THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF THE CONSECUTIVE CONNECTOR “CHEGA” IN THE SPEECH OF FORTALEZA

Abstract

In the present work, we expose a phenomenon of linguistic change, observed in the speech of Fortaleza. From some data observed in the speech of Fortaleza, collected by the author, and others obtained from the linguistic corpus of the NORPOFOR, we assume that, in subordinate clauses, the sequence “que + chegar (inflected) + a” (literally, “that comes to”), suffered a process that led to its grammaticalization, resulting in “chega” (literally, “it comes”), invariable and with the value of a consecutive connector. From this, we seek to trace a probable path of this change and develop arguments that plausibly confirm that the form “chega”, in the context described above, from the grammatical construction “que + chegar (inflected) + a” assumed another function, to indicate the consequence of the fact expressed in the previous clause. We adopted a plural theoretical perspective based on concepts of Sociolinguistics, of the Usage-Centric Linguistics, in the theoretical model of the Grammar of Constructions, and of the Linguistic Functionalism, whose concept of grammaticalization we used.