Os verbos modais do português sob uma perspectiva de traços funcionais

Abstract

In this work we try to address primarily the functional nature of modal verbs, aiming to show that the consideration of their functional immanent traces is relevant to a proper classification of the constituents of this category. We assume, therefore, that the modal verbs do not form simple oppositional pairs, but constitute a gradation of subjectivity. This question, omitted from most works on modals, has great importance for its classification, and because of the relative lack of literature on the modal verbs in Portuguese and the inconsistencies of its classification, we intend to provide a contribution regarding the classification and delineation of this category. The verification of the hypothesis will be presented in a corpus of catholic religious texts, more specifically opinion articles of bishops of CNBB. Providing a brief overview of the history and epistemological foundations of functionalist perspective, it is intended to make clear that the modality should not be treated as a tight category. From this, we will provide an introduction to the concepts of modality, culminating in the definition of the modal category. Thus, the modality, in this study considered from a general point of view, will provide the theoretical framework for setting general appropriated parameters to classify the modals. In order to justify this relatively innovative treating applied to modals in this study, a brief history of this category will be presented, making explicit the reasons for their formal and functional heterogeneity have been relegated and sometimes omitted by traditional grammars, demonstrating the relevance of a classification based on functional traces for that category. The concept that modal verbs should be classified according to the expressed degree of subjectivity constitutes the thread of this work.