Sociointeractional processes in the subscheme ficar de + infinitive

(inter)subjectivity, speech acts and pragmatic inferences

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47456/rctl.v20i45.52197

Keywords:

Ficar de + infinitive, Sociointeractional processes, (Inter)subjectivity, Speech Acts, Usage-Based Functional Linguistics

Abstract

This paper investigates the sociointeractional processes underlying the subscheme ficar de + infinitive in Brazilian Portuguese, as a member of the modalizing construction [V1AUX + PREP + V2INF]. Drawing on Usage-Based Functional Linguistics (UBFL) and Construction Grammar (CxG), 352 tokens extracted from the Web/Dialects section of the Corpus do Português (Davies; Ferreira, 2016) are analyzed. The study examines: (i) the levels of (inter)subjectivity of the tokens, based on Tantucci's (2021) continuum distinguishing immediate intersubjectivity (I-I) and extended intersubjectivity (I-E); (ii) the types of Speech Acts (Searle, 1979) — commissive, attributive, and assertive — performed by the subscheme; and (iii) the pragmatic inferences and conversational implicatures present in the analyzed uses. Results show that ficar de + infinitive operates on a (inter)subjective continuum: the speaker either positions themselves as the agent of the commitment, attributes it to a third party, or describes a habitual behavioral pattern with an epistemic reading. The research also shows that communicative purpose and discursive domain are key factors in the pragmatic variation observed.

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Author Biography

  • Líneker Trajano dos Santos, Secretaria de Estado da Educação, do Esporte e do Lazer do Rio Grande do Norte

    Doutor em Estudos da Linguagem pela Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (2023), com ênfase em Linguística Teórica e Descritiva. Integra o grupo de pesquisa Discurso Gramática, com foco na Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso. É vinculado à Secretaria de Estado da Educação, do Esporte e do Lazer do Rio Grande do Norte, atuando nas redes pública e privada de Natal (RN). Desenvolve pesquisas sobre modalização, gramática de construções e ensino de português (PL2, PLNM e acolhimento).

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Published

15-09-2026

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 45 (2026): Revista (Con)Textos Linguísticos - Fluxo Contínuo

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