Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In this paper, we adopt a usage-based constructionist approach and a methodology that uses corpus data and semantic frames to analyze the adjectival passive construction (AP) in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), illustrated by instances such as ‘fiquei chocada’ (I was shocked) and ‘estou preocupado’ (I am worried). We show that AP is a linguistic construction whose form [V NP estar/ficar + Participle (with NP)] is associated with the meaning of stativity and the communicative functions of reporting a transitory state between events and reporting a resulting state that follows from a change of state occurred between two events, depending on the verb (‘estar’ or ‘ficar’) that accompanies the past participle. We also compare the AP with the prototypical verbal passive construction (VP), and based on the observation that not all past participles that are compatible with the AP are compatible with the VP as well, we show that certain types of events or semantic frames tend to occur more frequently in the AP, which, in theory, may restrict or even block its realization in the VP. Finally, we show that the use of the AP is motivated, since once its function is recognized, all its distributional and semantic properties follow naturally, without the need to postulate additional principles or rules. Therefore, we argue that only a usage-based constructionist approach can explain fundamental aspects of the syntax, semantics, and usage of the adjectival passive construction.
Source: Cadernos de Estudos Lingüísticos
Institution: Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7204237571