Um mapeamento funcional das cláusulas temporais: variação, processamento e codificação

Abstract

In this article, under the sociofunctionalist assumption (FREITAG, 2009, 2011), towards function > form, we deal with the textual-discursive functions of temporal clauses, considering, mainly, the variation in the order according to the textual portion that such clauses scope. We demonstrated, through analysis of 783 data, from 24 interviews of the “Corpus Sociolingüístico de la Ciudad de México (CSCM)”, that the order stems from processing restrictions, especially related to iconicity (GIVÓN, 1995, 2001a) and grounding (HOPPER; THOMPSON, 1980), which we consider essential to explain phenomena in variation and change. According to Labov (1978), narrowing the context of variation implicate prior research of all contexts of a certain form. From this orientation, an interface between Sociolinguistics and Functionalism can focus on detailing each of these contexts, observing restrictions on variation. The analysis showed the existence of the following temporal functions which can serve to hypotaxis, subordination, and juxtaposition (LIMA-HERNANDES, 2004): guide/orientation background, transition bridge, frame background, evaluative background, purpose background, comparative-modal background, delimitation background, completive background, identification background, nominal specifying background, repair/reformulation background, and foreground. We note that such functions allow or block the positional variation of the clause regards to the nuclear one and, when there is a specialization (HOPPER, 1991) of discursive function, Temporal tends to put on the right margin of the sentence complex, in postposition. We also observed that time can, in more abstract instances, express textual relations (TRAUGOTT; HEINE, 1991) or qualification (HEINE et alii, 1991).