PREDICAR Project

The PREDICAR Project, led by Marcia dos Santos Machado Vieira (UFRJ), is linked to the research line “Language and society: variation and change” of the Vernacular Letters Graduate Program at the Faculty of Letters of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). After almost 20 years of activity, it is in the sixth phase of developing scientific investigations.

The first phase (2002-2008) was developed under the title Formation and Expression of complex predicates: verbal polyfunctionality, an unfolding of the PhD Thesis Syntax and semantics of predictions with the verb FAZER by Machado Vieira (2001). It started on the occasion that it competed for the Supporting Newly Professor 'Antonio Luís Vianna' (ALV'2002) Program at UFRJ and was classified among 10 research projects sent by the UFRJ Teaching Council for Graduates (CEG) to Fundação Universitária José Bonifácio (FUJB), from whom, in 2004, received financial support for the purchase of permanent goods and materials. In this phase, we invested in the study of the polyfunctionality of verbal forms and in the description of certain extensions of use/meaning of these as grammatical operators in verbal periphrases and verbal-nominal periphrases. The work front was: "Multifunctional behavior in simple and complex verbal forms.”

The second phase (2008-2012), registered under the title “PREDICAR – Formation and expression of complex predicates: perception and use in Brazil and Portugal”, proposed a refinement of the research about complex predicates made up of verb and non-verbal element   based on materials that allowed the analysis (i) of the linguistic behavior of Brazilian Portuguese (PB) and Portuguese Portuguese (PP) users observable in new surveys of oral and written texts produced in different textual genres in these national varieties and (ii) of the perception and/or subjective evaluation of Brazilian and Portuguese speakers on different aspects detected from the analysis of multiple corpora. In addition, studies have also been developed on: the variable rule of verbal agreement in constructions with complex predicators accompanied by SE traditionally classified as passive, the alternation of pronominal verbs and full cognate verbs, the grammaticality of verbal forms and the lexicalization of constructions with support verb. The work front in this phase was: "Methodology of experimental research for studies of perception and subjective evaluation".

The third phase (2013-2017), entitled “PREDICAR - Formation and expression of complex predicates: grammaticality and lexicalization”, has centered on investigations related to the grammaticality of simple and complex verbal forms (focusing, first, those made up of relational verbs and (semi-)auxiliary, temporal and aspectual verbs) and the grammaticalization and lexicalization processes of constructions involving verbal items. The emphasis was on the semantic-discursive and syntactic behavior of verbal forms that undergo these processes of linguistic change, on the functional categorization of these forms and the constructions they compose, on the level of grammaticalization and/or lexicalization of these structures in comparison with their uses in other constructions that do not undergo such processes, in the semantic-discursive functions of the constructions in the composition of the textual sense and in different socio-communicative spaces and in the alternation between complex predicates and simple verbal forms of equivalent meaning. In this third phase, the project team began studies under the guidance of the Constructionist Approach and Cognitive Linguistics integrated to the guidelines of Functionalism and Sociofunctionalism (TAVARES, 2013), adopted since the beginning of the project. With this, the front that stood out was the following: "Change processes: grammaticalization and lexicalization or grammatical and lexical constructionalization".

In the fourth phase of the project (2016-2018), under the title Formation and expression of complex predicates: stability, variation and construction change (Stage I), two strands of research were consolidated. the ones that were triggered from studies carried out in the previous phase under functional-cognitive and constructionist focus and which have been added to the team's agenda of interests: "Form-sense pairing in complex predicates and predications" and "Processes of constructional change and (lexical and grammatical) constructionalization". Such interests have, since 2016, been supported by discussions promoted within the Discourse & Grammar Study Group (hosted in the Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Niterói (UFF) and Natal (UFRN) poles), of which the professor in the leadership of the Project PREDICAR is member.The fifth phase of the project (2018-2020), still under the same title Formation and expression of complex predicates: stability, variation and constructional change (Stage II), focuses on the development of socioconstructionist studies for the description of constructional variation based on the article by MACHADO VIEIRA (2016). With this, another research front is added to the previous research interests: "Socioconstructionist analysis of verbal forms". Then, the constructional variation becomes the phenomenon focused on the studies, without losing sight of what is stabilizing or what changes in the studies carried out. In general, we studied constructions with an argument structure or constructions of a procedural or lexical type. Investments were made in the study of relational constructions, grammatical constructions with support or (semi)auxiliary verbs, idiomatic constructions, constructions with a passive/indeterminate SE pronoun, constructions of discursive impersonalization (with haver, ter and ter-se, among other forms). These themes were focused: (i) the compatibility between (in)transitive constructions and simple or complex verbal forms, (ii) pragmatic, discursive, semantic, morphosyntactic and ((supra-) segmental) phonetic-phonological behavior of verbal forms and the constructions with which they are compatible, as well as their functional categorization, (iii) the level of schematicity, productivity and compositionality of these forms/structures in comparison with their uses in other constructions, (iv) the functions of constructions in the conceptualization of dynamic scenes or not.

To this end, Cognitivism and Construction Grammar guidelines were added to Functionalism and Sociofunctionalism guidelines adopted since the first three phases of the project.

In the sixth phase, the project, from 2020 on, under the title Formation and expression of complex predicates and predications: stability, variation and construction change, focuses on the  association and dissociation relations, as well as those of compatibility between constructions of different (lexical, (supra) sentential, discursive) levels. Then, it starts to operate with another work front: "Compatibility of predicate forms and predications in discursive constructions". Generalizations about suprasentential and discursive constructions are still a gap in the representations from constructionist studies in favor of the configuration of the Portuguese Construction Grammar. The investigations now assume a: (i) (cognitive-)functionalist focus and (ii) (socio)constructionist one (Goldberg, 1995, 2006, 2019; Hilpert, 2014, 2017; Cappelle, 2006; Perek, 2015; Diessel, 2015 and 2019; Machado vieira, 2016; Machado Vieira & Wiedemer, 2019; Schimid, 2020). Studies oriented towards what is stable and/or what varies or changes deal with: the compatibility ratio between (procedural and lexical) constructions, the grammaticality of simple or complex lexemes, as well as variation (by polysemy or analogy/similarity), construction change or (grammatical / procedural or lexical) construction of verbal / verb-nominal constructions. We search for constructions with an argument structure, referentiality and simple and complex predicators. It is understood that individual and socially shared linguistic knowledge are both stable and subject to variation and change.

We study relational constructions, grammatical constructions with (semi)support or (semi)auxiliary verbs, idiomatic constructions, constructions with a passive/indeterminate SE and verbal inflection in these constructions, constructions with color lexemes, constructions of discursive impersonalization, discursive attenuation and intensification, constructions of articulation of clauses, passive constructions, aspectuality and modalization constructions, desire/future constructions. These investigations focus on aspects such as: (i) the compatibility between (in)transitive constructions and simple or complex verbal forms, (ii) the pragmatic, discursive, semantic and morphosyntactic behavior of the verbal forms and constructions with which they are compatible, as well as their functional categorization, (iii) the level of schematicity, productivity and compositionality of these forms/structures in comparison with their uses in other constructions, (iv) the functions of constructions in the conceptualization of dynamic scenes or not or other actional contours, (v) the contextuality of constructions and the potential of discursive/suprasentential constructions.

To this end, guidelines from Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar are added to guidelines from Functionalism and Sociofunctionalism, these two adopted since the first three phases of the project. And it is also assumed its articulation with Sociolinguistics, in a socioconstructionist approach (defended in Machado Vieira & Wiedemer, 2019; Wiedemer & Machado Vieira, 2018).

Research oriented towards cases of variation by analogy deals with either (i) only simple verbal forms, (ii) simple and complex predicators, (iii) only verbal complexes, (iv) articulation of predications, (v) or from these to discursive constructions. And, from a look at the linguistic phenomena that also provides generalizations about constructional variation, we deal with the problems of restrictions, of transition and subjective evaluation, developing analyzes of materials related to uses, perceptions/subjective evaluations and attitudes in Brazil. It is assumed that not even members of a speech community have identical linguistic knowledge.

The investigation of semantic, discursive, pragmatic and cognitive functions of constructions in the elaboration of texts is of particular importance, considering different communicative and/or discursive practice spaces, as well as forces that operate on it and/or historical, social and according to which it occurs. Furthermore, the consequences of this elaboration on the linguistic system are of interest. In the study centered on linguistic elaboration, a multifactorial complex is conceived, acting on the relationship between use and generalization/systematicity, due to the phenomena of creativity/variability and repetition/unity.

According to Schmïd (to appear), motor activities (necessary for the production of utterances in verbal language (oral or written), signaled (signed languages) or non-verbal/corporal-gestural), sensory activities (necessary for the perception/evaluation and processing of utterances and aspects of contextuality) that matter referencing, meaning or understanding), cognitive and neuronal activities (necessary for the planning, formulation and understanding of contextually situated statements, as well as the potentiation and consolidation of associations or reorganization of associations) and social and interactional activities (inherent to communication) constitute conditions for emergence, persistence (or not), diffusion, variation, change of linguistic units/generalizations in the minds of individuals in a linguistic community and in the social network in which they participate (in the linguistic knowledge that the community shares). And at least four forces (related to different types of factors) influence these activities involved in use: (i) cognitive forces – for example, similarity, contiguity, salience, categorization, processing; (ii) pragmatic forces – for example, speech acts, scenarios/scenes, participants, types of events, intentions; (iii) emotional-affective forces – desire, self-centeredness, empathy, fun, indifference, rejection, among others; (iv) social forces – identity, solidarity, social networks, prestige, among others.

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