From grammar to speech: analysis of the 'take-te' construction spoken in the city of Santarém-PA
Item tomar. Functionalism. Construction toma-te.
In this paper, we investigate the function that the construction "toma-te/lhe" has in Santarém language. This research fits the functionalist theory, because "Language is determined by the real communication situations in which real speakers interact and, therefore, such study cannot be limited to the analysis of its form" (FURTADO DA CUNHA; TAVARES, 2007, p. 14). For this work we used as methodological procedures: a) data collection, which were registered in an informal approach by the Grupo de Estudos Linguísticos do Oeste do Pará - GELOPA, in the period from 2020 to 2021. Fifty-one (51) occurrences of uses of the item "tomar" in the Santarém speech context were registered, of which forty-two (42) are with the expression "toma-te" and nine (9) with the variation "toma-lhe"; b) semantic-pragmatic analysis of the occurrences, in an attempt to understand what these forms express, what is the communicative intention of the speaker when using such construction in the moment of interaction, this we will call as function; and c) perception test, which served to corroborate the hypothesis we raised about the meanings of the construction in question. We reproduced real situations in which the usage appeared denoting the three most important possibilities that we consider the constructions mean, as follows: contentment with the other's unhappiness, astonishment/surprise, and happiness. Preliminary results point out that the construction "toma-te/lhe" plays an important role in the interaction of Santarém speakers.