Abstract

PEZATTI, Erotilde Goreti. CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS AND SIMILAR STRUCTURES: CONTRAST, FOCUS AND EMPHASIS. Lingüística [online]. 2012, vol.28, n.1, pp.57-72. ISSN 2079-312X.

This paper deals with so called cleft constructions and other similar structures in eight Portuguese varieties, aiming to show that the formal differences correspond to different functional strategies used by the Speaker to achieve his/her communicative intentions, i.e., Focus, Contrast and Emphasis, in accordance with the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar (Hengeveld and Mackenzie, 2008). This study takes as evidence real spoken occurrences extracted from a corpus organized by Linguistic Centre at the University of Lisbon, in partnership with the University of Toulousse Mirail and the University of Provence-Aix-Marseille. The results show the following distribution: cleft construction is a strategy for pragmatic function Contrast marking; Focus-ser constructions are used to highlight a constituent and (é) que is used as an operator of emphasis the speaker's desire to intensify certain pieces of information

Keywords : varieties of Portuguese; cleft constructions; focus; contrast; emphasis.

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