The metatextual use of insubordinate conditional constructions in Portuguese (original) (raw)

The aim of this work is to describe and to analyse the uses of insubordinate conditional constructions in Brazilian and European Portuguese with metatextual function. These constructions are seen as "the main clause conventionalized use of what, on prima facie grounds, appear to be formally subordinate clauses" (EVANS, 2007), which means that although they present a subordination mark, they are used independently, without being connected to a main clause. Data were collected in Corpus do Português, Corpus Brasileiro, C Oral, CRPC, and, when necessary, in the internet. These constructions contribute to textual organization, express the speaker’s attitude and the intersubjective relation between speaker and hearer, which actually shows the widening of their scope, going beyond the syntactic level itself to the discursive level.