data from contemporary Brazilian Portuguese, based on theoretical and methodological foundations of Usage-Based Functional Linguistics, oriented to explain the processes of constructionalization and constructional change. The analyzes demonstrate that such construction establishes a phoric relation (anaphor or cataphor) with some referent predicate already mentioned, for being mentioned or from the situational context. The research also reveals that the process of reference to a predicate can occur through the repetition of the referent, which allows us to treat the phenomenon, also, from a variation perspective.

Keywords

• proforma verbal, gramática das construções, mudança construcional.