Uma investigação funcional da locução só que não no português brasileiro escrito

Abstract

This work is about the existence of a use of só que não, variant of só que, which, in essence, expresses speaker’s irony with respect to a preceding proposition. Our object of study originated from the internet, as numerous other expressions, what shows the innovative and refreshing role of the World Wide Web on language uses. By breaking paradigms, the Internet slang has been responsible for promoting several discussions about the degree of its influence on the writing of those still in school age. However, meeting place even in strong groups of newspaper or magazine, with national circulation, the expression só que não consists of more a case of grammaticalization. Concerning different ways of só que não occurrence, once it can appear only with its initials, for example (#)SQN, we based on Longhin-Thomazi’s study (2003a, 2003b) to analyze its behavior on syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and textual aspects, given our hypothesis was prove it as a expression with conjunction role. Therefore, we adopt a methodology that considers effective use of the language, as is usual in functionalist studies, aiming to describe real events synchronously. We thus count on the WebCorp, which can, by offering a series of filters and contextualizing redeemed occurrences, be considered a versatile tool in the search for occurrences (CAMARGO, 2012). In this sense, our analysis criteria, which are (i) position of the expression, (ii) its denial and setback, (iii) its irony, and (iv) its association with several textual genres, allowed us to achieve the following results: the expression prefers locate itself always after some textual portion, what means that só que não acts over a piece of information located immediately before of it; all of our occurrences emphasize that both expectations drop and irony are product of its presence; and its recurrence on texts from column, opinion article and editorial genres mainly. It is concluded then that the expression has suffered action of grammaticalization as a conjunction, according to Hopper’s study (1991), by confirming our initial hypothesis.