Os advérbios preposicionais antes de, diante de, em frente a (de) e em face de: gradiência e fixação de padrões construcionais

Abstract

The present dissertation aims to investigate the use of the Brazilian prepositional adverbs antes de, diante de, em frente a (de) and em face de, which, according to the analyzed data, are characterized as hybrid elements, since they show traits of both grammatical categories: adverbs and prepositions. It was possible to verify that the prepositional adverbs are grammatical microconstructions and that, at a more schematic level, they make up the prepositional adverb construction, represented by [(claused/ reduced claused) + Adv. + SN / reduced claused + (clause)].We have identified that this construction presents different constructional patterns that instantiate the notions of space, opposition, time, effect / result, cause and concession. Such patterns are due to a contextual gradient, therefore, in more locative contexts, the more the prepositional properties are, the more adverbial properties are in the contexts more abstract, which characterizes the categorical continuum of this grammatical class, as well as the cognitive perspective. In addition, we show the trajectory space> time> text, in which the category is configured as a diffuse zone of signification, with functional overlaps, where it is possible to recognize the contextual gradient, where meaning is envisaged depending on the context of use. This research, whose data were extracted from the Folha de São Paulo and Estadão newspapers, between July and October 2017, is based on the Usage-Based Functional Linguistics (LFCU), in which the functionalist and cognitivist language and languages, according to Traugott and Trousdale (2013), Traugott (2013, 2012, 2008), Croft (2001), among others.