Use of the argumentative operator 'fora isso' in contemporary Portuguese

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães Lopes, Monclar
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Fontoura Bittencourt, Barbara Andrea, Costa Boechat, Ana Luiza
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Confluência
• Texto Completo: https://revistaconfluencia.org.br/rc/article/view/1368
• topic: Fora isso; Argumentative operator; Usage-based Linguistics; Argumentative Semantics; Fora isso; Operador Argumentativo; Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso; Semântica Argumentativa

The aim of this article is to describe two different contexts of use of the construction fora isso in contemporary Portuguese. To achieve this goal, we analysed 100 tokens from the Web Dialects database (www.corpusdoportugues.org) using a qualitative-quantitative and descriptive-explicative approach. We applied the theoretical and methodological assumptions of usage-based linguistics (ROSARIO, 2022; TRAUGOTT, TROUSDALE, 2013, BYBEE, 2010, et al.) in dialogue with the studies of argumentative semantics (DUCROT, 1973; DUCROT; VOGT, 1979; ANSCOMBRE; DUCROT, 1983). The results show that fora isso is an argumentative operator that carries a semantic value of exception, used pragmatically to introduce convergent arguments (in the same direction, with additive value) or divergent ones (in the opposite direction, with contrastive value). In addition, the construction exhibits backward and forward movement, which is syntactically more pronounced: in the backward movement, a preceding part of the text, which is considered less relevant within the argumentative text scale, is encapsulated; in the forward movement, on the other hand, the subsequent information is placed at the centre.