The Comparative-Proportional Construction from the Perspective of Usage-Based Functional Linguistics

Abstract

This article aims to describe and analyze the comparative-proportional construction in contemporary Portuguese from the perspective of Usage-Based Functional Linguistics. Grounded in the constructional approach to grammar, as proposed by Goldberg (1995, 2006), Croft (2001), and Traugott and Trousdale (2013), the study focuses specifically on comparative-proportional micro-constructions instantiated by correlative connectors such as quanto mais...mais, quanto mais...menos, quanto menos...mais and related patterns. The research is based on data from written contemporary Portuguese corpora, consisting of texts extracted from Nexo Jornal, Folha de S. Paulo, and Gama Revista. Through a qualitative-quantitative approach, the study argues that the comparative- proportional construction constitutes a productive constructional subscheme organized by scalar relations of semantic-pragmatic implication. The analysis shows that such micro-constructions display a strong tendency toward iconicity, particularly regarding the logical ordering between cause and effect, in addition to presenting different degrees of productivity and formal flexibility, instantiating both clausal and non-clausal structures. The results also demonstrate that the comparative-proportional construction goes beyond the traditional description of so-called “proportional adverbial subordinate clauses”, configuring itself as a network of conventionalized patterns associated with the expression of scalar relations.