Transitivity and constructional variation

Abstract

In this article, we deal with variation in transitive constructions. In it, we discuss issues related to the use of distinct transitive construction patterns with practically the same meaning. Our objective is to identify motivations that favor the use of one or the other available pattern considering the token frequency of constructional types. As a theoretical-methodological orientation, we adopt Usage-based Functional Linguistics of a constructionist bias. The study is predominantly qualitative, relying on quantitative support as an instrument to guide the analysis. For that, we use speech and writing database of different genres extracted from several sources. The results point to the influence of factors such as analogization, by similarity in groups of constructions with formal and semantically approximated variants, and language modality, considering the degree of (in)formality of the discursive context.