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Resumo: Este trabalho investiga os processos diacrônicos de constituição de duas perífrases conjuncionais concessivas do português, bem que e se bem que. Com respaldo teórico da Gramaticalização, sobretudo Traugott e Dasher (2002), Heine e Kuteva (2007), Bybee (2010), e de alguns pressupostos de teorias pragmáticas sobre concessividade, conforme Anscombre (1980), Ducrot (1984), Moeschler e Spengler (1982), Rossari (2014), a questão maior está na compreensão do elo entre a semântica da fonte adverbial, os processos inferenciais instigados contextualmente e o tipo de significado concessivo. As análises são baseadas em uma amostra diacrônica que reúne textos do português antigo ao moderno e em uma metodologia norteada pelos padrões polissêmicos das construções com suas respectivas propriedades distribucionais. Os resultados fornecem evidências de que, embora se trate de dois fenômenos de mudança que emergem em diferentes estados de língua e em contextos distintos, ambos têm na fonte o advérbio bem, na função de afirmação enfática, e ambos se especializam na expressão de relações concessivas restritivas. Os dados duplamente compatíveis com as interpretações fonte e alvo indiciam processos graduais da pragmática à semântica, nos quais as noções de polifonia e hierarquia argumentativa são importantes. Palavras-chave: junção; concessividade; gramaticalização; diacronia. Abstract: This paper investigates the diachronic establishment process of two concessive conjunctional periphrases in Portuguese, bem que and se bem que. With theoretical support from Grammaticalization, in particular Traugott and Dasher (2002), Heine and Kuteva (2007), Bybee (2010), and some assumptions from pragmatic theories about concessivity, according to Anscombre (1980), Ducrot (1984), Moeschler and Spengler (1982), Rossari (2014), the main issue is about understanding the link between the semantics of the adverbial source, the contextually induced inferential processes and the type of concessive meaning. The analyses are based on a diachronic sample featuring texts from ancient to modern Portuguese, and on a methodology guided by the the constructions’ polysemic standards with their corresponding distributional properties. The results provide evidence that, despite being two change phenomena which arise in different states of language and distinct contexts, both have the adverb bem at their source, in the role of emphatic affirmation, and both specialize in expressing restrictive concessive relations. The data doubly compatible with source and target interpretations evidences gradual processes from pragmatic towards semantics, in which the concepts of polyphony and argumentative hierarchy are of importance. Keywords: junction; concessivity; grammaticalization; diachrony.

This article discusses the semantic relations expressed by conjunction “but”. The choice of this conjunction is not accidental, since it is one of the most common coordinative conjunctions in the English language and is dated back to the Old English period. The adversative conjunction “but” forms the prototypical core of the semantic-syntactic field of coordinative relations. This conjunction, as the analysis has shown, can realize both conventional and situational relations. The conventional relations actualized by this conjunction are derived from the semantics of the discourse frame, which is formed on the basis of coordinative conjunctive relations. In an adversarial form, these relations are manifested as concessive, adversative-contrastive and so on.

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical discussion about juxtaposed concessive clauses. It proposes an interpretation of distinct constructional patterns outside the prototypical scheme of finite and nonfinite concessive clauses. Based on a written language corpus, by means of the theoretical assumptions of the Usage-Based Functional Linguistics, it is assumed that concessive juxtaposed clauses have special characteristics that distinguish them from the prototypical concessive ones.