Conceptual domains for conditional conectors in Portuguese

Abstract

This research offers a wide-ranging discussion about conditional construction in Portuguese. The main goal here is to show how conditional meaning can be explained on the basis of its conceptual domains. The assumptions made here are based on the usage based approach following mainly Bybee (2010) and Dancygier (1998). The analysis suggests that conditionality may be conceived as a complex category that covers for a variety of very different patterns of constructions. The analysis focus on all different patterns of constructions in order to observe how their meaning rely on the basic conditionality parameters. Therefore it is possible to explain aspects of their meaning based on the conceptual domains they emerge from. As a main result, the paper will provide a comprehensive understanding of the conditional meaning in Brazilian Portuguese and its various facets. The data analyzed is collected at an online database available at www.corpusdoportugues.org.