Para lá das perífrases: os verbos “começar” e “acabar” enquanto verbos não auxiliares - algumas perspetivas

Research output: Working paper

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Abstract

Portuguese verbs such as "começar" and "acabar" can be classified according to their syntactic properties, in which transitivity is established as a stable feature. Therefore, when we observe some examples, e.g. "comecei o trabalho / acabei o livro", it can be realized that these sentences describe linguistic events allowing for the analysis of the properties that are inherent to transitivity. The selection of a nominal argument, preferably when quantified – *"comecei trabalhos / comecei alguns trabalhos / *acabei livros / acabei alguns livros" – emphasizes this
property. However, contrary to what could be expected, only "começar" accepts passivation satisfactorily. Based on these observations, this paper intends to focus on the discussion of the functioning of these two verbs, highlighting mainly their semantic - enunciative properties, in which aspectual values - regarding (a)telicity properties - of "acabar" are different from "começar". Nevertheless, both verbs allow co-occurrence with "já". However, with "acabar", "já" has a predominantly aspectual reading, while with "começar", "já" manifests a temporal value. It should also be noted that "começar" and "acabar" define, respectively, the frontiers of opening and closing the domain of a notion as proposed, among others, by Franckel (1989), Peeters (1993), and Camus (2004)).
Original languagePortuguese
Place of PublicationLisbon
PublisherNOVA FCSH - CLUNL
Pages39-42
Number of pages4
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Publication series

NameCADERNOS WGT: (Novos) Balanços e perspetivas

Keywords

  • gramática e texto
  • perífrases
  • verbo começar
  • verbo acabar

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