Inversion of Possession: Interfaces between Language and Discourse in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This paper investigates the inversion of the relation of possession in constructions of the type "Sou seu x” (‘I am your x’)", in which x is replaced by a social function of kinship or proximity through an interface between morphosyntax and discourse analysis. Data under investigation were collected from a specific methodology on a web search site aiming at observing the occurrence of six constructions in context of usage (i) "Sou seu marido" ('I am your husband'); (ii) "Sou sua mulher" ('I am your wife'); (iii) "Sou seu pai" ('I am your father'); (iv) "Sou sua mãe" ('I am your mother'); (v) “Sou seu amigo" ('I am your (male) friend'; (vi) 'Sou sua amiga' ('I am your (female) friend'). In this type of construction, the interpretation of possession, not rarely, the interpretation of possession functions inversely. In fact, the nominal term possessed, at the morphosyntactic level, becomes a possessor term at the discourse level, especially in authoritarian utterances.

Keywords:
Discourse; Morphosyntax; Possession relation; Authoritarian utterance