Um monte de problemas gera uma chuva de respostas: estudo de um caso de desencontro na quantificação nominal em português

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the process of grammaticalization of the Sintagms Monte de N and Chuva de N, two instances of syntactic and semantic mismatch, which are consolidated as polilexemic Determinants within the Construction of Nominal Quantification in Portuguese. The investigation proceeds from the study of attested examples from corpora, whose synchronic variation and diachronic evolution are observed. These expressions are also analyzed from the perspective of their metaphorical motivation that leads to the changes on the Lexical Units (monte and chuva) qualia structure, as they are coerced by their syntactic Complements, diachronically raised to the status of Semantic Head of the reanalyzed Sintagms. The thesis supports the emergence of grammar from the use and illustrates, through this process, the structuring strength of metaphor.