The change path of [meio que] in Brazilian Portuguese and the constructions [kind of/kinda] in English and [en plan (de)] in Spanish: a contrastive analysis in the light of diachronic construction grammar

Abstract

This paper analyzes the change path of the construction [meio que] in Brazilian Portuguese, using data covering a period of six centuries (16th-21st), extracted from the Corpus do Português (DAVIES; FERREIRA, 2006; DAVIES, 2019). Based on the theoretical framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar (SOMMERER; SMIRNOVA, 2020; TRAUGOTT; TROUSDALE, 2013), it is proposed that this construction integrates the network formed by the superior node [X que], however, unlike other instantiated constructions by this node, [meio que] is not grammaticalized as a conjunction or as an index of modality, but, initially, as an adverb and, later, as a discourse marker. Furthermore, it is proposed that the process was triggered from the reanalysis of the complex NP [Det meio [que...]]_NP, comprising a change path similar to that of the constructions [kind of/kinda] in English (MARGERIE, 2010) and [en plan (de)] in Spanish (RODRÍGUEZ-ABRUÑEIRAS, 2020), which translinguistically attests the cline noun > adverb > discourse marker, as proposed by Rodríguez-Abruñeiras (2020). Additionally, the factors of schematicity, compositionality and productivity of the construction [meio que] were analyzed. It was found that there is a downward trend in lexical uses (as a complex NP whose head is the noun meio or as part of a numeral followed by que) in the 20th century and a growing trend in constructionalized uses (as an adverb or as a discourse marker) from that same century, period in which the change occurs, as well as that such series are inversely correlated, as attested by the statistical tests used in the quantitative analysis of the phenomenon.