TRACING THE SEMANTICS OF EVENT MODIFIERS “DIRETO”, “A CADA PASSO” AND “DE VEZ EM QUANDO”

Abstract

This paper analyzes the event modifiers “direto”, “a cada passo” and “de vez em quando” in Brazilian Portuguese based on Event Semantics. To this end, we use concepts from Event Semantics, such as temporal reference, aspect, and actionality. The research corpus consists of sentences collected from social media (Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn), as well as from Brazilian songs, ebooks, and online news, which feature these modifiers. Based on these occurrences, we present reflections on the modifier-event relationship and the semantic role of each modifier — “direto”, “a cada passo”, and “de vez em quando” — in the occurrence of events within an interval I. From this, we conclude that the event quantifier “direto” indicates a high frequency of events, and its use in sentences has a similar meaning to “sempre” (always); the modifier “a cada passo” indicates a lower frequency of events (compared to “direto”) and has a similar reading to “frequentemente”; The modifier “a cada passo” indicates a lower frequency, among the quantifiers, of events within a time interval and has a semantic impact similar to “raramente/às vezes”. These quantifiers are aspectualizers and, thus, change the aspect of the relevant events to the iterative aspect and also change the gradation of the iteration of this event: high iteration, medium iteration, or low iteration.