USAGE-BASED ANALYSIS OF THE [SE PÁ]MD CONSTRUCTION IN THE PORTUGUESE LANGUAGE

Abstract

This article aims to describe the synchronic uses of the discourse marker construction [se pá] in the Brazilian modality of the Portuguese language. Based on Usage-Based Linguistics (Cunha; Bispo; Silva, 2013; Rosário, 2022), we analyzed 170 occurrences of the construction [se pá] used in real communication situations in the Corpus of Portuguese and in the social media X. Based on qualitative and quantitative analysis, we identified that [se pá] acts as a discourse marker with traces of an epistemic modalizer. In this sense, the results indicate that the construction, formed by the conjunction se and the non-lexicalized term pá, can express the semantics of doubt, allowing the speaker to make an evaluation that is uncompromised with propositional content. In his modalization, the speaker discursively establishes possible actions, situations or events. The confirmation of the information introduced by the speaker promotes variation in the way the value of doubt is established, organizing itself in three ways: 1) as a possibility that can be confirmed by the speaker himself; 2) as a possibility that can be confirmed by someone external; 3) as a possibility that cannot be confirmed. In addition, the construction has the positional mobility typical of discourse markers, appearing in the initial, medial and final positions of clauses or periods and showing different behavior in each one.