Encapsulamento e sequenciação retroativo-propulsora: o uso de construções com preposições complexas na articulação textual

Abstract

This dissertation aims to investigate the usage contexts of “antes de”, “diante de”, “em face de” e “em frente a (de)”, formed by the scheme [XAdv. YPrep] Adv. Prep.], from the sample analysis of language uses, showing the categoric fluidity depending on the communicative contexts in where are there. The hypothetic investigation is that those constructions do not only work as locative/temporal expressions; they might also work as cohesively mechanisms, such as ―anáforas encapsuladoras‖. To this end, Constructionist Approach to Grammar (Croft, 2001; Goldberg, 1995; Traugott, Trousdale, 2013) had been used. It considers language as a cognitive representation of human experience, being influenced by the social and pragmatic contexts. For the analysis, 43 samples extracted from the “Corpus do Português” (Davies, 2019) were used and the methodology used is qualitative-quantitative. The general results indicate that "diante de" presented higher productivity than the others. In addition, it was demonstrated that "antes de", "Diante de", and "em face de" act as indicators of anterior space, presenting a causal relationship with the previous clause when combined with a neutral demonstrative. It suggests that such notions of spatial location are metaphorical, but when these microconstructions are associated with more concrete referents they tend to have a more spatial meaning, while when linked to more abstract items they acquire a more adverbial value, providing encapsulation. "Em frente a (de)" and "em face de" presented particularities in relation to the others. "Em face de", by encapsulating what was previously said, is used to introduce conclusions and/or evaluations based on the previous arguments, while "em frente a (de)" did not show evidence of acting as an encapsulator; it had been showed linked to locative noun phrases.