Polysemy of relational binominal construction NP de NP in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

In this work, we aim to describe the relational binominal construction NP1 de NP2, in Brazilian Portuguese, in terms of the different meanings associated with it, such as part-whole, location, specialization, among others. The general hypothesis is that those meanings share similarities and form a continuum between two domains, i.e., POSSESSION and TYPIFICATION. We argue that relational binominal constructions are associated with a schema that evokes a conceptualizer tracing a mental path from reference point to target (Langacker, 1991; 2003). To support this claim and describe the polysemy of that construction, we analyzed and collected data from Corpus do Português. In our qualitative analysis, we observed that relational binominal constructions are instantiated by prototypical possessives (POSSESSION domain) and by prototypical typifier (TYPIFICATION domain). Also, it covers exemplars that are in the middle of the continuum.